Park Eun-bin revealed the reason why she didn’t eat with other “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” actors during the filming process
Park Eun-bin talked about playing Woo Young-woo in a recent wrap-up interview for “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”.
Actress Park Eun-bin played Woo Young-woo, a new attorney who has a genius brain and autism spectrum disorder, in ENA’s Wednesday-Thursday drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” which ended on August 18th. Written by Moon Ji-won of “Innocent Witness” and directed by Yoo In-sik, who made “Dr. Romantic”, “Vagabond”, and “Giant”, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” depicts the journey of autistic attorney Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin) solving various cases and growing into a true attorney.
“Extraordinary Attorney Woo” started with a low viewer rating of 0.9% in the first episode aired on the 29th of last month then increased dramatically to 15% in the 9th episode. Ranking No.1 in the hot topic chart for TV series for seven consecutive weeks, the drama eventually ended with syndrome-level popularity. Park Eun-bin also remained at the top of the popularity ranking for drama casts. Regarding this, Park Eun-bin shared, “I was very confused when the media began to name me together with ‘syndrome-level popularity’. I was neither excited nor amazed by such things that happened to me. I just waited and see people’s reactions as an observer. I don’t know how to describe this feeling”. She added, “From the first time I read the script, I already thought that it would be a good work. Apart from that, I was scared about many things because this role was very difficult to play, but I’m glad that I received much more love from the viewers than I expected.”
Revealing that she decided to appear in the drama after being cast many times, Park Eun-bin said, “I didn’t refuse the casting offer because I was doing better, but I actually didn’t have enough confidence that I could perform well in this work”, adding “I was scared because I had no idea how to portray Woo Young-woo. However, the writer and the director believed me, so I decided to take on the role to repay their trust and challenge myself.”
Since Woo Young-woo is not an easy character, Park Eun-bin is known to have been very worried. The actress said, “I believed that I could play Woo Young-woo defensively if I focused on expressing the symptoms and behaviors that are often seen in an autistic person. I tried to take diverse approaches so that Woo Young-woo could be expressed to the fullest within the worldview of the drama”, adding “I also had a lot of worries about how many expressions I should do. In particular, I had to leave a good impression of Woo Young-woo, who is strange but does not look weird, and it was a very difficult task to change the gaze of the public.”
Park Eun-bin then admitted that she didn’t eat with other actors throughout the filming period and only ate her lunch box in her own car. She explained, “I’m not particularly sensitive to health problems. It was not to the extent that I was reluctant to do activities and was too careful about my health”. She emphasized, “I filmed ‘Do You Like Brahms?’, ‘The King’s Affection’ and ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. I didn’t want to be an actor who causes the filming process to be delayed. Especially, I appeared a lot in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”, so if I couldn’t film, there are not many scenes where they could replace me with others. That’s why I was being much more careful. The production team also kept me away from danger properly with the sense of duty to protect ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’, so I was able to survive through the filming process without getting infected with COVID-19.”
Revealing her effort to play Woo Young-woo, Park Eun-bin said, “I tried to understand Woo Young-woo’s sincerity and deliver it through the screen”. Park Eun-bin, who wrote “Thinking Note” for every work she starred in, also revealed what she wrote in the note for “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”. Park Eun-bin shared, “In the beginning, I wrote why the director and the writer thought of me as Woo Young-woo, and what I think about the characters and the work. There were also stories that I should approach carefully in order to not offend anyone.”
Park Eun-bin also confessed the hardships she faced while trying to remember the lines. She said, “I’m not bad at memorizing lines but I had too many lines to say every day. It was not just about memorizing them and saying them calmly, but I often had to perform fast speeches. If the pronunciation was not good, the feelings would not be conveyed well, so I had to be careful and deliver accurate information”, adding “It was very hard because I don’t have a genius brain like Woo Young-woo. My first homework was to get used to the large number of lines for Woo Young-woo. Memorizing is also a habit, and it took time to be formed. I felt like I was taking an exam every day for 7 months straight”. She continued, “There were many legal texts that were difficult to understand at once, so I thought I was studying for an exam as I wrote them all on A4 papers and tried to memorize them. I practiced this even on my days off”.
Park Eun-bin shared, “I don’t think there’s an answer to acting. So I don’t know the answer to how to perfectly portray Woo Young-woo. I just hope this answer that I showed you is the best one I have. It’s true that I did my best. I was happy to meet good people and felt a sense of accomplishment, but it was actually the most burdensome work for me. I did my best to do well until the end.”
It is known that Woo Young-woo’s outfit was completed after many discussions. Park Eun-bin’s said, “The costumes were made of materials that are not too rough. Its focus was on convenience”, adding “That’s why I wore loose clothes rather than tight-fitted outfits, and I believed skirts would be better than pants. There were more than 100 costumes for Young-woo but they were all made with similar styles. The hairstyle for Young-woo was also completed with opinions from the director, the writer, and me.”
When asked if there was a nickname she wanted to give to Young-woo instead of “Wild Card Woo Young-woo”, Park Eun-bin said, “I like ‘Wild Card Woo Young-woo’. I don’t think it’s a bad name”. Regarding her love line with Lee Joon-ho (Kang Tae-oh), which was created with a harmless intention, Park Eun-bin explained, “Since Joon-ho is a perfect character, I just wanted the two of them to look pretty rather than doubting that there might be a twist”.
Regarding the production of Season 2 that had recently been announced by AStory, Park Eun-bin honestly said, “No official plan has been made. I also heard the news through articles”, adding “As much as the drama is loved, expectations for Season 2 are very high but I don’t think I can confirm anything at this time, considering whether I can show anything beyond that. I think it would be great to keep the image of Young-woo in a treasure box. If you ask me to open the treasure box again, I think I need a much stronger resolution than when I first decided to face Young-woo.”
Park Eun-bin has already been an actress for 27 years. She shared, “I feel so lucky being able to meet a work that could be loved this much even when I’m already over 30″. She added, “I haven’t decided on my next work yet. I haven’t been able to take a good rest since I finished filming so I haven’t reviewed any new work. But I’ll be back with another amazing work”.
Source: daum
