[Interview] Park Ji-hyun Talks About Sang-yeon's Choices, the Existence of Eun-joong, Attitudes Toward Death, and Season 2 ①

〈You and Everything Else〉's most passionate fan is none other than actor Park Ji-hyun. Even now, Park Ji-hyun claims to have watched 〈You and Everything Else〉 countless times and is one of the first viewers to recognize the drama's true value. The Netflix series 〈You and Everything Else〉, which became many people's 'life drama' as soon as it was released, tells the story of two friends, Eun-joong (Kim Go-eun) and Sang-yeon (Park Ji-hyun), who are intertwined throughout their lives, loving and longing for each other, while also feeling jealousy and hatred.

〈You and Everything Else〉 is also the life story of Sang-yeon written from Eun-joong's perspective. From Eun-joong's viewpoint, Sang-yeon seems like someone who would never let anyone close, yet desires to be loved more than anyone else. She appears to be inscrutable, yet brutally honest, and while she seems to be layered with facades, she is also the most raw character.

Park Ji-hyun met the character Sang-yeon, who is hard to define in a single word, and added persuasiveness through her performance. Sang-yeon's deficiencies, anxieties, loneliness, and sense of loss were visualized through Park Ji-hyun's portrayal of Sang-yeon's face, attitude, speech, and breath, ultimately making Park Ji-hyun's Sang-yeon a character that is "so lovable that it’s frustrating," allowing her to live and breathe within the life story of Sang-yeon written by Eun-joong.

Park Ji-hyun mentioned that every time she binge-watches 〈You and Everything Else〉, her feelings change. How did Park Ji-hyun ultimately come to accept the character Sang-yeon? On the 25th, I met actor Park Ji-hyun in a location in Jongno-gu and asked her how the character Sang-yeon remains with her.

I still feel the lingering effects of 〈You and Everything Else〉, so when I see Park Ji-hyun, I see Sang-yeon. I haven't been able to escape from the drama yet; how about you, Park Ji-hyun?

Should I interview like Sang-yeon? Which age group do you prefer, 20s, 30s, or 40s? (laughs) I used to think of myself as an actor who could separate my roles from myself well, but after 〈You and Everything Else〉, I realized that I am not as separate from my roles as I thought. While I am undoubtedly Park Ji-hyun, I feel that I have been influenced by Sang-yeon. After filming 〈You and Everything Else〉, I felt that my values changed a lot. Also, while filming, my attitude toward life and death changed. In the past, the word 'death' felt very distant, like a word that shouldn't be casually mentioned, and I only thought of it negatively. However, after filming 〈You and Everything Else〉, I came to think that 'death' is something everyone must experience once we are born, and there is no need to view it so negatively; it made me think more deeply about it.

Usually, changes in time are expressed only through appearance, but the reason why Park Ji-hyun's Sang-yeon was impressive is that she expressed Sang-yeon from her 20s to 40s through her speech and attitude as well.

I observe the people around me a lot. When acting, I reference many people. So I think everyone is a material for acting. Acting is about showing a plausible technique, right? To show a 'plausible technique' and a believable way of living, I think you need to observe life. So I usually don’t block my ears with earphones, I listen to music well, and I really enjoy observing the people in the world. However, when I observe people, I often see them behaving in nonsensical ways. Even now, I am observing you, reporter. (laughs) So I find it interesting to watch people, and I think there is a lot to learn from them. Fortunately, I have many people in their 40s around me, so I observed and studied them. Also, I am usually very interested in my body. It’s not just for health, dieting, or body shape, but I think I am very sensitive about my body, so I like to explore and research how I breathe and how my posture is formed. Therefore, I focused on how to breathe in different situations. Since 40s Sang-yeon is a patient, I thought about what her breathing would be like. Following that breath, I think posture, expression, and speech naturally follow.

〈You and Everything Else〉 follows the story of friends Eun-joong and Sang-yeon from their teenage years to their 40s, filled with jealousy and longing over a long period. How did you define and portray the relationship between Eun-joong and Sang-yeon?

I think it’s a relationship that is very difficult to define in one word. In fact, the word 'friend' can have different meanings depending on how one subjectively defines it, and the same goes for 'family' and 'lover.' In fact, I thought Sang-yeon was a character who chooses loneliness. Therefore, I feel that Eun-joong is a unique existence for Sang-yeon. Because Sang-yeon's family has all left, Eun-joong is the only one who can fully accept Sang-yeon, so in a way, Eun-joong could be like a mother to Sang-yeon, a family member, a close friend, or even a part of love that transcends friendship. Friendship is also a type of love, after all.

