Johnny Suh Tells Madeline Argy His Secrets

JOHNNY SUH’s got that thing—the kind of thing that can’t be described, but can make hundreds of people lose control at the sight of him. That was exactly the scene in Paris last fall, when the K-pop superstar made his fashion week debut at the Acne Studios show. Screams and tears and pure chaos, all for the 30-year-old Chicago native who rose to fame as a member of the Korean boy band NCT (and its sub-unit NCT 127). Now, JOHNNY is ready to blaze his own path—through fashion, and eventually his own music. One person who kept their cool around JOHNNY that day in Paris was British podcaster and social media star Madeline Argy, who called him up recently for a much more intimate conversation, just the two of them.

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TUESDAY 9 PM DEC. 17, 2024 SEOUL

MADELINE ARGY: JOHNNY, good to see you.

JOHNNY SUH: Good to see you.

ARGY: I haven’t seen you since the Acne show. Actually, it was the first time we met.

SUH: Yeah, it was.

ARGY: Did you enjoy the rest of your night? I don’t think I ended up seeing you after the show.

SUH: We ended up going to the after party. I was in Paris for a very short time so I tried to go out as much as possible.

ARGY: That’s fun. Word on the street is you can DJ.

SUH: Ah, yes.

ARGY: I don’t know what that really means, but your fans would probably like to know what kind of music you might be pursuing outside of NCT [Neo Culture Technology, Suh’s boy band]. Can we ever expect any solo music?

SUH: I’ve been talking it out with the label and I’m hoping that I can get word out in 2025. We’ve been in talks about what kind of music I want to pursue, and one of the genres that might be an option is house music.

ARGY: Wow, that’s the last thing I expected you to say. I don’t know what I was expecting. It wasn’t house. Do you have any specific people in mind that you would love to collaborate with?

SUH: I think it’s probably only ever going to be a dream, but Daft Punk would be my dream collab.

ARGY: Why only a dream?

SUH: Because it’s Daft Punk. [Laughs] They have one album every decade.

ARGY: They did that robot love song, right?

SUH: Yes. I mean, a lot of robot love songs.

ARGY: Good point. Okay. In my research, I discovered that—do you know what an MBTI [Myers-Briggs Type Indicator] type is?

SUH: Yes!

ARGY: Okay, are you aware—

SUH: Do you know what an MBTI type is?

ARGY: I know what an MBTI type is.

SUH: Okay.

ARGY: So do you know that yours is an ENTP [Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving]?

SUH: I do!

ARGY: Do you think that’s accurate?

SUH: I remember in high school when I took psychology 101, one of the first things we did was take the MBTI test. And then, all of a sudden there was this trend in Korea where everybody was talking about MBTI, so I ended up taking it again and it ended up still being ENTP. And when you read what E is, or N is, or T is, or P is, I was like, “Yeah, that sounds like me.”

ARGY: Oh, you think it resonates?

SUH: It’s pretty accurate.

ARGY: So you say you’re extroverted?

SUH: On the extroverted side.

ARGY: Fair enough. That’s a pretty good type. It’s the fifth most rare. Did you know that?

SUH: I did not know that. I feel special now.

ARGY: I guess you are.

SUH: What is yours?

ARGY: I have no idea. People have theorized mine, so I’d be interested to see if they’re right, because it sounded concerning. They were leaving comments about my personality type and I didn’t necessarily like what I was reading. So my next question is, if I was to visit Korea, what’s one food spot that is must-visit?

SUH: I don’t have a spot, but I always eat Korean barbecue because you can never go wrong with it.

ARGY: Do you think the places in L.A. do it justice or is it just on another level?

SUH: Honestly, it’s not bad, but in Korea there are levels. I’m going to try to explain this as best as I can. So Korean barbecue usually has three layers of meat, but then there’s this extra layer. It’s a different kind of pig, I guess, that grows on Jeju Island. It’s thicker, it’s chewier.

ARGY: That sounds delicious.

SUH: It’s pretty hard to explain. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in America.

ARGY: I mean, American food is terrible. I’m not from America, but ever since I—

SUH: You’re English, right?

ARGY: Yeah.

SUH: And you’re saying American food is terrible?

ARGY: Yeah.

SUH: Okay. What is a go-to English food?

ARGY: I guess fish and chips, which is less delicious than Korean barbecue by quite a bit.

SUH: [Laughs] I like fish and chips.

ARGY: Really? I don’t know about that one. Do you have a favorite place that you have toured?

SUH: We toured in South America for the Link Tour, and it was the first time we actually went to South America and got to visit a few places. When we had the concert, the crowd was pretty crazy. It would probably be one of the most memorable crowds.

ARGY: Was that the first time you really got to see the city that you were performing in? Do you often get to experience it or are you just so rushed from place to place?

SUH: We probably don’t get to experience a lot of it, because I’ve been to a lot of countries, but we never really get to experience the places we go to and I always found that kind of sad. You don’t remember where you went, a lot of the time. You only get to eat some of the food, then you come back and you’re like, “Where was I?”

ARGY: So wait, where do you call home right now?

SUH: I would say Korea.

ARGY: Is that where you are today?

SUH: Yes. It’s so cold here!

ARGY: I can tell. You’re in a sleeping bag right now. But you’re drinking iced coffee?

SUH: Yes, I am. I don’t like to drink warm coffee.

ARGY: Why?

SUH: It’s bitter.

ARGY: Fair enough. Next question is: What is your favorite movie?

SUH: I’ve been thinking about this question for a while, recently.

ARGY: Why?

