Actor Lee Na-young shared her feelings about presenting a work after three years through Honour.
On the morning of the 11th at a café in Samcheong-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, a wrap-up interview was held with Lee Na-young, the lead actress of the ENA Monday-Tuesday drama Honour: Their courtroom.
Honour: Their courtroom is a fiery mystery pursuit about three female lawyers who confront a past that has returned as a huge scandal head-on. Lee Na-young, who played Yoon Ra-young, a celebrity lawyer and the external messenger of L&J (Listen&Join), a law firm specializing in representing sexual assault victims, said, "I am glad we were able to finish safely, and although the genre can be heavy, I am thankful that we received more response than I expected."
Honour: Their courtroom, which concluded on the 10th, ended on a high note with its highest-ever rating of 4.7% (Nielsen Korea, nationwide paid households). However, some viewers felt disappointed by an unsatisfying ending rather than a clear reward-for-justice outcome, as the whereabouts of Baek Tae-joo (played by Yeonwoo), the developer of the prostitution app and the final boss, remained mysterious and sex buyer Kwon Jung-hyun (played by Lee Hae-yeong) did not receive proper punishment.
Lee Na-young candidly said, "I think our work is not one that leaves a single answer. It seems to be a work that keeps confronting pain head-on, not saying 'you must recover' or 'you must do well,' but waiting and trying to listen beside people. I think the ending left things open rather than tying everything up."
With the final scene introducing a new victim and hinting at the birth of another huge criminal cartel, expectations for season 2 are rising. Lee Na-young also conceded, "I can't think that far because season 2 would be an external story," yet added, "Watching the final episode, I felt we left a lot of room." She offered a cautious opinion: "At first I worried that if viewers couldn't immerse themselves or if something lacked plausibility, they might be pushed away. Since this was my first time in this kind of genre drama, I didn't have many connections, but I received a lot of messages. Even when I went to exercise, people asked me to spoil it so often. I was relieved that viewers were following along and were very curious. That made me think we might be able to tell the next stories—heavy but necessary ones."
Lee Na-young lamented that expressing the character Yoon Ra-young was "very difficult." She said, "The script was so interesting that I read it in one go. I don't set genres in advance; I usually go by the script. I thought this was just a realistic lawyer role and I had long been curious about three women leading a story, so I entered thinking, 'I just need to memorize the lines.' Other genres have crying or many emotional scenes, and this one seemed to have none, so I thought, 'Does this work have no emotional scenes?', 'Do I not have to cry?', 'Do I just need to memorize the lines?' But everything was emotion."
She said, "The lines were not easy, and it wasn't enough to just memorize them; I had to hide the wounds I carried, so it was complicated. Yelling didn't suit the character, so that was difficult. On set I adjusted a lot with the director and tried several tones. I went in thinking if I just deliver the lines well it would be fine, but I was harshly corrected," adding, "It's still difficult. If I went back to the beginning, I don't think I could throw it well just because I already did it; I feel like I'd start again from zero. It's a performance that's difficult no matter when you do it."
When asked whether she referenced real lawyers, she said, "Someone I know is a female lawyer, so I asked her for advice several times," adding, "Regarding costumes, since she is an external messenger, I checked whether it would be okay to be a little flashy, whether she could dress to that degree. Looking at foreign female lawyers and lawyers who run YouTube channels in Korea, there is no set form for that. Since these are part of character expression, I don't think we put constraints on that."
Yoon Ra-young is a lawyer who represents sexual violence victims and at the same time a character who has trauma from past sexual violence. Asked how she prepared to portray the character, Lee Na-young said, "I studied a lot on my own by looking at materials. We can only imagine what kind of terror it might be. We had to express a certain degree of wounds and trauma, and there were things to hide until episode 8, so I talked a lot with the director and the writer about the emotional tone," adding, "Personally, because of a promise with the director, I watched The World of Love. I watched it without knowing the story and cried a lot. I was going through a time when I was 고민하고 있었던 때라 이런 이야기를 힘들게 꺼내서 하고있구나 하는 생각에 정말 많이 울었다."