After becoming a terminal cancer patient, Sang-yeon goes to Eun-joong, whom she had cut ties with, and asks her to be with her in her final moments. Can we say that Sang-yeon fully opened her heart only to Eun-joong?

In fact, I think Sang-yeon was not honest with Eun-joong either. I sometimes think that the only person Sang-yeon could be completely honest with was Eun-joong's mother (Jang Hye-jin). Whether it was love from Sang-yeon's brother Cheon Sang-hak (Kim Jae-won) or love from Sang-yeon's mother Yoon Hyun-sook (Seo Jeong-yeon), I think Sang-yeon was unable to accept love. However, I feel that Eun-joong was the person who could guide Sang-yeon even a little. In her 30s, Eun-joong says to Sang-yeon, "You will remain a thief until the end" and "Who can fully accept you?" Those words of anger are said because there is no affection behind them. So I think Sang-yeon felt humiliation at that moment, and to refute that, she sought a husband, and only after going through all that did she realize, "Eun-joong was the only one who could guide me, and I missed that." Only then could she ask for forgiveness and request to share her last moments together, right?

Sang-yeon is not an easily understandable character. Because of that, her choices may come off as 'selfish.'

It might sound like I am defending Sang-yeon by playing her, but I have never thought of Sang-yeon as selfish. The reason Sang-yeon acted selfishly was due to the situation and timing; she made choices for herself to survive. I think everyone is selfish to some extent, so I don’t think Sang-yeon’s actions can be simply described as selfish. Therefore, from the moment I received the script, I didn’t find any part of Sang-yeon’s actions hard to understand. I believe 〈You and Everything Else〉 is told from Eun-joong's perspective, and it looks at Sang-yeon from Eun-joong's viewpoint. Every event has its own story. Since it is seen from Eun-joong's perspective, Sang-yeon’s view of Eun-joong could be different. At the end, when Sang-yeon hands over the diary file she wrote to Eun-joong, I think 〈You and Everything Else〉 is the novel that Eun-joong ultimately writes after receiving that file. In a way, it is a story of Sang-yeon influenced by Eun-joong's subjectivity. If 〈You and Everything Else〉 Season 2 comes out, what if it tells the story from Sang-yeon's perspective looking at Eun-joong?

Since the release of 〈You and Everything Else〉, praise for Park Ji-hyun's acting has been pouring in. What do you think about the acclaim for your performance?

As a viewer myself, I feel a lot of interest in such works, and in a situation where I am exposed to stimuli, when I received this script, I had a strong desire to express this work well. Not just me, but the director and the other actors were all of one mind. In terms of acting, I tried hard to express a raw feeling on set, and the director refined that well, and (Kim) Go-eun also accepted it very well. So I am truly grateful for the praise, but I feel that all this praise should actually go to Go-eun or the director. The director covered the parts I couldn’t do well, and Go-eun created a comfortable environment for me to perform.

Actor Park Ji-hyun also portrayed the appearance of a cancer patient facing death. How did you attempt to change your appearance?

As I mentioned, as my breathing deteriorated, I felt that my body and posture also collapsed. And I thought about what the closest feeling to death I could experience in the shortest time would be, and I vaguely tried fasting for about three weeks, during which my body became thin, but my face swelled and turned yellow. So when filming, I thought I needed to make my body thin and my face stiff, so I cried for hours before filming. However, on set, I was an immature actor, and even in scenes where I had to be calm and composed, I couldn’t hold back my tears, and since I filmed my bust scene last, my face was already quite swollen, which made me look even more pained externally.

It must have been emotionally draining to film the scenes in Switzerland.

Since I lacked acting ability, I had to be calm and composed in scenes that were very sad. There were time constraints, and I kept crying. So Go-eun must have had a hard time. Because Go-eun hardly cried. So I felt really sorry. In fact, both of us are young, and experiencing such (death-related) emotions indirectly at such a young age is not easy. After filming, I thought Go-eun must have had a hard time too. But recently, when I talked to Go-eun about the emotions at that time, she said that the role was very difficult for her too. The moment I heard that, I realized that she led me a lot, and even though she didn’t show it on set, I was completely falling apart, crying, and doing whatever I wanted. But Go-eun held it all in. I thought about how if Go-eun had fallen apart with me, it would have been even harder to produce that performance, and every time I hear praise for my acting, I think it’s because of Go-eun’s efforts, not mine.

※ Continued in Part 2