Actor Han So-hee looked back on how she hadn't taken good care of her mind.
Han So-hee sat down for an interview for the film The Intern (director Kim Do-young) on the 8th at a café in Samcheong-dong, Jongno District, Seoul.
The Intern, which opens on the 16th, is a film about what happens when Gi-ho (Choi Min-sik), a 37-year veteran silver intern, joins the company of CEO Seon-woo (Han So-hee), who founded the fashion Start - Up Wootutu and turned it into an industry dark horse in three years. The film is directed by Kim Do-young, who presented 82-year-old Kim Ji-young and Once We Were Us.
The Intern drew attention because it is a work that reinterprets the Hollywood film of the same name released in 2015 for a Korean context. The original, starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, depicts the process of building a friendship that transcends generations between an experienced 70-year-old intern and a young CEO, and was long loved in Korea. The Korean version continues the setting and message of the original while seeking differentiation by blending Korean workplace culture and intergenerational relationships.
In the film, Han So-hee plays Seon-woo, a workaholic CEO who founded the fashion Start - Up Wootutu and turned it into an industry dark horse in three years. Although she has exceptional sense and drive at work, the burden of success grows, and she is a character who carries concerns in both work and life. At a company where incidents and accidents occur daily, she tries to solve all problems alone, but meeting Gi-ho, who joins as her intern, gradually changes her.
The Intern hides paintings by Han So-hee. Describing her paintings as a diary, Han So-hee said, "It's a device that makes me look back on myself," and "Because the paintings derive from my thoughts, I consider them like a diary. So the director wanted Seon-woo's inner life to be expressed in the home, so we worked with the art director on framing and hung them. My paintings appear in My Name, Nevertheless, and others. I feel more these days that painting is a way to express another side of myself."
Although Han So-hee has been active for 10 years and is noted as a Gen Z icon, everything is always difficult. She said, "I often wondered, 'Am I doing well?' I can't objectively evaluate myself. That's why acting is a scary profession, and it's more frightening because I can't assess my own acting. There are many things that require preparation, and in that process there were times, like Seon-woo, when I didn't take good care of my mind. These days I try not to do that. I think only when I know myself well can I have confidence in expressing things. I try not to trust only myself. Until now I ran trusting only myself, but now I look around and ask others."
She added, "Maybe I didn't know how to rely on others. There may have been an arrogance that my judgment was right, but I also thought that if I did what I loved well, it would work out, so I didn't know how to seek advice."
Han So-hee said that a "good adult" is someone who makes others feel, 'I want to be like that' when they look at them. She said, "I saw a reel asking how many times a day you look at the sky. When I think about it, there are many times I don't look at it at all. Lately the sky on the way home from work has been so beautiful. After a hard day I go home and look at the sky for five seconds and it makes me so happy. Humans are animals of hormones, so I have to sort and manage my mind. The mind often breaks without you even knowing when it happened. Lately, the way I take care of myself is to really know what my mind is. I'm obsessively checking how I feel."
A perfectionist who still feels she misses parts, Han So-hee said, "Trying to be perfect narrowed my perspective. In those parts I applied my life while acting on set. I looked around and took care of my mind while preparing." She added, "Regardless of age, I think everyone puts themselves second and works. I'm no different; like everyone, there are times when you set aside your body and mind to work. Someone needs to remind you of that, but that's not easy. It was a simple thing, but I was moved when someone sincerely said, 'Eat your meal,' 'Sleep is the best medicine.' I was touched that something so basic and primal was reminded to me."
More mature, Han So-hee plans to quietly continue on her path. She said, "I tend to rewatch the works I've done, and each time I'm annoyed at why I could only do that. I think that at the time it must have been the best I could do. If now I see shortcomings like I do, I can improve them, and it would be strange not to have any shortcomings. I want to move forward and grow, so I think I must obsessively find and fix those shortcomings to become a better actor."
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