Lee Joo-young "Fan Bingbing's handwritten letter to appear in queer movie 'Green Knight'"

Actress Lee Ju-young revealed that she decided to appear in the queer film 'Green Knight' after receiving a handwritten letter from Chinese actress Fan Bingbing.

On the 27th, Cosmopolitan magazine released a pictorial with Lee Joo-young. Lee Joo-young, the protagonist of the queer film 'Green Knight' with Fan Bingbing, which was recently invited to the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival and had its premiere, boasted a flawless appearance.

It is said that Lee Joo-young showed off her fresh yet deep charm by showing her transparent face with her hair blowing in the wind and making a dreamy expression among goldfish, and the staff on site never ceased to praise her.

In the following interview, Lee Joo-young revealed the story of receiving a handwritten letter from Fan Bingbing and responding to the casting for 'Green Knight'. He said, "Actually, I needed to make a decision after receiving the script. However, Fan Bingbing did a lot of research in advance, from what kind of actor I am and what characters I have played in the Korean film industry so far to my appearance on the entertainment show 'Running Man' and made sure that I appeared. “I received a letter from the director saying he wanted to give it to me, along with a story about why he wrote this scenario. It made me want to make a movie with them,” he said.

Filming like that wasn't easy. Lee Joo-young said, "It was an unfamiliar scene. There were many Chinese staff, and there were a lot of restrictions because I had to always communicate with an interpreter. But later, even if I couldn't understand the language, I felt the emotion I felt when looking into Fan Bingbing's eyes. The atmosphere of a space like the movie 'In the Mood for Love' was also similar to that. “It helped me fully immerse myself in the moment.”

The green-haired woman played by Lee Joo-young is a free woman. He said, “The director said he wanted me to act as if I were a small animal. Instinctively and intuitively. It is not easy to be free in front of the camera, but I acted with the belief that the camera would follow me no matter what unexpected actions I made. In fact, I did everything. “The filming was done handheld. It took a long time, but I think the director, Fan Bingbing, and I were all people who believed in cinematic moments,” he said.

After acting with Lee Joo-young, Fan Bingbing praised Lee Joo-young, saying, "Even if I met her in person, I would have fallen in love with her." Lee Joo-young confessed, "It's hard to explain in words, but I truly loved Fan Bingbing's character from the moment I filmed the movie." “We met for the first time in a long time at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, and we hugged as soon as we met. We called each other ‘girlfriends,’” he said with a laugh.

Joo-young Lee, who has often played strong and independent roles such as strong reporter Seo Jeong-in, the only female baseball player Joo Soo-in, and transgender Ma Hyeon-i, said, "The finger I want to show off the most is Joo Soo-in, and the finger that hurts the most is Ma Hyeon-i," and added, "I didn't know it was Lee Joo-young anymore." , I think this is the first time I’ve seen actor Lee Joo-young act like that.” He also expressed his desire to take on a character that could elicit a reaction.

Lee Joo-young is also a new director who was invited to the Korean Short Film Competition at the Busan International Film Festival with the short film 'Leave X at the Door', which she directed based on her past experience as a McDonald's rider. He said, "I thought, 'Why is that so?' about the common belief that the first directorial work is one's own story, and that happened to me too. (Laughs) I wanted to show a cross-section of society and depict things that can happen around us. Ken Loach, Dardenne. “I like brother directors. I want to try feature-length films in the future,” he said.

Kang Min-kyung, Ten Asia reporter kkk39@tenasia.co.kr