(Continuation of interview ②) Actress Youn Yuh-jung revealed why she volunteered to change from the mother of 20-year-old newcomer Han Ki-chan to a grandmother in the film 'The Wedding Banquet'.
On the afternoon of the 19th at a press conference at Busan Cinema Center, director Andrew Ahn and actors Youn Yuh-jung and Han Ki-chan of the film 'The Wedding Banquet', invited to the World Cinema section of the 30th Busan International Film Festival, held an interview with domestic reporters.
'The Wedding Banquet' is a work depicting an unpredictable comedy that unfolds when a K-grandmother with perfect intuition appears in the fake marriage plan of two same-sex couples. Youn Yuh-jung chose this overseas project as her third after the film 'Minari' and the Apple TV+ original series 'Pachinko', drawing anticipation.
Han Ki-chan, who worked with her, is a former idol turned actor who appeared on the Mnet survival audition Produce X 101. Born in 1998, he is 27 this year, making him 52 years younger than 79-year-old Youn Yuh-jung. As a result, the role changed. Originally Youn Yuh-jung was to play the mother of a gay son in the film, but at Youn Yuh-jung's suggestion the role was changed to a grandmother.
Youn Yuh-jung said about this, "When I first received the offer, it was the mother role. It was supposed to be Min's mother, the role Han Ki-chan took, and before casting I thought it would be fine since the child I had played as a mother had been cast, but this young man was in his 20s. I thought it would be too much for Andrew. I offered to do the grandmother. So she changed from a mother to a grandmother," she said jokingly.
When asked whether she showed a grandmother performance different from before, she said, "I don't plan something when I act as to whether it's an ordinary grandmother or not. When I read the script a lot, I get to know the character's personality and think that if this were this woman I would want to express it this way, so I tend to embody the role. I don't know whether that makes it ordinary or not."
So would her acting have been different if she had played the mother? She said, "Acting isn't something you plan like solving a math problem. Whether mother or grandmother, I think it's the same to convey this feeling."
She added, "What I simply thought was that, seeing myself as a grandmother, when I was a parent I would scold a lot and say don't do this because of the duty to properly educate the children. It's the same when I was an actual mother. But when you become a grandmother you become very generous. From a distance you accept things, and because life doesn't go according to my wishes I want to accept my share. Playing a grandmother might let those things show through."
'The Wedding Banquet' will be officially released domestically on the 24th.
[Photo] OSEN reporter Min Kyung-hoon.
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