“Turns out I’m a pretty good person,” Kim Tae-ri got to know what “real love” is 9 years after her debut
Kim Tae-ri, who always looked bright, has passed the dark tunnel without anyone knowing and found her bright light.
Kim Tae-ri had an interview with Wikitree at a cafe in Sogyeok-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, in July when the hot sun was shining.
The first part of “Alienoid” is the story that happens when the door of time opens between the Taoist masters who want to take over the legendary sword at the end of the Goryeo Dynasty and those who chase an alien prisoner imprisoned in human bodies in 2022. Kim Tae-ri played the role of Lee An, a woman who can shoot thunder, and worked with Ryu Jun-yeol, Kim Woo-bin, Kim Eui-sung, Cho Woo-jin, and Yeom Jung-ah.
Kim Tae-ri, who returns to the theater for the first time in a long time through the movie “Alienoid”, said, “Every time the theater disappeared one by one, I felt like my bones were disappearing as well. I even had my own funeral, but now I’m so excited,” she said.
“Alienoid” was produced by dividing the story into two parts. The first part was released on July 20th, and the second part will be released in 2023. When asked if it’s an unnecessary step that makes the movie harder to watch, Kim Tae-ri said, “I think it is extremely necessary.”
“If the movie is made into a drama, I think it’s enough to have six or eight episodes. I think it was an inevitable decision to put all the story in four hours.”
This confidence also had a great influence on her acting. Even Kim Tae-ri, who usually hates the expressions “honor” and “overflowing with luck,” said this work made she easily spit out those words. To Kim Tae-ri who accepted the offer to appear in “Alienoid” after spending time reading the script, this was her joy.
“There’s a reason for everything in this world. I hated the nuance that luck fell from the sky and decided that I got chosen. I didn’t say anything like that during the movie “The Handmaiden”, but there are words that people want to hear. So even though I tried not to use that word, I have used it a few times. I don’t want to use those words anymore, but “Alienoid” was an honor to me. I thought I was full of luck. (laugh)”
“There are only two criteria when I choose a work.” She said, “I don’t want to do anything like ‘I choose this genre or this character’. I check whether it is GOOD or BAD. I don’t have to be too restricted. I choose the best one. I don’t like doing the same thing over and over,” she said. “‘Alienoid’ is the story of a boy and a girl and I was very excited about what would happen.” She also stressed, “I got goosebumps and was happy that the boy’s face was Ryu Jun-yeol and the girl’s face was me.”
Lee An is a character with a complex narrative that transcends time and space. Accordingly, Kim Tae-ri can stack Lee An’s various stories in several layers, but she understood her role as she is in the scenario without thinking complicatedly.
“There’s something I like in director Park Chan-wook’s interview. He said ‘There is no way two emotions are contained in a character at the same time,” and he said that it is good acting to change from one emotion to another quickly. That’s right. It’s impossible to show various layers at once.”
Kim Tae-ri, who challenged various action scenes in “Alienoid,” developed her physical strength through various exercises, including gymnastics and Jeet Kune Do. She also studied how to hold a gun naturally because her role uses one. She thought that she couldn’t do beautiful movements as her hands were small. Kim Tae-ri was such an actress who manages to fill in her deficiencies.
“I have a body that doesn’t look very good. I looks tacky on screen because my body is small, thin, and my body lines are hard. The Goryeo Dynasty costume worn in ‘Alienoid’ covered up that tacky look. The big fabric fluttered and it looked cool. Whether it’s a movie, a drama, a pictorial, or a character, the outfit, props, and hair team are very important. So I ask all of them to think of anything that can be helpful.
The old-fashioned acting Kim Tae-ri mentioned was honesty. She said felt old-fashion when she acted with her unhidden honesty.
“It’s a sophisticated feeling to look like a secretive person, but I try to express what I think as much as possible. You need to be relaxed, but you don’t have time, so it’s exhausting when you do martial arts scene. I only have some free time now. In the past, when I poured a cup of water, I poured it to the point where it overflowed, but not anymore. I only poured about half-half now.”
Ryu Jun-yeol, who who appeared in an interview earlier, said of Kim Tae-ri, “She has changed a lot. She looks very happy.” Regarding this, Kim Tae-ri said that it is true that she has changed a lot since “Twenty-five, Twenty-one.”
“I saw a bright light through the dark tunnel. It’s abstract, right? It’s so complex that I can talk about it all day and night. It’s nothing special. Everyone has experienced that. I used to feel like I was still going down even deeper despite already hitting the bottom and there was no place to go down any further. I’m out of that state now. That time will end as well. The world that I’ve tried so hard to climb up is a different world than before.”
Kim Tae-ri, who debuted in 2014 and made her face known with the movie “The Handmaiden,” was greatly loved for her stable acting skills and unique visuals as son as she debuted. Since then, she has been well-received through her roles in numerous films such as the movies “1987,” “Little Forest,” Netflix “Space Sweepers,” the drama “Mr. Sunshine” and “Twenty-five, Twenty-one,” but she only looks back at her past now.
“Only after “Twenty-five, Twenty-one” that I looked up my previous promotion activities for the first time. I didn’t even watch “Newsroom” when it came out. It was so terrible. [Laughing] If you look at my recent vlog, you’ll feel my freedom. I think I’ve been caring and worried about so many things. I used to refrain myself from talking, but now I shared exactly what I think. I’m not ashamed at all, and I feel confident in everything.”
In particular, the filming process of “Alienoid” was where Kim Tae-ri learned exactly what was giving and receiving love. Her fellow actors and staff constantly expressed their love and interest to her, who did not know her worth accurately.
“In an interview right after ‘Alienoid,’ I once said, ‘Love is the talk of the town.’ I think I learned how to accept love and affection. In the past, I couldn’t handle it properly even if the people I was with loved me so much. I thought “I’m not a person to be loved as much as they think, but they praise me because they don’t know the other side of me,” and I put down their love and didn’t see it properly. But while doing “Alienoid,” I heard a lot of these kinds of things, such as, ‘We like you’, ‘Lee An is so good’, and ‘You don’t know how lucky we are to meet you.’ I’m a person who deserves to be loved. I realized that I’m a pretty good person. (laugh)”
Finally, when Kim Tae-ri, who had been emitting positive energy throughout the interview, was asked for a 1-line review of “Alienoid,” she expressed, “The door of time will open as soon as you sit in the audience.” “In the second part, the actors will change. In addition, Lee Ha-nui’s acting is amazing,” she added, raising expectations.
Kim Tae-ri, who finally found time to relax in her ninth year of debut, still has so much she wants to do. She says she wants to make an actor’s union, and she is very interested in publishing, translating, acting, directing, singing, music, producing, poetry, piano, writing fairy tales, and making people’s dreams come true. This is why people are expecting to see a more relaxed Kim Tae-ri, who communicates with the public in various ways, in her future plans.
Source: wikitree