Regarding the changes before and after Han Min-seo (played by Jeon Soyoung) learned that she was the biological daughter Yoon Ra-young had given up for adoption after being born from a sexual assault, Lee Na-young detailed, "Even after knowing she was her daughter, I acted frantically trying to protect Kang Shin-jae (played by Jung Eun-Chae) and Hwang Hyun-jin (played by Lee Chung-ah). After knowing she was her daughter, there is surprise and guilt more than change. The wish that it hadn't been born (from sexual assault) and that she could have lived not knowing is large, and there is another guilt of 'Would I have made a different decision if it were now?' Since this friend experienced (sexual assault) together, the feelings of apology and pain that collapse were strong, but I decided not to express that 100 percent. There were things to hold onto inside, so there weren't many one-dimensional emotions."
When asked what message she wanted to convey through the work, Lee Na-young said, "I learned a lot while doing it. Personally, I thought the word 'comfort' is difficult when someone is struggling. The word itself is difficult. Still, when you want to grab even a straw, words can empathize, and people keep living by reading a book or something. When I comfort someone, sometimes I can't do much and I write shorter messages, and this work feels like that. It's not about removing or covering it up, but waiting and trying to listen. Isn't that what we need, maybe until we die? I felt that message a lot. The line to Min-seo, 'It's okay to keep being bad,' felt like saying, 'You can let it fester as it is. Don't rush them to get better quickly,' and I liked that."
Asked whether the solidarity of the three women was well conveyed to viewers, she said, "I think so. I'm grateful that viewers empathized with all three. Aren't they all cool? Each character is so different that none of them throw off the balance. It was fun to watch. It didn't feel biased toward one person, so I think it was a success. It is hopeful that three women handle a subject that could be somewhat heavy in genre."
Lee Na-young, who has not yet decided on her next work, said about her criteria for choosing projects, "I don't set criteria. I didn't know I would suddenly do this either," adding, "I like reading scripts and my heart is always willing to do work. I don't know what will come next. I don't know what will seize me. I think I'll want to do things influenced by feelings or something at the time." She added, "I'm so glad female characters are becoming more diverse; whereas before they were one-dimensional, now they're detailed and subdivided. As an actress, I feel anticipation. Those things arise because audiences accept them, so I'm thankful for that too."
He said it took three years after the Wave drama Park Ha-kyung travelogue to take her next project, and when asked what she did during the three-year hiatus, she said, "I wasn't idle. I tried to fill my inner self. Even now, from the end of March I'll continue filling my inner self." She added a twist, "For example, I learn dance. K-pop dance or something. I don't know well, so I go and ask to be taught anything. Because I think it might also be exercise and help my body loosen up, which could help acting. If you learn a hand gesture, the body keeps it and you never know when it might be useful later, so I just put it in."
Known to the public for a 'mysterious' image, when asked whether she plans to expand communication channels to YouTube, she said, "YouTube would be too hard. When and how would you film?" adding, "I'm thinking of at least Instagram. But when you speak a lot in certain situations, don't you sometimes kick the blanket and think, 'Why did I say that?' I hold myself to a high standard. Because I'm not used to this, I like seeing others' content, but when it comes to mine I think, 'Who am I to...' I'm 고민중이다."
She also shared an update on Won Bin, who has been on a nearly 16-year hiatus from acting since the 2010 film The Man from Nowhere. She said, "His manner of speaking is always friendly, so when I sing or show him things, he says, 'Hmm, not bad,' " adding, "He is filling his inner self in a different way than I am." On Won Bin's comeback plans, she joked, "I wonder. How is it going?" and added, "He also has a strong desire to act. Still, he hasn't been forgotten and people keep showing interest, so I am grateful as someone close to him."
Regarding Won Bin's reaction to watching Honour, she said shyly, "Because I wouldn't tell him about the next story, he kept trying to pry it out. He'd say, 'Is it like this?' and I'd say, 'I know,' but he kept watching my reactions. I didn't tell him until the end," adding, "We couldn't watch all episodes together as a family. I was embarrassed, so we watched some episodes together and I told him to watch others later on Coupang Play. It's embarrassing to watch together, isn't it?" However, she said her son, who is only 10 years old, could not watch with her because of age restrictions, adding, "He only watches cartoons so he doesn't know about actors. He keeps asking, 'Is it real?' " She expressed affection for Honour, saying, "If he watches it later, it will remain a work that can teach him about society and such."
[Photo] Eden9
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