'Space Sweepers' cast reveal difficulties in filming: 'It was new and challenging'

"Space Sweepers" is already stirring excitement days ahead of its premiere, but behind the scenes, it was a different kind of struggle.

During a virtual press conference with Netflix on Tuesday, South Korean actress Kim Tae-ri revealed that the green screen posed a challenge for them.

She said that a most of the time, they had to use their imagination.

"Once you lose touch with that imagination, it's easy to forget what you're doing. So we would constantly ask and discuss the scenes and the director's vision and continue to do image training, looking at the green background but continuing to imagine what we would be seeing as the characters," she said.

"Descendants of the Sun" actor Song Joong-ki said the creators went through an intensive preparation process so it wasn't "too tough" to imagine the scenes with the effects.

But he recalled a specific scene that was challenging for him.

"I think the very first scene where I am flying through space, that was quite challenging. There's this scene where we're floating in space and our crew members are outside of the ship, cleaning the ship," he said.

Filming scenes where there is a loss of gravity was "new and challenging," he added.

The actor behind the character Tiger Park, Jin Seon-kyu, said it took some time getting used to.

"At first it was really tough because it starts with 'Where should I be looking at?' while doing my lines, so I would ask the director, and the director gave very good details," he said.

"But going through the whole process, I actually saw outer space with my eyes on the screen," he added.

Actor Yoo Hae-jin talked about the work that went behind his portrayal of the robot Bubs.

"At first, I thought I'll get to the set and I'll be able to do what I always do, but it was quite, quite challenging. I had all types of censors on my body attached and I had to wear these tights," he said.

"All in all it was a very new experience, and it was fun, quite fun," he added.

Director Jo Sung-hee meanwhile said that it was the pre-production that was difficult, and that they had to "prepare a lot." When they were finally shooting, the challenge was imagining the scenes.

"On the set when we were shooting the actual scenes, it really required a great deal of imagination from all of us. There were definitely challenges, however, there was also a lot of excitement about what this was going to look like on screen, so that really drove us," he said.

Set in 2092, "Space Sweepers" follows a gang of misfits who make a living by collecting space debris. After successfully snatching a crashed space shuttle in the latest debris chase, spaceship Victory’s crew find a 7-year-old girl inside. They realize that she’s the humanlike robot wanted by UTS Space Guards, and decide to demand ransom in exchange.

The film, which is South Korea's first space blockbuster, is premiering on Netflix on February 5. —JCB, GMA News