'Sponsor' team defends Lee Ji Hoon in a statement; Actor also releases personal statement

iHQ’s forthcoming drama Sponsor and lead actor Lee Ji Hoon have shared official statements addressing their recent controversy, reported Soompi. On November 3, the YTN Star reported that the production staff member had earlier complained about an incident involving that actor's acquaintances on the set.

Ji Hoon and the drama producers have now released statements apologising for the incident. They also clarified the details of what had occurred.

K-drama Sponsor team and actor Lee Ji Hoon release statements

According to the report, on November 8, the Sponsor team released a new statement along with the screengrabs of the text messages from writer Park Gye Hyung and Lee Ji Hoon. They said, "First, we would like to clarify that various speculations regarding the production are different from the truth. It was in May that the production team first requested that writer Park Gye Hyung adjust the script to give the character more screen time. At that point, Lee Ji Hoon hadn’t even seen the script." To back this point, they also posted a screenshot of the messages. 

The K-drama producers continued in their statement,

"In July, the production company, the director, and the writer had a meeting to discuss the script. At the time, the corrections regarding the character’s screen time still hadn’t been made. The messages that Lee Ji Hoon had exchanged with the director had been about the character’s set-up, and he promised to trust in the director and follow his lead. They did not talk about his screen time."

To prove these, the producers also posted screengrabs of the messages exchanged between Ji Hoon and the director at the time, Kwak Ki Won, reported Soompi. In their statement, the producers continued, “In August, there was a full meeting of the production team. This was when we decided that Park Gye Hyung would leave the project. At the time, in the scripts for episodes 1 to five, the character’s screen time was less than 10 scenes. The production company requested changes in the entire first half, but their requests were ignored. The director also left the project in September due to issues with the footage results. The director created a situation that didn’t take responsibility for the footage we needed and we requested that he leave."

As evidence for this, the producers released a signed statement of fact received from the D.I editing room, reported Soompi. The company in charge of the color correction of the footage stated that the issues in the footage were due to differences in the balance between the A camera and the B camera and improper maintenance of the B camera. 

They concluded saying, 

“We will say this as directly as possible. Lee Ji Hoon has no connection to the production staff members being replaced. Park Gye Hyung and the production company had been discussing the script changes since the start, and it is completely normal for the production company, directors, and writers to discuss changes to the script. Park Gye Hyung has invented this frame that makes it look like Lee Ji Hoon’s ‘power tripping’ was at fault, and we’re deeply disappointed at the situation that has resulted. The production company simply made the decisions that would result in a better production. It was absolutely not at the request of one actor. Once again, we state that the actor has no connection to these events and that these one-sided statements being made are false.”

On November 9, Lee Ji Hoon also released another personal statement (now-deleted) on Instagram. Several parts of the statement addressed directly to the writer Park Gye Hyung’s claims. The statement roughly translates to,

As soon as we met, the director asked me, “You were surprised that Sun Woo hardly has any scenes even though he’s the main character, right?” and I said that I was. The director told me not to worry, that it would be fixed, that the second male lead, Seung Hoon, would die off in episode 5, and that Sun Woo’s storyline would increase. He said that he had everything in hand and not to worry.

I thought carefully about it, and since it was the production that first made me the offer, I decided to trust in the director. After some time, I received a modified script. But it turned out the director had lied. The scenes I had from episodes 1 to 4 were about the same. I had five scenes in episode five and six scenes in episode 6. Since the drama was 12 episodes long, I wondered, ‘What is this?’ I was a bit anxious, so I contacted the director to check again. Of course, from my perspective, I was worried. I’d seen the synopsis and heard from the director, but I had three or four scenes, six scenes at most, even though one episode is about 50 scenes total. I’ve seen a lot of scripts in my time, but I wondered if this was right. I asked the production company CEO if I could look at another project instead, but they said that the script would be fixed. When I received the new version, there were about two more scenes.

According to the synopsis, my character was the main character, but even after repeated corrections, I had eight scenes at most in a 50-scene episode. This was about two months before the first filming was set to begin. I’m sure that many people will agree with me that this was worth talking about with the production company. But does it make sense that three weeks before filming, they could suddenly say to me, “Why don’t you change roles to Seung Hoon instead?” Is this me power tripping against the director and writer? No matter how you look at it, the director and the writer were the ones who tricked me. The two of them can’t use me as a shield to fulfill their self-interests.

At some point, without me knowing about it, a strange recording was made of a conversation between the production company CEO and either the writer or the director. I hadn’t even signed a contract with the drama, no one else had been cast, so was I wrong for even considering other offers I’d received in the meantime? I think that I at least have the right to think about and choose the productions I want to work on. Don’t just reveal the script cover. The one you uploaded was the very last script I received from you. Show the first script I received, as well as the multiple revised versions. If you say that you don’t have them, then I’ll share all the versions that I saw and were shocked by.

Ah, there was also something said about Instagram, but I had an account that was hacked in 2019, so please confirm that first! Send a message! I still send my fans thank you messages at all hours of the day and night. I’ve also sent people I like messages, and I send a message about once a week to Mbappé [soccer player]. So what? A social networking service is a platform where you can build relationships, make unexpected friends, start romantic relationships, and receive cheers and support.

I don’t think that there is any more need to reply one by one to things about this issue. From now on, those who connect me to things that have nothing to do with me and upload recklessly malicious comments will have have no lenience from the law. I will only take action through the law from now on.

This last is for the fans who have shown such great love for me. I will take this time to mature and grow and greet you with a better image after correcting all the parts where I’ve been lacking. I think that this trying time will add more depth to my life, my acting, and my heart. Right now, the entire cast and crew are working hard filming together.

Image: Instagram/@88leejihoon