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On March 5, a press conference for JTBC's Friday series Still Shining was held in Seoul.
Still Shining follows the journey of young people who once shared a world of their own as they become each other's source of trust and light, guiding each other's lives.
In the K-drama, Park Jin Young plays Yeon Tae Seo, a subway train operator. The actor spoke about what he wrestled with while preparing the character.
Park said, "I thought a lot about the character Tae Seo, and I felt like he was an ordinary guy," adding, "The writer told me first, 'I want him to look like the same person in his 20s and in his 30s.'" He continued, "The place where I approached the character differently was the way he endures the difficulties. I haven't changed all that much either, but I wanted to express it through things like an attitude of accepting life's absurdities." He also said, "In order to create a character who is as calm and consistent as possible, I prepared by having a lot of conversations with the director on set."
When MC Park Kyung Lim remarked, "You also wore a school uniform in this project, so it must have brought back memories of your teen years and your twenties," Park Jin Young smiled and replied, "Working on this project did make me look back a lot, but I like being in my thirties."
Park Jin Young had a busy year last year, starring in Channel A's The Witch and tvN's Our Unwritten Seoul. He especially earned praise for his nuanced performance of a character living with pain in Our Unwritten Seoul.
Speaking about the pressure surrounding his next project, Park Jin Young shared, "To be honest, it would be a lie to say that I don't feel any expectations or tension." However, he added, "I believe that the mindset for preparing a new project is to keep those feelings out as much as possible, so I tried to let go of the pressure and approach the work calmly and objectively."
Kim Min Ju plays Mo Eun Ah, a manager of a traditional Korean guesthouse who previously worked as a hotelier. Eun Ah's "lifelong assignment" in childhood was to protect her father, who suffered from severe depression and attempted to take his own life.
After overcoming that exhausting past of having to keep her father safe, she reunites with Tae Seo — the person who set her free — and the drama is set to portray, with great depth, Eun Ah's inner turmoil as she is shaken once again.
This is also the first time she has portrayed a character in her teens, twenties, and thirties. Kim Min Ju said, "I had a lot of concerns, but it was fun because I could portray the character in a three-dimensional way," adding, "It was difficult to portray someone in their thirties, which I haven't experienced, but I received a lot of help from the director and the people around me."
She continued, "I thought there were limits to expressing it outwardly, through visible aspects. I built the character by constantly asking myself how Eun Ah's attitude and values would have changed depending on the environment and circumstances she lived through."
Still Shining will premiere on March 6. The K-drama will be streaming on Netflix.
