INTERVIEW Jeon Do-yeon wants to share loveliness of her character in 'Crash Course in Love'

Actress Jeon Do-yeon plays the character of a single mom in the tvN's rom-com series “Crash Course in Romance." Courtesy of tvN

By Lee Gyu-lee

Known for her versatile acting career, Jeon Do-yeon has taken on roles in heavy, dark genre series, like a devastated widow in the emotional drama film “Secret Sunshine” which won her best actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Actress Jeon Do-yeon / Courtesy of Management Soop

For the first time in 18 years, the actress picked up a lighthearted, romantic comedy series, playing a lovely, over-enthusiastic single mom in tvN's recent series “Crash Course in Romance."

The series centers on a small food shop owner, Nam Haeng-sun (Jeon). After giving up her career as a national handball player to raise her daughter, she has been making ends meet by selling side dishes to support her high school daughter and autistic brother.

One day, her daughter asks Nam to get her into a private math prep class run by a celebrity math instructor, Choi Chi-yeol (Jung Kyung-ho). Nam steps into the cutthroat world of private education for high schoolers, while getting romantically involved with the teacher. The series wrapped up on Sunday with its highest viewership rating of 17 percent.

Jeon said she was hesitant to take the role at first as she found the character to be too high-spirited.

“I wasn't sure if I could keep up with Haeng-sun's energy. I felt that there's a difference in what I want to do and what I can do, so I turned it down at first,” the actress said during an interview with The Korea Times, held at a cafe in Mapo District, Monday.

“And then I met with the writer (Yang Hee-seung). She told me that although this is a fantasy story, she wanted the character to be realistic and that's how she sees me so she wants me to play the character, which convinced me to join.”

A scene from the tvN series “Crash Course in Romance." Courtesy of tvN

The actress shared that she was worried Nam's over-enthusiastic, sometimes nosy, character might come off as too strong to the viewers, adding she wanted viewers to root for the character just as she did.

“I was concerned if Haeng-sun will be seen as annoying. But I wanted to root for this character. She gave up the life she wanted and lives for her family. She's taking the responsibility for her choice. I wanted to support how she lives her life positively,” she said. “She can be nosy and seem annoying because she acts without explanation, but I wanted people to relate to and support her by seeing how hard she's doing it.”

She added that she reshaped the tough, high-energy character to be more feminine and lovely to fit her own tone.

“Haeng-sun the writer created was a lot more strong-minded. And I felt overwhelmed to play a character that has a completely different personality … so it changed to a more lovely character,” she said. “I'm actually a bright, funny person like Haeng-sun. Since I've played such dark roles for a long time, many see me as that person. But with this role, it was different so my friends would say this is the Jeon Do-yeon that I know, and now other people got to see that side of me.”