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Go Youn Jung sits for an interview with local reporters at a café in Seoul, where she shared her feelings on bidding farewell to her latest Netflix release, Can This Love Be Translated?.
Can This Love Be Translated? follows the story of multilingual interpreter Ju Ho Jin (Kim Seon Ho), who becomes the interpreter for global top star Cha Mu Hui (Go Youn Jung).
In the K-drama, Go Youn Jung plays the role of Cha Mu Hui, a struggling actress, who, after suffering a fall and remaining in coma for months, wakes up to find herself a global top star.
Here is an excerpt of the interview with the actress:
It was released after a long time since filming ended. How do you feel about it?
Just like my previous drama, Resident Playbook, it somehow ended up being released about a year after we finished filming. When doing promotions or interviews, I wondered whether I would even remember it properly. But it came back to me very vividly.
I took so many photos, and since we traveled to so many countries, when I look at the souvenirs or keychains I bought, everything comes back to mind. I have a lot of memories of filming happily. It felt like flipping through my summer and winter vacation diaries.
Did you expect the drama to gain such global popularity?
It still hasn't settled in yet. I didn't expect it. When we were doing promotions, I could tell that the production company had prepared a lot, so I thought they must be putting in a great deal of effort.
You recently got 10 million followers on Instagram.
It was quite fascinating. Of course, I thought that if I kept working hard, I would eventually get 10 million followers someday, but reaching 10 million followers through this project made me realize that this work is a special one for me.
The various looks you had on in the drama also caused quite a buzz.
I thought that the outfits I wore and the hair and makeup I had would attract attention. Since it was an eye-catching kind of concept, we prepared thoroughly. When I thought about it, I realized I had worn about a 100 different outfits. The stylist must have worked incredibly hard. I guess people noticed and appreciated the results of everyone's hard work.
How did you approach playing Do Ra Mi?
When I first received the script, I was only given up to episode 4. I was later told that Do Ra Mi would come at the end of episode 7. Even I didn't know that was the direction the story would take. When I found out, it was quite a shock. It even felt like the genre was changing, so I went into filming thinking I needed to prepare a bit more.
Mu Hui and Do Ra Mi are different characters, but they share the commonality of trying to protect Mu Hui. Mu Hui tends to speak in a roundabout way as a defense mechanism, whereas Do Ra Mi speaks bluntly and lives worry-free, but I thought that her bluntness was a way of protecting Mu Hui in advance so she wouldn't get hurt.
Although Mu Hui and Do Ra Mi may look like separate characters, I felt that if their differences were too big, viewers would find it hard to accept them, so I made only one key aspect different and set them as the same person when acting.
If Mu Hui has the characteristic of being full of worries, then Do Ra Mi, in contrast, becomes someone who speaks out the things Mu Hui keeps buried in her heart, like Mu Hui's interpreter, expressing them her way.
You've worked with the Hong sisters again after Alchemy of Souls.
The writers didn't have any particular requests or advice for me. They simply said, "Youn Jung, you did well in Alchemy of Souls, so we believe you'll do well this time too," and encouraged me.
After working on their projects, it feels like I've come back out of a fairy tale. I'm usually calm and easygoing by nature, but it felt like I had been in a colorful fairy tale for a year, as if I were experiencing a kind of vicarious pleasure, and then came back out. So after filming ended, I felt a certain emptiness.
Is there anything about Cha Mu Hui's anxiety that you relate to?
I think anxiety comes with happiness. The more satisfied you are, the more you wish it could last forever. In fact, I didn't realize this during my early debut days, but as my outlook gradually widened, I came to see how many people were around me and how essential they are to making a project possible.
Starting three or four years ago, I've been feeling that if I happen to be unwell and can't keep my schedule, or I make a slip of the tongue, even though it's just a mistake on my part, it ends up affecting the whole project. I felt that very strongly again with this project. It's not 'I've finished filming, so it's no longer my concern,' but rather that only if I do well can everything turn out well for everyone. There's a pressure that I have to do well.
There's quite a lot of talk about your looks. How do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Honestly, I'm most satisfied right after getting my makeup done at the salon. When I wake up in the morning, my lips are swollen, and my face is oily, so I feel best after I've had my makeup done (laughs).
Since when did you start feeling you're pretty?
I think I got lucky with the timing. It seems my face happens to fit current trends — the kind of face people like these days. The beauty standards keep changing, and I think I, luckily, just happened to fit the [current ones].
What meaning do you think Can This Love Be Translated? will hold for you?
It felt like I had been in a beautiful, exciting fairy tale, so much so that my real life felt dry and dull by comparison. I was so deeply immersed that I even wished I could live a little longer as Cha Mu Hui.
Seeing an aurora, reaching ten million followers — uncommon things kept happening through this project. So, I came to think of it as something special. It felt like a gift.
