'One Scandal' 'Gil Bok-soon', a gem recognized by Jeon Do-yeon

“Actor Lee Yeon, who played the role of Nam Haeng-seon in his 20s in ‘Ilta Scandal’? I recommended him.”

Actress Jeon Do-yeon smiled when asked about her junior Lee Yeon.

Lee Yeon played the role of Jeon Do-yeon's character, Nam Haeng-seon, in her 20s in the tvN drama 'Ilta Scandal', and in the Netflix movie 'Gil Bok-soon' (directed by Byun Seong-hyun), she played the role of Young-ji, Gil Bok-soon's (played by Jeon Do-yeon) killer junior.

Jeon Do-yeon and Lee Yeon's first relationship was with 'Gil Bok-soon.' Lee Yeon, who was cast in the role of Young-ji, collaborated with Jeon Do-yeon twice in action scenes. One was MK Entertainment's killer evaluation, and the other was a fight for the killers' lives in a restaurant. Lee Yeon and Jeon Do-yeon displayed quite good action chemistry and played a role as the film's scene-stealer.

Jeon Do-yeon revealed that she had good chemistry with Lee Yeon and said, "I got to know Lee Yeon through 'Gil Bok-soon', and she had a really nice personality. We were friendly and we shot action scenes well together."

Jeon Do-yeon, who had such a good impression of Lee Yeon, thought of Lee Yeon when she heard that an actor from her past was needed to play the role of Nam Haeng-seon, a 20-year-old man from her past, in 'One Scandal', which began filming.

"It was a bit awkward for me to do the male route for the 20-year-old on my own. There were many cases where the current route and the past route were shown together. I recommended it because it reminded me of actor Lee Yeon. I was told that there was a schedule at the time, so I gladly did it. I was also satisfied."

It was no coincidence that Lee Yeon, a new actor, had a series of relationships with Jeon Do-yeon, a senior actress, from 'Gil Bok-soon' to 'Ilta Scandal'. The reason why Jeon Do-yeon took notice of Lee Yeon and even personally recommended him was because of his extraordinary ability to digest characters.

Lee Yeon, who debuted in the 2018 film 'Unknown', made a mark on viewers by playing the role of Baek Seong-woo, a middle school boy criminal, in last year's Netflix original drama 'Juvenile Judgment'. Lee Yeon received favorable reviews for her outstanding performance in the role of a middle school boy, transcending gender and age. She also left an impression through her role as Youngi, a girl who ran away from home in the Wave original series ‘Weak Hero’, which was released later.

Afterwards, Lee Yeon showed her growth once again by collaborating with Jeon Do-yeon in 'Gil Bok-soon' following 'One Hit Scandal'.

However, it was director Byeon Seong-hyeon, not director Yoo Je-won of 'One Hit Scandal', who first came up with the acting combination of Jeon Do-yeon and Lee Yeon. Although 'Gil Bok-soon' was filmed before 'One Hit Scandal', it is said that because 'One Hit Scandal' met viewers first, director Byun Seong-hyun was unable to hide his regret over missing the player.

Jeon Do-yeon laughed, saying, "Director Byun Seong-hyun was the first to think of me and Lee Yeon's acting skills, but because the broadcast was 'one hit scandal' first, Director Byun was a little disappointed."

Meanwhile, Lee Yeon's next work is tvN's 'Beneficial Fraud', in which she plays the role of Jeong Da-jeong, who runs a comic book store but whose main job is a hacker. He works with actor Chun Woo-hee.

Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr