[SBS Star] Ahn Hee Yeon Says She Dodged NewJeans-Bullet by Dropping Name 'HANI'

Singer/actor Ahn Hee Yeon unwrapped an episode regarding the use of her stage name 'HANI'.

On April 13, Ahn Hee Yeon spoke with the press over the finale of Disney+'s series 'Call It Love' in which she starred in.

'Call It Love' is a love story of 'Shim Woo-joo' (actress Lee Sung Kyoung) and 'Han Dong-jin' (actor Kim Youngkwang). They were enemies at first but gradually falls in love with each other.

'Kang Min-yeong', portrayed by Ahn Hee Yeon, is the ex-lover of 'Han Dong-jin' who wishes to reclaim his love.

She showed complete submergence in the role, perfectly displaying the ever-sympathetic situation of mourning over the bygone love.  

Not only she have performed brilliantly, but she also performed with depth.

She again confirmed herself as actress Ahn Hee Yeon with a detailed portrayal of emotions.
However, Ahn Hee Yeon is not the only name the actress possesses.

She goes by two names: Ahn Hee Yeon, the actor, and HANI of K-pop girl group EXID.

When she is acting, she goes as Ahn Hee Yeon, her real name, and HANI when she is performing as an EXID member.

In a similar case, another well-known singer/actor IU divided her name when she began her acting career. She recently announced that she will be using the name IU exclusively from now on.

But according to Ahn Hee Yeon, it is not the case for her.

"The company insisted on using 'Ahn Hee Yeon'. To me, it was like, 'whatever'. I don't see much of a difference between HANI and Ahn Hee Yeon.", she stated.

"I told the agency to do whatever is the best, and they decided to go with my actual name.", the actress detailed the process, and said, "It didn't matter to me but I suppose it did to the agency. Maybe separating the name is necessary for advertisement. So whenever I am acting, I go by Ahn Hee Yeon in news articles.", giving her insight.

However, according to her words, it eventually did matter to Ahn Hee Yeon.

"Looking back, the agency was right. It's like they had foresight.", she commented.

In July of 2022, the five-member girl group NewJeans made their debut and immediately dominated the charts not just in Korea, but all across the world.

It was a close call for Ahn Hee Yeon since one of the NewJeans members is HANNI. Spelled differently but still, close enough.

Had she continued to use the name 'HANI', it would have been a problem.

Since now she is performing less as EXID's HANI, the name has changed hands.

When the name is searched on the web, the results are dominated by NewJeans HANNI.

"There is HANNI in the group NewJeans. It could have been a marketing disaster.", she laughingly added.

"As a result, I am thankful for the company's decision to make me Ahn Hee Yeon."
(Credit= 'Disney Plus Korea' YouTube, 'ahnanihh' 'newjeans__official' Instagram)
 
(SBS Star)