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French actor Pierre Deporte, one of the leads, attracted attention with his fluent Korean. Don`t peg him as just another pretty boy. There is a reason why rising star Pierre Deporte is one of the first non-Korean actors to land a lead in a drama. He is, to put it simply, fearless - an oft-underrated yet crucial personality trait in an aspiring actor, especially in one who majored in law before embarking on a career in acting. Rather than cower at the prospect of taking on a principal role in a period piece, first-time actor Deporte took a look at the synopsis, jumped on board a plane to Korea and decided to give it a go. After filming MBC`s "Tamra, the Island," where he starred as a shipwrecked Englishman who falls for a Jeju Island "haenyeo (female diver)," the French model and actor headed down to Jeonju for 25 days to film his first movie, "Alien Band," slated to come out this year. Sporting a shock of near auburn-brown hair, a tongue piercing and another one below his lip, it is not hard to imagine the Belfort native cast as a villain, albeit one with a rebellious punk-rock streak. The tall and lean French transplant sipped at an Americano before exploring the whys and wherefores of his early attraction to antiheroes. cc: http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100121000051 "You know I`m from the Disney generation basically. So I watched all the Disney. I had all the videos and I had all that stuff. But you know `One Hundred and One Dalmatians`? I love Cruella." He paused, his grey-tinged baby-blue eyes pensive yet ever-so-slightly mischievous. "I like a bad guy that you can understand why and actually feel bad. You know what I mean?" His preference for the relatable rogue might explain why he cites Quentin Tarantino`s "Kill Bill" as one of his favorite movies and "Oldboy" star Choi Min-sik as one of his favorite actors. His attachment to Ann Demeulemeester pieces, plus his piercings, add to his dark edge. Deporte`s tendency toward laughter and infectious grins, however, supersede his potentially gothic image. There is a certain addictive joie de vivre to him, a quality that bodes well for him. Before he had a chance to contemplate his next career move, however, a movie gig rolled in while he was still working on "Tamra, the Island" and he jumped on board. "It`s called `Alien Band,`" he said. "It`s about a rock band in college. A few foreigner students, they make a club. It`s like a music movie. The music`s really good." "What I loved about my character is that he does not speak anything else than Korean," said Deporte of his role as a French-born, naturalized Korean citizen who was raised by his grandmother in Korea and who plays the guitar. Deporte expressed his take on "Alien Band." "This is real life in Korea," he said. "When I read some lines, it`s really stuff I say." Not surprising since his character parallels his own life on many levels. At the age of five, his father married a Korean woman, marking the moment when Deporte first started to learn about the language and culture of his new mother`s country. "She taught me Korean," he spoke of his mother with a dedicated affection. "Mom loves Korea and I think she translated that to me." Deporte lived in Korea for seven years, from the impressionable age of 12 to his last year as a bona fide teenager. When he attended regular school for three months in Changwon - he was primarily schooled at international schools in Busan and Daejeon - he called his grandmother and asked her to give him a Korean name. She christened him Hwaong Chan-bin. cc: (http://www.hancinema.net/1st-frenchman-to-play-lead-in-a-korean-weekend-soap-20532.html) To sum it all up, in a relatively short amount of time Deporte has achieved what many aspiring actors only dream of accomplishing. Two months have passed since he wrapped up "Alien Band." Nearly four months have passed since "Tamra, the Island" aired its final episode. Rather than flop down from sheer exhaustion, the 24-year-old seems ready for his next gig. "I want to be the bad guy," Deporte told The Korea Herald about the next role he wants to play. "I`ve had something with that since I was a kid." "Tamra, the Island" is Deporte's debut. He plays young Englishman named William who drifted to the Island of Jeju (Tamra is the old name of Jeju). On acting in Korean, Deporte says, "I thought the most important thing was to thoroughly understand the script before thinking about the acting. I read the script, looking up words in the dictionary on my mobile phone". Thanks to the influence of his Korean stepmother who married his French father, Deporte learned Korean in France from the age of five, and his fluent Korean reflects this history. Director Yoon Sang-ho says, "Although there were concerns about Deporte because he was a foreigner and a complete rookie, he absorbed coaching and cues very quickly. And because he is so Korean in his thoughts and behavior, he seems like a Korean with blond hair". It is the first time that a foreign actor was cast in one of the lead roles in weekend TV drama. But Deporte is not the only rookie among the five leading actors; all five are fresh faces. "Tamra" is based on a cartoon inspired by the story of Dutch explorer Hendrik Hamel who was shipwrecked in Jeju Island on the way to Japan in the mid 17th century, and the first European to give an accurate account of Korea. It started to air from Aug. 8 on MBC.

Source : www.chosun.com... ( English Chinese Korean Japanese )