Choi Hyun Wook earns high praise from Choi Min Sik for new Netflix series 'The Last Row Boy'

Choi Hyun Wook is stepping into darker territory — and veteran actor Choi Min Sik says he's the only one who could pull it off.

The two star in Netflix's new psychological suspense series 'The Last Row Boy,' dropping today (June 26). The show, adapted from a Spanish play, follows the twisted dynamic between Heo Moon Oh (Choi Min Sik), a failed writer turned literature professor, and Lee Kang (Choi Hyun Wook), a student with a dangerous writing gift who always sits in the back row.

At a press conference on June 24, Choi Min Sik revealed he personally watched Choi Hyun Wook's audition and was immediately sold. "I couldn't think of any other actor," he said, adding that his own job was essentially to react to whatever Choi Hyun Wook threw at him.

Lee Kang is the kind of character who manipulates everyone around him without ever showing his hand. To pull that off, Choi Hyun Wook leaned into silence — subtle expressions, controlled breathing, barely any emotional outbursts. His agency Gold Medalist shared that he mapped out everything from posture to gaze to build a character who observes more than he speaks.

It's a major shift for the actor, who built his name on youth dramas like 'Racket Boys' (2021), 'Twenty-Five Twenty-One' (2022), and 'Twinkling Watermelon' (2023). 'The Last Row Boy' looks set to show a whole new side of him.