Actor Ha Yoon-Kyung mentioned Park Shin-hye, with whom she worked on Undercover Miss Hong, and expressed her gratitude.
Ha Yoon-Kyung held an end-of-series interview for the tvN weekend drama Undercover Miss Hong (directed by Park Seon-ho, Na Ji-hyun / written by Moon Hyun-kyung / planned by Studio Dragon / produced by Celltrion Entertainment, Studio Dragon) on the 6th at a cafe in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
Undercover Miss Hong is a retro office comedy drama set at the turn of the 1990s century, in which 30-something elite securities inspector Hong Geum-bo (played by Park Shin-hye) goes undercover as a 20-year-old low-level employee at a securities firm where suspicious funds were detected, and Ha Yoon-Kyung played Go Bok-hee, the company president's secretary at Hanmin Securities, a consummate social skill expert.
Go Bok-hee had to become individualistic because of family and personal matters she wanted to hide, but she grew alongside her roommate in room 301, revealing a warm inner self. Viewers found her human charm annoying at times but ultimately lovable.
Especially, Undercover Miss Hong succeeded at the box office, recording a peak rating of 13.1% (Nielsen Korea nationwide ratings) ahead of its finale, and the woman-centered romance among the roommates in room 301 also received praise. Regarding this, Ha Yoon-Kyung said, "I was amazed at how they brought someone who fit her character so well, and we were close like sisters. We still keep in touch, and that role and personality are similar. Even when we talk, we speak and play as our characters," she said.
Ha Yoon-Kyung said, "Shin-hye unni has leadership, a sense of justice and is easygoing. She is very affectionate. I am not exactly like Bok-hee, but if you say we are similar, Bok-hee has a sense of humor. I also like to speak wittily and have a tsundere-like side. Even if it doesn't show outwardly, we are similar in the way we care a lot, and we helped each other during filming. Since we were juniors, when there were uncomfortable or difficult moments, she resolved and helped us, and I tried to treat Misook and Nora the same way. The two friends supported us, and I think we had so much fun filming," she said.
Asked how Miss Hong might remain with her, she said, "I have been acting nonstop, so there are moments when I get tired. Doing Bok-hee made me feel the joy of acting again and quenched that thirst. I had a strong desire to show various faces, and by playing a friend like Bok-hee who has complex and diverse aspects, I think I was able to show that within one character," she confessed.
Ha Yoon-Kyung, who had appeared in numerous independent films and portrayed various characters, also admitted she had been thirsty for acting. She said, "But in fact actors all seem to say they are thirsty as if it were a habit. Some may not feel that thirst, but I tended to play natural, everyday characters. I wanted to break away and show more cinematic, genre, or villainous roles, and since they cast me as characters you could meet in everyday life, I wanted to show things that were different as well."
When asked if there were regrets while filming Miss Hong, she said, "There are always regrets. More than physical regrets, there are times when it's so hard that I want to do things roughly. But when I did Miss Hong, there were no such moments, and even if there were, I worked to make every shot precious. What I regret is moments when my stamina wasn't managed well and I looked tired or seemed to be forcing it," she lamented.
When asked if there were moments she felt sorry for Bok-hee while portraying her complicated family situation, she said, "What made Bok-hee most pitiable was that she smiled and behaved without pride, and when Bok-hee was almost fired and said, 'Is there nothing I can assist with?' it was poignant. I wanted people to feel that, so I smiled more and tried to create a smile in one go, aiming for a bittersweet and tender feeling," she explained.
[Photo] Hodoo & You Entertainment
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