‘Cannes Best Actress Award’ Jeon Do-yeon, “Will she advance to Hollywood?”

Actress Jeon Do-yeon (50), who never stops taking on various challenges, expressed her ambition to wait for a new character that she can challenge herself with rather than entering Hollywood.

On the morning of the 5th, Jeon Do-yeon conducted an interview for the Netflix movie 'Gil Bok-soon' (directed by Byun Seong-hyun) in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Jeon Do-yeon, with a face without any makeup and a messy hairstyle, gave an interview with a faint smile and her round eyes changing into various sizes.

Jeon Do-yeon, who recently started working in the tvN dramas 'Ilta Scandal' and 'Gil Bok-soon', smiled and said, "I'm looking forward to it" when asked about her future plans. “It may not happen everything I think it will, but it will be another time of waiting. I'm looking forward to it. I’m curious about what kind of work will come in.”

Jeon Do-yeon, who won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her previous film 'Secret Sunshine' (directed by Lee Chang-dong), later confessed that she had received love calls from Hollywood projects. He said, "I was contacted by one project, not several projects. It was the 'Terminator' series. At that time, an audition came in, and I was a little surprised. I thought the gap between 'Secret Sunshine' and ' Terminator' was too big."

When the topic of entering Hollywood came up, I shook my head. The 'Terminator' offer was also rejected. "The reason I refused was largely due to the language aspect. An actor has a lot to convey through language, so wouldn't it be difficult if the language wasn't there? Even if there was an unconventional condition that he didn't have to speak English, I think it would have been difficult. Still, I thought I could give it a try. There were people, but not me. I think it would be similar to thinking that an actress like Meryl Streep would come from Korea and act in Korean. No matter how good an actress she is, wouldn't it be difficult?"

Jeon Do-yeon, who rose to stardom in the 90s with melodrama films such as 'Promise' and 'Connection', was popular and called the 'Queen of Tears' at the time. Afterwards, the bright face he showed in the drama 'Lovers in Prague' was recently shown for the first time in 17 years in the role of Nam Haeng-seon in 'One Scandal'.

"I knew while carefully monitoring 'Ilta Scandal' that the public wanted to see my bright side. It was something I wanted to see for myself as well. I thought, 'Jeon Do-yeon's smile is that pretty.' Not only are people like this, but I too am like this. “I thought I had waited a very long time for the work.”

Jeon Do-yeon, who showed that even people in their 50s can shine through romantic comedies through 'Ilta Scandal', took on the challenge of action in 'Gil Bok-soon'. Jeon Do-yeon built muscles by controlling her diet for the first time for this action challenge. Over the course of about 4 months, I built up my muscles through diet and exercise. It is said that director Byun Seong-hyun applauded Jeon Do-yeon's muscles, showing greater satisfaction than expected.

Injuries followed during the action challenge. Jeon Do-yeon said, "There was a 360-degree rotation scene in the shopping mall, and I got injured while filming that. At the time, I fell down and I was so helpless that I didn't know why I couldn' t get up. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, so filming resumed in a few days. I looked back and said, “I did it.”

"There were a lot of long takes without stopping. If I had cut them off, people would have said, 'You're good at action,' and the visuals would have been better, but I didn't cut them off. Even If they look a little less cool, the emotions of realistic characters make the action more effective. “I think I wanted to see what was in it.”

He gave a self-evaluation that he was generally satisfied with his action acting. “I think I’m satisfied with this. As for the action, didn’t it look like the action was good because the post-production work was done so well?”

He confessed that it was not easy to play a killer character and challenge himself with professional action acting for the first time in his career. Regarding the action challenge, Jeon Do-yeon said, "I think I did enough. As of now, I have graduated from the action genre."

'Gil Bok-soon' Jeon Do-yeon's first action scene was with Hwang Jung-min, her long-time friend from the movie 'You Are My Destiny'. Jeon Do-yeon thought of Hwang Jung-min when it became difficult to cast Japanese actors due to COVID-19. Hwang Jung-min said he would be willing to accept Jeon Do-yeon's proposal. "When I thought about who could do it, senior Hwang Jung-min strangely came to mind. Even though he said he was making a special appearance, he was a character who had to speak Japanese and do action as well. Also, it seemed like it wouldn't be easy to do it because it was only 4 episodes, but I didn't think I'd read the script. “I think that's why I decided to do it.”

Jeon Do-yeon said, "The first filming of 'Gil Bok-soon' was an action scene with Hwang Jung-min. I wanted to do a good job, but it was done in very cold and harsh conditions, but he did a good job. I was surprised that Hwang Jung-min did so well even in such a situation. It was amazing that he prepared for the character of Oda Shinichi in a short period of time. “It was so surprising,” he exclaimed. He smiled and said, “It was amazing to see something captured on one screen after such a long time while monitoring it.”

He also talked about his acting chemistry with Sol Kyeong-gu, who plays MK Entertainment CEO Cha Min-gyu. This is my third meeting with Sol Kyeong-gu, who I worked with through the movies 'I Wish I Had a Wife' (director Park Heung-sik) and 'Birthday' (director Lee Jong-heon). In this work, Jeon Do-yeon portrays a complex and subtle relationship with Sol Kyeong-gu as a killer senior and junior, while Cha Min-gyu, a cold-blooded Korean, is infinitely generous to Gil Bok-soon.

Jeon Do-yeon drew attention by saying, "When I read the script for this work, I don't think I really felt the romance between Cha Min-gyu and Gil Bok-soon," but added, "But I didn't “I know I would cry, but I cried in the last scene with Cha Min-gyu.”

“I think the romance between Gil Bok-soon and Cha Min-gyu was created by Seol Kyeong-gu. For Bok-sun, Min-gyu is the person who always stands by her like a mountain, and when you climb a mountain, there comes a moment when you realize what that feeling is. That's 'Gil Bok-soon.' I think it's contained in it. The melodrama of 'Gil Bok-soon' was definitely created by Seol Kyeong-gu. While monitoring it, I wondered if they had this kind of love. I can't say it wasn't love, but I didn't know their love would be felt so strongly."

'Gil Bok-soon' is an action movie depicting the story of Gil Bok-soon, a legendary killer in the contract killing industry, who is caught up in an inevitable confrontation where he either dies or is killed, just before renewing his contract with the company. By setting up a contract killing company as entertainment and describing the commissioned murder as a 'work' and the murder design as a 'scenario,' the world of the killer was portrayed by comparing it to an actor.

'Gilbok-soon', which was released on the 31st of last month, ranked first in Netflix's Global Top 10 Movies (Non-English) category, recording 19.61 million viewing hours within three days of its release. It ranked first in countries such as Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and was included in the TOP 10 list in a total of 82 countries, including Canada, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and New Zealand.

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