“Goodbye Earth” Director, “Ahn Eun-jin Is No.1 Pick, Impossible To Remove Yoo Ah-in Completely”

The press conference for Netflix’s new original series “Goodbye Earth” was held at Mondrian Seoul Itaewon in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on April 19th with the attendance of director Kim Jin-min, Ahn Eun-jin, Jeon Sung-woo, and Kim Yoon-hye.

“Goodbye Earth” tells the story of D-200 before an asteroid and the Earth collide and people living in chaos ahead of the apocalypse.

Regarding the drama, director Kim Jin-man explained, “When I received the script, I thought it was such a unique apocalypse project. It made me question how I would live in such a situation”, adding “It’s a drama about people who choose to not run away. There have been many stories about people saving the Earth, but I think those who survive and stay with people around them are true heroes. The story of each character is meaningful, valuable and worthy of respect because it shows the dignity of humans. They may look small, but they are heroes with big hearts”.

In this drama, Ahn Eun-jin appears as middle school teacher Se-kyung. The actress shared, “She becomes delicate with only one thought of protecting the children in her mind. Se-kyung acknowledges the concerns of people around her but she has a mission to protect the kids. She pours her heart into the choice she makes and faces the end of the world together with it”, adding “Seeing children being taken away and witnessing their bodies leaves a trauma to Se-kyung. Although she’s an ordinary person, she feels a great sense of duty. If we were to experience the same event, I believe all of us would make the same choice”.

Director Kim confessed his complete trust in Ahn Eun-jin, saying “As soon as I received the script, I immediately thought of Ahn Eun-jin. It was even before Eun-jin became famous. The producer and Netflix tilted their heads but I already met with the CEO of Eun-jin’s agency and and agreed to work together. Yoo Ah-in and Ahn Eun-jin are in the same agency. At that time, I said, ‘I didn’t come here to talk about Yoo Ah-in. There’s no need to talk about him. Please give me Eun-jin’. She’s my No.1 pick, my first choice”.

Yoo Ah-in, who played researcher Yoon-sang and Se-kyung’s longtime boyfriend in “Goodbye Earth”, was recently indicted without detention on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act, causing the project to go through ups and downs before the premiere was confirmed. Director Kim said, “I kept thinking that they would release it but there was a long period when it was canceled. I received vague responses from Netflix several times. When I had just forgotten about it, they confirmed the drama release and I was so happy to hear that”.

The director, who had to re-edit the drama due to Yoo Ah-in’s drug scandal, said, “The issue arose when I was editing the first three episodes. I thought I would just skip his role at first, but it didn’t go as I wanted. So I told the Netflix producer that I wanted to re-edit the previous episodes. This is a secret but Netflix would not let me touch the episodes after editing them. However, I got an excuse”.

He continued, “I wanted the drama to work well so I edited it. It is true that I tried to minimize his screen time to reduce viewers’ inconvenience. Completely removing him was impossible because his character is closely related to the main story. I hope the viewers won’t feel uncomfortable. However, I want to ask for their understanding that I had no choice but to keep the necessary scenes so as not to interfere with the main story and other actors”.

Lastly, director Kim said, “It’s philosophical but not difficult to watch”.

“Goodbye Earth” will premiere on April 26th.