The East Palace is a dark fantasy series set in historic Korea and scheduled to be released on Netflix this Friday. The series stars Nam Joo-hyuk as Gu-cheon, a man capable of crossing over into the realm of ghosts (gwi) and Roh Yoon-seo as Saeng-gang, a court lady assigned by the king to watch over Gu-cheon. Together the pair must investigate ghosts haunting the eponymous East Palace. Leading up to the series premiere, Dorkaholics was invited to speak with the pair about their prior knowledge of Korean folklore, challenges in this role, and the experience of working with an industry veteran like Cho Seung-woo (Divorce Attorney Shin).
Editor’s Note: There was a translator present during this press junket to assist with communicating the questions and answers between English and Korean.
Nam Joo-hyuk and Roh Yoon-seo both recognized Hometown Legends as a Korean series that they grew up with that also helped them with their portrayals in The East Palace.
“For me, growing up as a child, there was this legendary horror K-drama series by the title Hometown Legends and that helped out greatly because I like to use everything that I have within me, everything I’ve seen and watched and observed along the way for my characters and new projects,” Nam Joo-hyuk shared. “And I have to say that this series helped create the character Gu-cheon so much.”
Roh Yoon-seo highlighted Hometown Legends as a quintessential experience for Koreans who grew up around her time.
“For all Koreans who grew up around the same time, this is a must-watch for kids.” Roh Yoon-seo explained. “You have to watch it being frightened and terrified the whole time, and so I think that helped out a lot.”
The challenge Nam Joo-hyuk is most proud of overcoming on this project is pushing his imagination to new limits in a role that required him to act in scenes with unseen things.
“Because my character required a lot of acting against things that I couldn’t see visually, although of course there was a lot of help from within production, I think using my imagination to its limit and beyond, that gave me a great sense of achievement, and I think my imagination itself grew yet another level,” Nam Joo-hyuk recalled. “I feel like it was a personal growth in a way where I gained the confidence to think ‘Oh, I can do this, I can even use my imagination further in my performances going forward.’”
Similarly, Roh Yoon-seo’s character Saeng-gang had to interact with Gu-cheon both when he was in the human world but also away in the realm of gwi.
“Usually when we do something like that where we have to work together to fight the spirits while being in different realms, Joo-hyuk would shoot the sequences first, because a lot of my action had to do with reacting to what he did,” Roh Yoon-seo explained. “For example, if he drops a sword, I have to be surprised at it because I could feel it in the real world.”
Cho Seung-woo plays the king in this series and is the one who forcibly enlists Gu-cheon to investigate the ghostly phenomenon around the East Palace and has Saeng-gang as his personal pair of eyes. And while Nam Joo-hyuk wished for more scenes with him, he was still honored to have learned from him while also having fun.
“Getting to work alongside somebody like Seung-woo who I have watched on TV even before I became an actor, just being there in his presence on set is a huge honor,” Nam Joo-hyuk shared. “One thing I also did learn from him is that he is such an expert on memes. He taught me a lot about new memes I hadn’t been aware of.”
Roh Yoon-seo’s character had more scenes with the king, allowing her to pick his brain more, a blessing that continues to bring her joy.
“The level of energy that he gives you as a scene partner is so incredibly intense and so huge that it quite literally shakes you and wakes you up,” she said. “I would ask him so many questions [and] follow him around trying to rack his brain. I’d ask him, ‘How do you analyze a script? How do you pronounce certain words? How do you vocalize these things?’ And just the fact that I get to ask so many questions to someone like him, the fact that I still have that opportunity to do so, I’m just so happy about it.”
Catch all eight episodes of The East Palace on Netflix this Friday (July 17, 2026)!
