Lee Jong Suk Calls Romance Fantasy Hard as 'Lee Jong Bird' Nickname Takes Off in The Remarried Empress

Lee Jong Suk has given fans a peek behind the curtain of Disney+‘s “The Remarried Empress,” and his verdict on the genre is refreshingly blunt: romance fantasy is hard.

On November 9, the actor shared a link to a new making-of video from his personal YouTube channel, captioning it simply, “Romance fantasy is hard.” The video, titled “Kim Doo-han appears in a romance fantasy! But why is he so pretty? | The Remarried Empress Making,” follows Lee through a day on set, from a scene filmed atop a castle wall to the first appearance of his character, Heinrey, in full royal regalia.

In the footage, Lee films a fantasy action sequence before changing into Heinrey’s ornate costume and long sword for the prince’s first entrance. An on-screen caption describes the transformation as “a dreamlike prince turned charismatic swordsman,” and Lee leans into the joke, comparing his look to “Kim Doo-han of the Middle Ages” and “twin swords.”

The most talked-about moment in the video is the waltz. Lee films a ballroom scene opposite Shin Min Ah, who plays Empress Navier, and makes no secret of his discomfort. “It’s so embarrassing,” he says in the clip, explaining that he felt awkward dancing with “Her Majesty the Empress” while the crew watched from every side. He even asked his fellow actors for generous reactions to sell the romance. Co-star Choi Dae Hoon, who plays Heinrey’s attendant McKenna, shot back with a laugh that the situation left no room for that kind of emotion.

Lee revealed that he practiced the waltz for about two months, fitting rehearsals around preparations for his fan meeting. “I did boy group and girl group choreography, and now waltz too,” he joked, calling himself “almost a dancing machine.” The actual waltz scene was filmed without any music playing on set, with Lee and Shin Min Ah matching their steps in silence before applause broke out from the crew when the director called cut.

The video also shows Lee lifting Shin Min Ah during filming, along with the elaborate New Year festival sequence, which reportedly took four days to shoot. The scale of the production is part of why the making-of has drawn attention: the series has quickly become one of Disney+‘s most visible Korean originals, topping the platform’s Korea chart after its premiere and landing on the New York Times’ November must-watch list.

The behind-the-scenes video arrives as a new nickname for the actor takes hold online. Playing on Heinrey’s ability to transform into a bird, viewers have started calling Lee “Lee Jong-bird” and “Bird Jong-suk,” nicknames that both Korean outlets picked up in their coverage this week. The bird form is central to Heinrey’s character: he flies to Navier’s side in bird form to overhear her praising his looks, a scene Disney+ teased in a preview clip last month.

Lee has been candid about how much the role demanded of him. At the series’ press event, he admitted that the way other characters describe Heinrey weighed on him, saying the descriptions “hurt” and felt like a burden. In the story, characters say that people collapse after meeting his gaze and praise his pleasant voice, and Lee said he paid more attention to his appearance for this role than for any other project. He added that transforming from bird to human meant appearing nude on screen, a detail that left him asking for “just one more month” of preparation time.

He also revealed that he initially turned the role down. Having read the entire original web novel, Lee said he declined the casting offer at first because Heinrey is described as almost impossibly handsome. Fans of the original had raised similar doubts about the live-action casting, but the reaction since the series premiered has been warm, with viewers praising Lee’s take on the character and embracing the bird nickname as a badge of honor.

The role continues a pattern in Lee’s career of bringing webtoon-origin characters to life. He previously played Kang Chul, a webtoon hero who crosses into the real world, in the 2016 drama “W,” a performance fans have cited this week while joking that “a webtoon-born actor is different after all.” His earlier work includes “I Can Hear Your Voice” in 2013, “Pinocchio” in 2014, “While You Were Sleeping” in 2017, and “Big Mouth” in 2022.

“The Remarried Empress,” based on the popular web novel and webtoon of the same name, follows Navier, the perfect empress of the Eastern Empire, who demands to remarry Heinrey, prince of the Western Kingdom, after her husband Sovieshu, played by Ju Ji Hoon, divorces her for the runaway slave Rashta, played by Lee Se Young. New episodes arrive every Wednesday, with episodes five and six scheduled for November 11.