[Interview] 'Ms. Incognito' Jeon Yeo-bin “In the end, Yeong-ran is the most…”①

Actress Jeon Yeo-bin spent more time revealing the struggles and hidden efforts of her fellow actors than conveying her acting philosophy during the hour-long interview. She was a thoughtful person who tried to find strengths and lessons from her fellow actors, and this nature of Jeon Yeo-bin led to discovering the goodness of Kim Young-ran, who had been marginalized in society since coming out of a juvenile detention center for theft, or even long before that. More than anyone, Jeon Yeo-bin deeply understood Yeong-ran in the drama and supported her until the end. I met actress Jeon Yeo-bin to hear about the work and the character Kim Young-ran.

I've heard that the decisive reason for choosing Ms. Incognito was the logline of the work. You chose it because of the phrase, 'No matter what others point at you, you deserve to be happy as you are.' What kind of emotional turmoil did that phrase give you at the time that led to your choice of the work?​

The idea that anyone born into this world deserves to be happy regardless of what kind of evaluation they receive from others felt like a great comfort. I think everyone has some deficiency. In Natsume Sōseki's book I Am a Cat, there is a sentence that says, “Even those who seem carefree have a sad sound somewhere deep in their hearts.” I think that’s true. There is no one in this world without a story, and I believe no one is without their own deficiencies. The logline describing the drama was something I wanted to hear, and it felt like a comfort needed by everyone.

​I imagine it must not have been easy to play the character Kim Young-ran. You have to do emotional acting, but you also have to do action and comedy. I think you must have had a lot of worries during the preparation process. How did you create the character?​

When I received the script, the most difficult part was that the tone and manner of the people from Seoul and the people from Mu-chang were very different. One side is too cold, while the other is too warm. But since Yeong-ran is someone who has to go back and forth between the two, I struggled with how to match the tone. At that time, I thought I should be the central axis that could go up and down like a seesaw.

​In episodes 1 and 2, Yeong-ran's drama is most revealed, so it had to be compelling. So I thought I should express a poignant feeling about life. In terms of image, it felt like a stray cat that had been abandoned. The first attempt I could make was external. I lost weight to make my body thinner. The second was an acting attempt. Yeong-ran is, after all, a very desperate person. Since she lives a life very far from the word ordinary, I thought it would be nice if she had a face and tension that didn’t even know what harsh days she was overcoming, even though every day is very harsh for her. But Yeong-ran spoke more with her eyes than with lines. I tried to show her solid side while being swayed by those eyes.

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So, what differentiating points did you have when playing Bu-semi compared to Kim Young-ran?

I thought about what kind of life Yeong-ran might have imagined, living a life very far from ordinary. What would a woman in her 20s or 30s who was loved a lot look like? If Yeong-ran could be reborn, what kind of appearance would she want? I thought about those aspects. Bu-semi's appearance is what Yeong-ran dreamed of, and in fact, it could be the most extraordinary appearance for Yeong-ran. So when I actually became Bu-semi, I acted in a way that looked unnatural. Yeong-ran always wears colorless clothes, clothes with a stretched neck, and clothes that don’t fit her length, but when she became Bu-semi, she wore very nice clothes. But I wanted those clothes to feel very awkward.

​The director said, “This drama is 30% revenge thriller, 30% comedy, and 30% human.” I heard that it seems clear and easy to distinguish by genre, but it must have been very difficult from an acting perspective. How did you balance the tones of each genre?​

From the moment this work came to me, I heard that it was a complex genre of crime, romance, thriller, comedy, and human. Nowadays, we live in an era where shorts are consumed a lot. Twelve episodes may be short for a drama, but compared to shorts, it’s a very long time. So the complex genre was actually attractive to me.

※ Ms. Incognito Jeon Yeo-bin's interview continues in part 2