[Herald Interview] K-drama Star Seo Hyun-jin Is Nervous About Hosting “Cassiopeia” Movie

Even though K-drama star Seo Hyun-jin has appeared in many hit soap operas, including “The Beauty Inside,” “Another Miss Oh,” and “Temperature of Love,” she found the job on the upcoming feature film. “Cassiopeia” nervous- racking.

“This is my first leading role in a movie, so I’m nervous and very curious about the audience’s reaction,” Seo said during an interview with local reporters via video conference on Thursday.

In particular, Seo said she was worried that audiences would see her as an inadequate actress on the big screen.

“When the staff were doing a pre-screening, I asked my manager to attend for me because I was too scared to watch it myself. But I had to go watch because we had a press conference coming up,” she said.

In the film, Seo plays Soo-jin, a successful lawyer. Soo-jin is also a divorced woman raising her daughter (Joo Ye-rim) on her own. When she’s busy, her father, In-woo (Ahn Sung-ki), helps her out. Soo-jin tries to lead a perfect life at home and at work. After sending her daughter to the United States, where her ex-husband lives, she discovers that she has Alzheimer’s disease.

The 37-year-old actress was handed the script for “Cassiopeia” about two years ago and saw an opportunity – a chance to step out of her TV drama comfort zone.

Unlike the many dramatic projects she worked on, director Shin Youn-shick asked Seo how she wanted to move in her scenes and set up the camera accordingly.

“Everything was new to me. For dramas, I usually have to work from a limited angle,” Seo said.

“Also, if it was a drama, we wouldn’t be able to include scenes like my character’s involuntary urination or suicide attempt. I think some scenes can only be featured in movies,” Seo noted.

She was also concerned about the film’s emotional scenes, in which she ended up crying several times despite her best efforts not to.

“I didn’t want the film to be a tearjerker. So before shooting the movie, I didn’t want to cry, but I cried so many times during the shooting,” she said.

Seo explained that the director’s deep trust in the actors was the solution to the doubts she had about those scenes.

“The director encouraged me and told me that if I really wanted to cry right now, it’s the right thing to do,” she added.

Along with videos of Alzheimer’s patients, she said her direct experience of seeing her grandmother with the disease helped her a lot in creating a realistic character.

“My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. While performing, I had his gesture and posture in mind,” she said. “Also, when we were shooting the scene of my character taking a bath, I was wondering what my grandmother was doing while she was taking a bath, so I asked my mother. She said my grandmother mother thought she was in a swimming pool, so in the movie I tried to play with water.

When asked who she wanted to watch the movie with, Seo said her father, whom she described as extremely talkative.

“One day my brother told me this story which made me cry a lot – my brother kissed our father from behind while my father was talking a lot as usual. It left my father speechless for a long time. J I cried a lot after hearing this story because I realized he talked a lot because he felt lonely,” Seo started crying as he shared this anecdote about his father. “Anyway, I want to watch it with my dad.”

“Cassiopeia” hits local theaters on Wednesday.

By Song Seung-hyun ([email protected])