Jeon Do-yeon: “I’ve Always Doubted Myself... ‘Possible Love’ Gave Me Strength” [Interview]

[Financial News] Actress Jeon Do-yeon had many concerns before she encountered Possible Love. She kept asking herself what roles she should take on in the future and what kind of actor she was. After receiving acclaim for her performance in this film, in which she reunited with director Lee Chang-dong, she came away feeling that she could doubt herself a little less.
Jeon Do-yeon spoke at a café in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, on the 9th. “People may think I’m full of confidence, but in fact I have a lot of self-doubt,” she said. “‘Possible Love’ seems to have given me the strength to feel that I can do whatever I want from now on.”
Possible Love is a film about the meeting of Ho-seok (played by Sul Kyung-gu), a laid-off worker, and his wife Mi-ok, with documentary filmmaker Ye-ji (played by CHO YEO JEONG), who films their lives, and her wealthy husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung). Jeon Do-yeon plays Mi-ok, who struggles to protect her family.

The first thing Jeon Do-yeon related to in Mi-ok was her anxiety. Beneath Mi-ok’s brave way of carrying on while caring for her husband and son lies the fear that she might lose what she holds dear.
“Doesn’t everyone feel a little anxious once they have something they want to protect? I thought other people could relate to that, too,” she explained.
While Ho-seok locks his pain away in silence, Mi-ok endures it in a different way. “I thought Mi-ok’s bright, positive expressions might also have been a way of hiding her wounds, pain or anxiety,” Jeon Do-yeon said.
While portraying the lives of families of laid-off workers, she did not meet people directly affected or look up any additional materials. It wasn’t because she wasn’t interested; rather, she wasn’t sure that hearing about their pain would allow her to fully understand it. The fear she had felt earlier through Birthday, a drama film about the Sewol ferry disaster, also remained with her.



“I was afraid that, whether I acted well or poorly, I might cause them another wound,” she said. “This time, too, the story was inspired by real events, but I thought of them as another couple living in the present and focused on the characters.”
Jeon saw Mi-ok’s decision to agree to Ye-ji’s interview as stemming from the hope that it would help her family. She interpreted Mi-ok as hoping that her husband, whose emotions could erupt at any moment, would open up and get treatment, and that she herself might also want to unburden herself to someone.
“She thought they would become friends and understand one another, but the closer they got, the more she must have felt that they themselves were falling apart and that the things they wanted to protect were being shaken,” Jeon Do-yeon explained.
The beach scene with Sang-woo is the moment when Mi-ok reveals her resolve. When Jeon Do-yeon first read the script, she saw it as Mi-ok’s “revenge.” After filming and watching the movie, she came to understand it as a scene in which Mi-ok resists Sang-woo with her whole body and chooses her own life.
“I thought she was resisting with her free will, evading capture just when she seemed about to be caught, and choosing her family and the love that was possible for her,” she said.

Working again with director Lee Chang-dong after Miryang was more enjoyable than she expected. During Miryang, Jeon Do-yeon had even resented the director, thinking that he knew the right answer but wouldn’t tell her. She was unmarried at the time and filmed while constantly questioning what she should feel and whether the emotions she was experiencing were right.
“I was really hard on myself back then,” she recalled. “I expected this one to be somewhat difficult, too, but the atmosphere on set was better and more enjoyable than I expected. I kept thinking, ‘Is it okay for the director and the actors to be having this much fun?’” That didn’t make the acting any easier.
For example, finding Mi-ok’s costumes and props was no easy task. Director Lee did not like choosing clothes or hairstyles based on a mood board assembled from magazine images. So when Jeon spotted a hairstyle on the street that might suit Mi-ok, she would ask permission to take a photo. She also suggested styles and props she had noticed in everyday life, such as sandals an acquaintance was pleased to have bought cheaply and a bag her manager carried around on set. She used some of her own clothes as well.
The scene she particularly looked forward to was the final one on the wooden platform. Ho-seok and Mi-ok sit side by side on a platform they had planned to use to invite colleagues over for drinks, but had never really put to use. Jeon Do-yeon saw it as “the scene that best reveals the relationship between Ho-seok and Mi-ok.” She thought their relationship would have changed after everything they had gone through. “I think they came to understand more clearly what was possible for them and what they needed to seek out,” she said. “That may be why they sit together on the platform, which had been left like a blank space, and drink soju.”




Possible Love is continuing its Academy Awards campaign alongside the acclaim for the film. “I realize there are many hurdles to clear just to earn a nomination,” Jeon Do-yeon said. “But whether it gets nominated or wins or not, I feel I’ve already gained plenty as an actor, so I’m enjoying the process.”
Her thoughts on releasing films on Netflix have also changed. At first, she felt it was a shame that director Lee’s films would be watched on TV or phone screens. But she discovered a new possibility in the fact that people around the world could easily watch the film.
“When you make a film, don’t you want lots of people to see it? It’s a great advantage that people around the world can easily watch the director’s work,” she said, adding that she hoped this would lead them to seek out and take an interest in his other films as well.
[email protected] Shin Jin-a Reporter