INTERVIEW 'I don't like macho type'

By Oh Young-jin

Actress Oh Yeon-seo captured the zeitgeist of the #MeToo era, when she declared, “I don’t like a macho type.”

“I like someone who is kind and attentive to my needs,” the actress said in a recent interview with four reporters ahead of the release of her latest movie “Cheese in the Trap” last week.

Oh wants to see more women to star in and direct movies that change female stereotypes. “There should be more women’s stories,” she said. “That was why my personal favorite is Takeoff 2.”

The 2016 release was not much of a hit but the storyline was distinctive feminine, when the word means strength. In the film, Oh plays a banned short-track speed skater who tries to make a comeback in the women’s national ice hockey team ― kind of like the American all-woman pro-baseball flick, “A League of their Own.”

That sense of independence made her say that Hong Seol, the main character she plays in “Trap,” was not her type, although she didn’t find it hard to play her. When she was younger (she is 30), she read the eponymous popular webtoon that lasted for seven years from 2010. But for Oh, Hong Seol is too self-conscious.

In Oh’s “Trap,” she is blameless because her appearance in the light-hearted movie is a picture-perfect match with that of the webtoon character and by some obvious accounts helps her beat Kim Go-eun, more of a character actress who played the female protagonist in the tvN television series.

Oh’s apparent feeling of discomfit over familiarity in the “Trap” shone through at least twice during the interview. “I decided to do the movie because next time I would be too old for a role in a campus movie,” she said. Although she didn’t say it, her impatience to beef up her thin filmography ― only five movies to her credit ― may have worked on this as well.

Then, her real character belied herself when she playfully asked, “Do I look too self-determined?” for Hong Seol.

That question captures her conflict with her Hong Seol and Jin Seon-mi the character she played in “A Korean Odyssey,” a 20-part television fantasy drama that recently ended on tvN.

The tvN drama was a modern adaptation of the 16th century Chinese classic, “Journey to the West,” where a monk ― Tang Sanzang ― enters into a truth-seeking journey to India.

As in the novel, Oh’s Sanzang is vulnerable and falls easy prey to evil spirits without Sun. She admitted when asked whether she had a hard time at least midway through the series to nail the role down. She cited there were no references to go back to because her Sanzang is female, pretty, and most of all, not a monk.

But she made a larger confession about the conflict with character when she talked about her moment of epiphany when she played a “Jin” who gets possessed by Ah Sa-nyeo, a spirit-turned-demon, to help the evil head of the black dragon come out of hiding to conquer the world. It was one of the most memorable performances she had in that series. Another is a long kiss scene with Lee Seung-gi, the immortal protagonist Sun.

“It was not as romantic as it looked,” she said with a giggle. “First, there was a crowd of staff on the other side hidden behind the camera.”

Then, she added that she felt sorry for her partner without explaining whether it was her clumsiness or the lack of boldness that ended up in repeated attempts. Did Lee complain? She answered in a way to make it sound no to the original question: that long kiss somehow felt the two emotionally attached.

She said that she easily comes out of the attachment to the roles she plays but her attire ― a white striped blouse under a black coat ― smacks of Sanzang in “Odyssey.”

Then, the shoulder-length jet black hair, framing her geometrically balanced face with a dimple that, when she smiles, reminds one of a pond with ripples from a pebble thrown into it.

What Oh appears to be on the outside leaves little room for doubt ― she is an urbanite. But she is from an old provincial town but came to Seoul with the hope of becoming a star. She had her share of a tough time getting used to the grinding life of the metropolis with the haunting sense of insecurity about ending up as one of many wannabes.

She was almost led to talk about her dark days but danced away from it with her laughter that started at her mouth and ended with transparent sounds. “Hahaha,” she uttered, making one forget the mission of delving more into her private life. What was the question?: What untold difficulties did you face on your way to stardom or was it whether she was so pretty that when she appeared the crowd of boys stepped aside to let her go as if the Red Sea parted under the order of Moses?

“Maybe when I was in elementary school,” she said with the same cheerful laughter. That explains the question that was asked.

Going over the one-hour interview, however, what stood out was not laughter, not pretty face but her remarks ― “I decide what to do and I do what I have decided to do.” Certainly, it explains what the #MeToo really signifies ― self-determination.