“Forecasting Love and Weather” Park Min-young: “I’ve been acting for 15 years, but I still enjoy it”

Just enjoying acting was Park Min-young’s secret to winning the hearts of the public.

JTBC’s Saturday-Sunday drama “Forecasting Love and Weather” is a romantic drama that tells about the work and love life stories of people at the Korea Meteorological Administration, which is hotter than tropical nights and more unpredictable than local heavy rains. In this work, Park Min-young played the role of Jin Ha-kyung, the general forecaster of the 2nd Division of the Korea Meteorological Administration.

The public’s response to “Forecasting Love and Weather” was hot. In particular, Park Min-young‘s unique clean diction, realistic facial expressions and thrilling romance chemistry with Song Kang made headlines throughout the broadcast, helping JTBC overcome its slump.

Regarding the drama’s success, Park Min-young said, “Thankfully, my shoulders have become much heavier. It seems that there is a good effect of the trapezius muscle being lowered. I always think having a lot of burden to carry is a good thing. It means that the sense of responsibility increases, and for me, this feeling is also the driving force to challenge the next project. I’ve already told the actors and staff of my next project, ‘Let’s fight hard and work hard.’ I want to meet a work that can relieve my passion for acting which I still haven’t solved, and I want to set my body on fire. Without this, life would not be fun. I think this is why happiness and joy can be maintained or we can move forward.”

The reason why she decided to star in “Forecasting Love and Weather” was similar. The script was so fun and interesting, and it was based on the Korea Meteorological Administration, which had never been done before. However, there were times when she regretted appearing in the drama because of the more complicated material than expected.

Park Min-young confessed, “I had an indirect experience with the Korea Meteorological Administration through ‘Forecasting Love and Weather’, and it was a work that was physically and mentally difficult as if I had actually worked there. It was the first time a drama was based on the Korea Meteorological Administration, but this work was particularly difficult because I had never even done a 100% pre-produced one. I had a lot of concerns and prepared really hard. It felt like I was doing homework every day. Personally, it was one of the most difficult assignments for me. However, the more difficult the question, the greater the pleasure when you answer it. In that respect, I’m sure that ‘Forecasting Love and Weather’ was a good experience for me.”

The biggest concern Park Min-young had was how to play Jin Ha-kyung. “In particular, it took me a long time to understand about the Meteorological Administration of Korea. I was worried about what I could show here,” she said, explaining, “As it is set in the background of an actual institution, I tried to express the theme as realistic as possible without adding or subtracting anything. As for my character, I interpreted her as the youngest manager to take the elite course, so there must have been a lot of jealousy surrounding her. She may have been born as a cold person, but I thought she had this personality after working here. I tried to get rid of my emotional ups and downs as much as possible and draw this character in a matte way.”

Regarding her pronunciation while acting that drew favorable reviews from viewers, she said, “I tried to imitate tthe actual employees working at the Korea Meteorological Administration,” adding, “The data on the Korea Meteorological Administration was so rare that the only thing I could refer to was a documentary. So I watched it over and over again. I also went on a field trip myself. I’ve heard tried listening to them for a short while, and they use a lot of difficult words, but they use them like everyday terms. I tried to relax as much as I could to portray such a natural vibe. My focus was on understanding such a concept, which is to totally attack when I need to attacking and to defend for sure when I need to defending. Since Ha-kyung had to be portrayed as a person that is like the background color of the Korea Meteorological Administration, she was the most relaxed among all of my roles until now, and my diction while playing her was also the chillest. When I relaxed in my role like that, people around me complimented me a lot.”

However, despite these long concerns and efforts, there was only one thing that Park Min-young couldn’t understand, which is the character Han Ki-joon (Yoon Park), who had an affair with Chae Yu-jin (Yura) just before getting married and broke up the marriage with his longtime lover Ha-kyung. Park Min-young said, “I was always angry with Han Ki-joon throughout our entire performance together. I was angry and didn’t want to see him. Nevertheless, Ki-joon kept coming to Ha-kyung, asking her to write something or eat with him. I couldn’t understand that and got angry. I wish I were as cool as Ha-kyung, but I am a Korean to the bone. If there was a man who did such a bad thing in front of me, I wouldn’t even want to make eye contact with him. Didn’t she even witness the scene of cheating? The biggest difference between me and Ha-kyung is that part. Later, Ki-joon let her listen to the sound of a child’s heart, and I hated that hand. I don’t have the same generosity as Ha-kyung.”

At the same time, she said, “I was able to endure and continue my acting because it was Yoon Park,” adding, “Yoon Park must play the character Han Ki-joon. He is the only one who could pull off that character, and I hated that character less because it was him. He made him into a character that I can understand,” she said. “He’s a really good actor. It was so much fun when we acted together and our chemistry went well. I wanted to meet him in another work in the future”.

After such efforts, Park Min-young succeeded in successfully completing another office genre once again following “Her Private Life” and “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?” She once again succeeded in her acting and continued her record of undefeated office series. However, some criticized her frequent office roles. “I don’t think I do this genre too often, I think I’m just going for anything that fits my age,” he explained, “When I was young, I did a lot of student characters, and in the middle, didn’t I do a lot of historical dramas or youth dramas? I mainly showed my growth before this, but now I have to show what matches with my age, so I do a lot of office series. I don’t know about me of 10 years later. Maybe I will be doing something like “Queen of Housewives”. I think going according to my age is the best way to win viewers’ sympathy,” she said.

Park Min-young also talked about why it was hard to find her in movies. Her only silver screen appearance is “The Cat,” which was released in 2011. She said, “There is no particular reason for me not to appear in movies. I’m always open for more. Instead, I chose those dramas because there was a more attractive character in the drama each time. Personally, I have dreams about works of foreign countries, and I am not picky about genres. I’m an omnivorous. When I meet a character I like, I become greedy, and I am confident that I can do well. I do anything regardless of nationality platform. I think there is still such youth in me,” she replied.

Park Min-young then added, “The easy way is not fun, so I will always show you how I challenge myself,” added, “If that work is fun, there is no fear to me. I’m still the happiest when I act and I want to do more. Of course, I won’t be able to do only good things, but if there is something to challenge at that moment, as it’s what I always crave to do, I’ll accept it with gratitude enough because as much as I try, a more perfect result will be born.”