Nam Joo-hyuk Enters the Spirit World in Netflix’s 'The East Palace'

〈KPop Demon Hunters〉 next is 〈The East Palace〉! The hybrid-genre Netflix series 〈The East Palace〉—which mixes occult and historical drama with mystery, fantasy and action—finally unveiled its first episodes on the 17th after months of anticipation. Earlier this year, 〈The East Palace〉 was the only Asian title included in a video Netflix released to promote its "2026 Global Lineup." The series follows Gu-cheon (Nam Joo-hyuk), who can travel between the world of spirits (⻤) and the real world, and Saenggang (Noh Yoon-seo), a palace maid with secrets; summoned by the king (Cho Seung-woo), they set out to uncover the curse that haunts the East Palace.

Actor Nam Joo-hyuk plays a man who moves between the real world and the world of spirits and slays ghosts, staging sword-based action against otherworldly beings. Known for his fresh, youthful image in titles like 〈Twenty-Five Twenty-One〉 and 〈The Light in Your Eyes〉, he chose the occult historical action series 〈The East Palace〉 as his first project after military discharge and as his opening move into his thirties.

He said the script "exploded his imagination" while he was serving in the military, and on a set that brought the spirit world to life he threw himself into scenes as if completing a "movie cut" from a console game. On the afternoon of the 21st, CinePLAY met Nam Joo-hyuk at a location in Seoul’s Jongno District to talk about everything from behind-the-scenes details to his approach to acting. Below is the full conversation.

This is your first official interview since leaving the military. How does it feel to finally present 〈The East Palace〉 to viewers?

If I count from when I first received the script two years ago, it already feels like almost three years. I’m very grateful that I worked on this project with such great people over such a long period, and at the same time I feel pretty nervous and excited.

You picked 〈The East Palace〉 as your comeback project after military service. You said you read the script while in the military and chose it then. Why did you choose 〈The East Palace〉?

What hasn’t changed then or now is that when I read an interesting script, I really want to do it. The spirit world in 〈The East Palace〉, figures known as gwimae (a class of vengeful spirits), ghosts with tragic backstories, and the secretive stories of the royal family were all intriguing. Also, I was curious about what would happen when a character like Gu-cheon—who clearly doesn’t belong in a palace—walks into that space. That curiosity is what made me choose the project.

You’ve said before that you’re not good with scary movies or shows. 〈The East Palace〉 is also a frightening work—did that give you pause? How do you think this work differs from the writer’s earlier titles like 〈Bulgasal: Immortal Souls〉 or 〈The Guest〉?

I’m actually not great with scary things, but when I read the script it didn’t feel frightening to me. The multiple worlds the series presents felt interesting rather than just scary. Even now I don’t find it terrifying. What sets 〈The East Palace〉 apart are the new characters. Gu-cheon, who wouldn’t want to be in a temple, and creatures like kkeomeoksari (a type of otherworldly creature) stood out so vividly that they contrasted clearly with the palace characters. It felt like characters from different worlds coexisting in the same show, and that was very fresh.

You said Gu-cheon contrasts sharply with the palace figures. When you built the character across the two opposing spaces—the palace and the spirit world—what did you focus on?

I really think Gu-cheon is a character who doesn’t belong in the palace. I wanted to create a kind of dissonance with the palace by thinking about how much more out of place this mismatched character could act when put into a place he clearly doesn’t fit. I also wanted Gu-cheon to feel more at ease in the spirit world than in the palace.

The making-of footage shows a lot of scenes where you act opposite invisible presences in front of a green chroma screen. Acting against empty air or against performers in special suits can’t have been easy—how did you use your imagination to perform those scenes?

Actually, acting with CGI felt like it helped me push past the limits of my imagination, so although it was challenging it was also fun to shoot. There were also lots of on-set devices that helped make that easier, so overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

In the photo you released, it looks like you rehearsed with actors in green motion suits for the final episode’s highlight action scene. Was it hard to stay immersed as an actor?

Not at all. Because it was the final episode for that sequence, the character’s emotions that had been building were already fully developed. Even the people in green suits had their human forms deliberately obscured, so approaching it that way made it easier to adapt. There’s an on-set anecdote: one of the performers took off his suit and called out to me, "Bro!" I looked and recognized him—he was a friend I had trained with for two weeks in the military. He’s a dancer, and he was there. I asked him, "Why are you here?" and he asked me, "Why are you here?" (laughs)

Unlike the war action in 〈The Great Battle〉 or the contemporary action of 〈Vigilante〉, 〈The East Palace〉 centers on swordplay against ghosts. What was your preparation like?

I went to action school frequently. If 〈The Great Battle〉 was a desperate kind of fighting to survive in war, we approached 〈The East Palace〉 differently. Rather than thinking of it as attacking ghosts, I focused on how they could get through the encounter safely and move on to where they were meant to go. I went to action school often, rehearsed a lot on set, and practiced at home by watching footage I had taken at action school.

Some viewers say they find the drained, depleted version of Gu-cheon—after his vital energy has been taken—more attractive. How did you differentiate the performance when he still had energy versus when it was completely gone?

From the start Gu-cheon is set up as someone without vital energy. So in the real world he’s already extremely sensitive—almost to the point where he thinks, "If this continues I’ll soon become a demon in the spirit world I never wanted to be." In the real world he’s trying to protect the little energy he has left, so when he first appears he moves as little as possible, sleeping in a cramped space to defend himself from ghosts. Then he unintentionally ends up in the palace, where he must have thought, "I’ll die no matter what I do," and tried to hang on to the little vitality he had left. As the story progresses, he loses even more of that small reserve. When I thought about how to portray him losing his energy, I mostly thought, "He’s already debilitated, so he can just get even more debilitated." The action therefore shifts away from powerful moves to flailing, desperate motions to survive. Also, while Gu-cheon is cut off from the world and petulant—saying "I don’t want this"—in the spirit world he might actually be more comfortable being himself.

In episode 6 Gu-cheon gets trapped. In that scene your loss of energy was palpable—you even seemed to lose weight.

In episode 6 he’s trapped and lying down, and very strangely he keeps losing strength. His voice gets low and hoarse; I deliberately didn’t drink water for a while to preserve that detail. I wanted to keep those small details for a few hours. I did intentionally lose some weight, but some of it came off naturally. Because there were many physically demanding scenes, some days involved doing action for 12 hours, and sometimes I simply didn’t have the energy to eat.

※〈The East Palace〉 actor Nam Joo-hyuk interview continues in Part 2.