Do Kyung-soo finds new face in Sculpture City

Dec 12, 2025, 09:20 am

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Do Kyung-soo stars as Yohan in Disney+ original series Sculpture City. / Source: Walt Disney Company Korea

“Playing my first villain expanded my imagination,” said Do Kyung-soo, who took on his first-ever antagonist role in the Disney+ original series Sculpture City, revealing a strikingly different side of himself.

In the series, Do plays Ahn Yohan, the mastermind behind a brutal crime that sends Park Tae-jung (played by Ji Chang-wook) to prison and sets the stage for a revenge-driven action narrative. The role left a strong impression on viewers, some of whom said it looked as if his “eyes had flipped.” Do, however, explained his approach calmly. “My eyes aren’t particularly small, so when I push emotions to the extreme, the change naturally stands out,” he said, adding that he focused on finely controlling emotional intensity rather than exaggerating facial expressions.

What mattered most to Do was avoiding a stereotypical villain. “I wanted him to clearly feel like a villain, but not a familiar one,” he said. To that end, he varied Yohan’s emotional tone from scene to scene—sometimes suppressing feelings, sometimes easing off—to keep the character unpredictable.

Physical appearance also played a key role in building the character. “I wanted him to look sharp from head to toe,” Do said. “I deliberately damaged my hair with bleaching. The details didn’t all come through on screen, but staff who saw it in person said it looked like the hair of someone with an unusual temperament.”

The same philosophy extended to action scenes. Rather than portraying a villain who relies solely on brute force, Do envisioned Yohan as someone who could subdue opponents swiftly using weapons. He paid close attention to the shape and weight of knives and even how blood would splatter. Many of the more graphic scenes, however, were ultimately edited out.

Do described Yohan as an “innate psychopath.” Drawing inspiration from real-life documentary subjects, he approached the role with the premise that Yohan is someone viewers cannot empathize with in reality. For moments that were especially difficult to comprehend—such as attacking a woman he believes to be his biological mother—Do intentionally kept emotional distance, choosing what he called “understanding the incomprehensible.”

His experience as a member of EXO naturally carried over into action acting. “I’m used to memorizing choreography quickly, so that muscle memory helped when matching action sequences,” he said. With limited rehearsal time, concentration was key. Do noted that because he rarely monitors his own acting, he trusted the director’s judgment to maintain emotional continuity on set.

Around the same time, Do appeared in the tvN variety show KongKong PangPang, showing a much brighter persona. He found the simultaneous consumption of a dark villain role and a lighthearted variety image amusing, even enjoying reactions from viewers who said the contrast made it hard to focus.

There was no lingering emotional toll after playing the villain. “Once it’s cut, I come back quickly,” he said, adding that he would like to try a different kind of antagonist next—one who is not pulling strings from behind the scenes, but directly confronting others head-on.

Speaking about EXO’s upcoming full-group activities, Do joked that while their focus has improved, their stamina is not what it used to be. Still, he added, “We’re all working hard to show the same energy we had in our twenties. A major shoot is already done, so you can look forward to it.”

Reflecting on the response to Sculpture City, Do said, “I didn’t expect this level of attention. Through Yohan, it feels like people discovered a new side of me. In my next project, I want to show something completely different from Yohan.”

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