Actor Kim Yoo-jung shared her thoughts on playing a devilish character disguised as an angel.
On the afternoon of the 30th, a production presentation for the TVING original Dear X was held at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Director Lee Eung-bok and actors Kim Yoo-jung, Kim Young-dae, Kim Do-hoon and Lee Yul-eum attended the press conference and talked.
Dear X, based on the webtoon of the same name, is the story of a woman who wears a mask, Baek A-jin, who climbs from hell to the highest place and the Xs who were cruelly trampled by her.
In the work, Kim Yoo-jung plays the role of Baek A-jin, a woman who wears a mask to survive. Kim Yoo-jung said about this villainous role, "I made a lot of effort to exclude the thought that I might tense up by thinking of it as a big challenge for myself. And because Dear X is based on a webtoon, when I read the original and the script and tried to analyze it, I felt that the webtoon medium itself freezes images, which highlighted A-jin's characteristics well. Things like expressionless appearances or moments that are frozen so you don't know what she's thinking were well expressed in the webtoon. I worried a lot about how to act that part," she said, expressing her difficulties.
She added, "Rather than overexpressing through a lot of thought or many ideas while acting, I tried hard to take away and empty out more, and there are many scenes where she speaks with her eyes. At those times, I focused on making viewers feel that strange sense of not knowing what she's thinking."
In particular, as the protagonist yet a villain, there must have been concerns about how difficult it is to make viewers immerse in or sympathize with the character. Regarding this, Kim Yoo-jung said, "I personally thought a lot that by default I didn't want anyone to defend or cheer for A-jin. However, because she is the protagonist, viewers must continue to follow A-jin's point of view to stay with her until the end, so I thought a lot about how to raise concentration so viewers would not give her full support but continue to feel confused emotions. The ability for viewers to follow A-jin's perspective and follow the narrative so they can fully feel the work was created more by the director's direction than by my acting," she explained.
Director Lee Eung-bok said, "Rather than direction, you can feel the gazes of people who watch over her, and even the three people here and the special guest actors have many different gazes watching A-jin. Those relationships bring things that give new meaning to (Kim Yoo-jung's) acting and make her look very different, giving not only the sense of a villain but also feelings like 'Could you live like this?', 'What will you do?', 'Still, I wish she would return to how she was.'"
Among them, Kim Young-dae, who plays Yoon Jun-seo, who has deep affection for Baek A-jin, said, "From Jun-seo's point of view, A-jin has had complicated relationships and trauma since childhood. When looking at A-jin, there's a psychological term called 'savior fantasy.' He looks at her thinking he can save A-jin, so he absolutely takes A-jin's side," he explained about their relationship.
Meanwhile, Dear X will be first released on TVING on Nov. 6.
[Photo] OSEN reporter Cho Eun-jung
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