Actor Jeon Do-yeon has expressed her deep trust and respect for Director Lee Chang-dong, with whom she is reuniting in a project 20 years after the film 'Secret Sunshine' (2007).
Attending the press conference for the movie 'Love That Could Be' held at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery on the morning of the 25th, Jeon spoke about her second collaboration with Director Lee, saying, "So much time has passed, but it didn't feel that way. It felt like just yesterday." The two previously worked together on the 2006 film 'Secret Sunshine', through which Jeon became the first South Korean actor to win Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
Describing her character—the wife of a dismissed worker—Jeon said, "She wants to enjoy peaceful times, but an incident occurs. Because of that event, she lives like a time bomb, never knowing when the anger inside her husband's heart might explode." She added, "At the same time, she is a character who never lets go of the thread of hope; she looks fragile, but is resilient."
She also touched upon her approach to preparing for a film by Director Lee. "When working on the director's projects, rather than doing a specific kind of preparation, how open-minded you are is what matters most," Jeon said. "Knowing that he wouldn't accept a fabricated character that isn't genuine, my mindset was to keep my heart and thoughts as open as possible."
Regarding her acting chemistry with Sol Kyung-gu—whom she is meeting for the third time following 'I Wish I Had a Wife' and 'Birthday'—she hinted, "Having known each other for a long time and sharing deep trust and faith, I think we will naturally create genuine married-couple chemistry."
Sol Kyung-gu, who plays a dismissed worker in the film, described his character by saying, "As a dismissed worker, he carries guilt, anger, and shame. He is someone enduring day-to-day life with various emotions." He added, "Rather than preparing through acting, it was a set where I needed to empty myself. All I had to do was step into the reality of the story on set."
Sol has now worked with Director Lee on a total of three films, including 'Peppermint Candy', 'Oasis', and 'Love That Could Be'. Mentioning 'Peppermint Candy', which served as his breakout and signature work, he shared, "I wondered if the mindset I had back then was good, and I wanted to return to that initial mindset. Part of it was intentional, but I found myself trying to listen closely and return to how I felt at the very beginning."
'Love That Could Be' tells the story of two couples—a dismissed worker and his wife, alongside a documentary director and her husband—who meet to produce a documentary and confront each other's different lives and hidden desires. The film stars Jeon Do-yeon, Sol Kyung-gu, Jo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong.
Director Lee Chang-dong's first Netflix film, 'Love That Could Be', will premiere in local theaters on September 23 before meeting global viewers on November 6.
(Photo: Baek Seung-철)
(SBS Entertainment News, reported by Kim Ji-hye)
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