[CBC News] Actor Ryu Jun-yeol expanded his acting range by taking on his first dual role since his debut in the Netflix series 'The Rats.' Using only differences in voice, gaze, and subtle facial expressions, he gave two characters with the same face distinct presences. Rather than relying on external transformation, he differentiated the two characters through their personalities and demeanors, making this work worthy of note as a new acting challenge for Ryu Jun-yeol.

Amid this, Ryu Jun-yeol newly joined the Best Actor category of the November Netizens' Awards, currently underway as the second-half finals, awaiting fans' votes. As of 6 p.m. on the 3rd, he ranked 20th in the Best Actor category. As a new entrant, attention is focused on how the rankings may shift going forward and how his acting challenge in 'The Rats' will resonate with fans' support.

■ Same Face, Different Lives... The Challenge Posed by 'The Rats'

Released on August 28, 'The Rats' is a thriller about a novelist whose name, face, and life are stolen, and his pursuit of an unidentified being. Based on a webtoon of the same name, the story begins with a legend about rats that eat a person's fingernails and transform into that person.

Ryu Jun-yeol played both novelist Je Mun-jae and the rat that stole his life. The two characters share the same face but differ in their circumstances and behaviors. The actor's task was to make audiences naturally distinguish between two people with identical appearances.

■ Subtle Differences Built Up Instead of Exaggeration

Ryu Jun-yeol's approach was not exaggerated contrast but accumulating small differences. In an interview after the release, he explained that rather than portraying the two characters too differently, he tried to convey a sense of similarity with something slightly off. To help distinguish the characters, he made changes to fine details such as the shape of the eyebrows and ears and facial moles, and voice in particular served as a key element separating the two characters.

What matters in the work is not simply making the two characters look different. The premise itself—identical beings occupying another person's life—creates the story's tension, so if the differences between the two characters are too distinct, the confusion of identity at the heart of the work could be weakened. Ryu Jun-yeol approached this problem by leaving a degree of similarity between the two characters while varying the voice, expressions, and atmosphere. It was a choice to let audiences sense the differences through acting rather than explaining them one-sidedly, which demanded a high level of concentration from the actor.

■ His Self-Described 'Most Difficult Acting'... Chemistry with Seol Kyung-gu Also Draws Attention

In an interview conducted in September, Ryu Jun-yeol named 'The Rats' the most difficult acting experience among his works. He added that it was hard to have confidence in his own acting while searching for modes of expression he had never attempted before.

His acting chemistry with Seol Kyung-gu is also noteworthy. Seol Kyung-gu plays No-ja, a man trying to recover lost money, and the process of Mun-jae (played by Ryu Jun-yeol) and No-ja approaching the truth of the case together forms the work's main storyline. In an interview, Ryu Jun-yeol said he learned a great deal from discussing acting with Seol Kyung-gu.

■ His Path Forward in the November Netizens' Awards

Ryu Jun-yeol's acting in 'The Rats' emphasizes not how extremely he can portray two different people, but how convincingly he can create differences within the same face. In that subtle changes in expression and voice become the means of revealing a character's identity, his first dual role reads as an acting experiment that goes beyond simple role expansion.

There is also interest in what kind of momentum Ryu Jun-yeol, who has explored new modes of expression with each work, will build at the November Netizens' Awards. Whether his journey this month, starting from 20th place in the Best Actor category, will bring new changes amid fans' attention, and whether his acting career spanning films and series will also demonstrate its presence in netizens' choices, remain to be seen.

[This article was written with AI assistance based on release information about the Netflix series 'The Rats' and Ryu Jun-yeol's press interviews. Interpretations of the acting approach and the work's meaning are critical analyses composed during the writing process and do not represent the official positions of the actor or production team. AI provided partial assistance.]