[INTERVIEW] Kwon Hyunbin for STAR1

Kwon Hyunbin's Adventure

Kwon Hyunbin (20) who flailed his long legs around onstage has unexpectedly done a lot of things in the past. In his middle and high school years, he was the Youth Representative of Korea's Fencing team, and he promoted as a model as an adult and showed off his charms. He put down the spectacular title of being the most anticipated model of the year and stood in front of the brown screen as an idol trainee. When he thinks of it as his stage, his fear disappears.

I see you are not afraid of taking on challenges.
Hyunbin: I'm not just running into it with no thought, but I'm the type to think depending on the situation and then make my decision. No matter what the situation is, I don't think too long either. You can think of it as me not getting too worried even if it's an important situation. When I run into certain situations at a certain moment I think, 'I have to do this'. 'I shouldn't do this'. 'If I do this, I think I can do well?' all these thoughts come in my head. That's how I ran into Mnet <Produce 101 Season 2>. I have made a lot of different challenges living for 20 years, but I have never regretted it before.

You liked writing lyrics and rapping since you were young, but why did you start promoting in the entertainment industry as a model and not a singer?
Hyunbin: Honestly, I wanted to be an idol while participating in <Produce 101 Season 2>. I was in the dance club for a short time while I was in high school, but I thought to myself, "Celebrities go on a bigger scaled stage than this everyday right?" and only had a mild interest, but my dream has never gotten this big. And then I received news about Season 2, so I wanted to try it out and I took the chance.

You are from a model-based industry so I believe the company would be against the appearance on the show.
Hyunbin: Nowadays, there are lots of modeltainers (t/n: model + entertainers) so the company wasn't against it, but they were very worried. There are lots of models who become actors, but I think I was one of the first people to become a singer (from the company). There are no idol trainees in our company, so I didn't get any training regarding (being an idol), but they gave me the courage and chance after seeing my talent and possibilities.

You had no training as an idol, what do you think your specialty was in the midst of so many trainees?
Hyunbin: My body. haha

While filming the show, in which aspects do you think you have grown?
Hyunbin: Showing my honest side is the same as before, but I think my actions and the way I accept things in my heart has gotten very calm. When I do something, I focus a lot more, and I became more thoughtful. We always had to prepare a stage in a short amount of time. It was difficult because the moment the stage ends, we are either eliminated or surviving and preparing for the next stage right away, and there were a lot of repetitive situations where we were short on time. But now that I look back on it, it was thanks to those situations that my mentality has gotten a lot stronger. In the short time, I was faced with a variety of situations that helped me hold on to my tired heart. I experienced many things in this side that I would have never thought of in the model world, so I guess you can say my internal self has gotten a lot more firm.

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