“The Penthouse”‘s Lee Tae Bin Reveals That His Character Was Originally Meant To Be Gay

Actor Lee Tae Bin, who plays Lee Gyu Jin’s (Bong Tae Gyu‘s) son Min Hyuk on The Penthouse, recently appeared on MBC every1‘s Video Star!

| SBS

In the episode, he discussed his character’s details and more. However, the most interesting story was that his character had actually drastically changed from the original script.

Actually, originally, Min Hyuk was originally written to be in love with [Joo] Seok Hoon. I’m revealing this for the first time today. Since Min Hyuk liked Seok Hoon and Seok Hoon liked [Bae] Ro Na, Min Hyuk was going to become even more driven to bully Ro Na. But, in reality, the person Min Hyuk had eyes on was Seok Hoon.

—Lee Tae Bin

| MBC every1

The MCs were extremely surprised by this. Although, Tae Bin continued to explain that it never made it into the final script as now Min Hyuk is Yoo Je Ni’s (Jin Ji Hee‘s) love interest instead of having a one-sided love with Seok Hoon (Kim Young Dae).

The MCs then begged the actor to reveal the fate of Logan Lee (Park Eun Suk) in Season 3. He joked that he actually did know what happened and teased them, asking if they really wanted him to spoil it. For now, he shared, “I was really shocked when I got the script. No matter what you’re imagining, [Season 3] surpasses Seasons 1 and 2 by far.”

| MBC every1

Finally, Lee Tae Bin also revealed that there was a scene in Season 1 that was extremely difficult for him to film, even causing him to drink alcohol to get him through it.

The subject matter was something I’d never experienced, and it was so cruel. It was the scene where they lock Min Seol Ah in an abandoned car, wreck the car, and set fire to it. After I saw the script, my mind went blank. I thought to myself, ‘How can I portray this well?’

Since it was going to be unpleasant no matter what, I thought that I should go all the way and make in unbearably unpleasant. I thought I should try to [embrace my character’s mindset and] enjoy it. However, once we were on set, it was really hard for me to enjoy torturing her. After rehearsal, I secretly drank a can of beer which made it easier for me to film the scene and put my emotions into it.

—Lee Tae Bin