Actor Jin Seon-kyu took the role he was offered for comedy film “Count” immediately after reading the scenario because the character was just like himself, according to Jin.

“When I first read the scenario four years ago, not only was the story fun, but many parts of Si-heon were similar to myself,” the actor told reporters during a press conference heldat CGV Yongsan, in Seoul, Monday.

In “Count,” Jin plays Si-heon, a former boxing Olympic medalist who now teaches students at a high school in Jinhae, North Gyeongsang Province. Si-heon, a stubborn and sometimes annoying physical education teacher, decides to form a boxing team after discovering talent in his student Yoon-woo, played by Sung Yoo-bin.

The actor was also born in the port city and he had dreamed of becoming a PE teacher before he took up acting.

“I even asked director Kwon Hyuk-jae not to show the scenario to anyone else, because I believed that Si-heon was me and I was Si-heon,” he said, adding that boxing has been one of his all-time favorite sports.

The film is Jin’s first movie in which he plays a lead role. He has played important supporting roles in various hit films such as “The Outlaws” (2017) and “Extreme Job” (2018).

“I had a lot of worries as a lead character because I was the one to lead the overall plot in the film and also, I had to show good acting,” said Jin.

“But it was my fellow actors who supported me and made me feel less pressure (about having to play the first-ever lead role),” he added.

In “Count,” Jin is joined by his close actor friends of 20 years -- Oh Na-ra who plays Si-heon’s nagging wife and Go Chang-seok who plays the school’s principal.

Jin and Go were actors in the same theater troupe in Daehangno, Seoul's theater district. Jin and Oh have also appeared together on stage in a play.

“It was Jin who made me take this film. We promised each other decades ago that we should shoot a film together. But also I genuinely support what Jin does -- he is one of the few people who doesn’t make me jealous even after they become a megastar,” Oh said jokingly.

Young rookie actors Sung Yoo-bin and Jang Dong-joo also star in the film as students who join the boxing team, despite the troubles they have with the new PE teacher.

Shooting for “Count” wrapped up in June 2020 but the movie’s release was delayed due to the pandemic. The film will hit theaters in February.