SUH: Because it’s a very common question, but I never really had an answer. But I came down to a few. Walter Mitty something. It’s different in Korean. Do you not know what movie I’m talking about?

ARGY: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

SUH: I’m going to find it. Give me one second. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty!

ARGY: The Secret Life of Walter Smitty?

SUH: Mitty.

ARGY: Mitty?

SUH: Yeah.

ARGY: I have never heard of it. What’s it about?

SUH: The main character is Ben Stiller. He’s looking for a photographer, and when he finds the photographer, he’s about to take a picture, but then he puts the camera down and says, “Sometimes you just have to put down the camera and look at life,” and I was like, “That’s the quote.” And that’s why that is one of my favorite movies, I guess.

ARGY: Fair enough. I think that’s a nice quote. You should get it tattooed or something. Which actually is my next question. You have a few tattoos, from what I remember.

SUH: Yeah, a few.

ARGY: Are there any that people don’t know about? Because somewhere online it said that you have four and that one is unknown.

SUH: No, I’ve got four.

ARGY: And there’s no secret ones?

SUH: No. When you ask it like that, I kind of want one now.

ARGY: Do you have rhinitis?

SUH: Like a stuffy nose?

ARGY: I read somewhere that you only breathe through your mouth?

SUH: No, no, no. I just have a lot of allergies.

ARGY: Oh, well, the internet thinks that you’re a mouth breather.

SUH: I am not a mouth breather.

ARGY: You should debunk this then, because it was one of the first things that I learned about you.

SUH: [Laughs] That’s the worst thing to learn about!

ARGY: I know, but it’s out there.

SUH: I kind of understand where it comes from, because I always tell people my allergies are fricking crazy. In spring, my nose is clogged up, but allergy medicine fixes everything, so it’s pretty good.

ARGY: You can debunk the mouth-breathing accusations then. Do you have any secret hobbies that people don’t know about?

SUH: I did get into bowling, but then I stopped.

ARGY: Why?

SUH: I was bowling from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for like two months, and I was like, “I can’t live like this anymore.”

ARGY: Why were you bowling so many hours in a day?

SUH: I don’t know. It’s pretty addictive.

ARGY: It’s not an easy thing to do. You have to go to a location. It’s not a home hobby, unless you have a bowling alley in your home.

SUH: Maybe I have a bowling alley in my home.

ARGY: Do you have a bowling alley in your home?

SUH: No, I do not. [Laughs] A lot of the places in Korea are open 24 hours.

ARGY: I thought you wouldn’t have this kind of downtime, but that’s eight hours of bowling a day.

SUH: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. During the day I’d be out doing stuff, and then when everything was done, I’d go home, wash up, and go bowling.

ARGY: That’s insane. Were you going alone? I’m picturing you at like 3 a.m. alone in a bowling alley, sweating.

SUH: I had a few friends that would bowl with me, and I would call them crazy as well.

ARGY: Were you good?

SUH: I got pretty good.

ARGY: Do you play with the safety lanes up?

SUH: Who plays with the safety lanes up?

ARGY: I do.

SUH: [Laughs] Yeah, but nobody knows about that hobby, because I stopped.

ARGY: Why? Is it something you’re ashamed of? Why didn’t you tell people?

SUH: I wanted it to be my secret, I guess.

ARGY: I guess that’s fair. People might start showing up to the bowling alley if they knew. What’s a skill that you’ve refined over the last six months to a year?

SUH: I don’t know if you’d call it a skill, but interacting with people.

ARGY: Finding human connection. It’s a good skill to sharpen.

SUH: I usually live my own life, but I’ve been trying to connect.

ARGY: That’s a very sweet answer, and now I’m going to just shoot you in the foot with my next question. What’s one question you wish someone would ask you in an interview, but they never do?

SUH: I never thought about that. Where do you see yourself at the age of 50?

ARGY: So where do you see yourself at the age of 50?

SUH: Yeah.

ARGY: You have to answer.

SUH: Oh, is this how it works?

ARGY: Yep.

SUH: Okay. It’s such a simple dream, but so hard to imagine at the same time. I just want to have a great family. Just a stable, happy, strong family.

ARGY: Kids? No kids?

SUH: Kids. I don’t know if I like kids, but I feel like I will like my kid. [Laughs]

ARGY: That’s fair. I think a lot of people feel that. They’re kind of annoying. You know how many you want?

SUH: I’m an only child, so probably more than one.

ARGY: Oh, so you didn’t like being an only child?

SUH: It had its ups, but I was always jealous of kids with siblings, because I was at home alone a lot of the time.

ARGY: Do you feel like you have a hard time sharing as an adult?

SUH: Is that a symptom of only children?

ARGY: Surely.

SUH: If you have team members, as I have for the past 15 years, you get used to sharing.

ARGY: But if I came up and, I don’t know, took your coffee off you right now and drank it, would you be annoyed?

SUH: Maybe 15 years ago, but not now.

ARGY: Oh, so there’s been some growth.

SUH: Yes. There has been some growth within myself.

ARGY: Proud of you.

SUH: Thank you.

ARGY: You’re welcome. Okay, cool. That is all of the questions that I had for you. Thank you so much for letting me pester you today.

SUH: I like being asked questions.

ARGY: Well, I’m glad, because it’s part of your job.

SUH: It’s a time for me to think about myself, as well.

ARGY: It’s kind of like free therapy, right?

SUH: Thank you for your free therapy today.

ARGY: You’re welcome.

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Hair: Han Songhee at Bit&Boot.

Makeup: An Seongeun at Bit&Boot.