PUBLISHED ONNovember 04, 2025 8:01 AMBYEsther LamWorking with friends isn't always easy but for Doh Kyung-soo and Lee Kwang-soo, it was smooth like butter.
AsiaOne attended the virtual press conference yesterday (Nov 3) for Disney+'s upcoming action drama The Manipulated where the two actors, who are close friends off-screen, discussed their on-screen chemistry.
Co-stars Ji Chang-wook, Kim Jong-soo and Jo Yoon-soo, as well as director Park Shin-woo were also in attendance.
When asked if he was triggered by Kwang-soo on set, 32-year-old Kyung-soo admitted: "His character is very sneaky. I was very agitated with him; he rubbed me the wrong way. He's the type that always makes you feel uneasy."
"I thought I would feel weird acting opposite him, but he just became his character and fully embodied him, so I didn't feel odd at all - I could fully immerse myself in my character," he added.
The Manipulated follows ordinary deliveryman Tae-joong (Chang-wook), whose life is turned upside down when he's wrongfully convicted and vows to seek revenge on the man who orchestrated this ordeal.
Kyung-soo, also known as D.O from K-pop boy band Exo, plays An Yo-han, a master manipulator who appears as a respectful businessman but beneath his facade, frames innocent people for the crimes his clients commit.
Kwang-soo plays Baek Do-kyung, a spoilt rich kid with a dangerous drug addiction and one of Yo-han's VIP clients.
Taking on the role of a villain for the first time, Kyung-soo shared that he was curious about how he could play his character, which he described as "truly evil".
"I thought about how I could make him feel eerie," he said, adding that he referred to a lot of documentaries, TV shows and films where psychopathic people are featured.
Wanting to get Yo-han's look right, he would repeatedly perm and dye his hair black, revealing that it took more than four hours to get his hair done .
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When asked how he felt about Kyung-soo's first villain role, Kwang-soo shared that he was two totally different people.
The 40-year-old said: "When I was on set playing the character, I was like, 'Oh right, Kyung-soo is an actor,' because he was so different from the person that I see in real life.
"He's so professional, very focused and immersed in his character, so I could learn a lot from him."
The story for The Manipulated is inspired by the 2017 film Fabricated City, which starred Chang-wook and Shim Eun-kyung. Both works were written by Oh Sang-ho.
Chang-wook revealed that when designing Tae-joong's character, Sang-ho had requested for him to "be like a tree", adding that it was "the biggest task" for him.
The 38-year-old said: "Instead of just focusing on the character, I thought it was important to think about the situation that he's in and the emotions that came about. I wanted to be a multi-layered character... That was my biggest homework."
Shedding light into his casting choice of Chang-wook, director Shin-woo shared that he "never thought of any other choices" and that it was a "no-brainer".
"When it was revealed that this was going to be created into a drama series, even before the script was out, Chang-wook showed us his intention that he wants to do it," he said.
"He waited until everything was done, that's just how much love and passion he had for the project."
The Manipulated will air exclusively on Disney+ with the first four episodes premiering on Nov 5, followed by two episodes per week, for a total of 12 episodes.
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