[INTERVIEW] Actress Go Ah-sung in 'Radiant Office' gives acting literary spin

Actress Go Ah-sung / Korea Times file photo

By Lee Hyo-won

Korean cinema suffers from a serious shortage of strong female personas, in particular younger 20-somethings without a K-pop pedigree. Since making her big-screen debut with Bong Joon-ho's "The Host," Go Ah-sung has been paving a unique trail as a young actress, breaking into the international scene with the worldwide hit "Snowpiercer" and Netflix series "Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories."

In spite of her stellar film career, however, the screen star, who turns 25 in August, has remained rather unfamiliar to the larger Korean public. This seems to have changed, however, with the actress' small-screen break as the feisty young rookie in the office drama "Radiant Office."

During its run from March through May, countless white-collar workers and young job-seekers in the country have sympathized with Go's character, Eun Ho-won, a desperate young woman who tries to commit suicide over her failure to land a job, and who eventually makes her way into an office _ and through life _ with a feisty spirit.

Go sat down with The Korea Times a few weeks after shooting wrapped on the much-buzzed about TV series and spoke about tackling a happy personality for the first time, how Song Kang-ho and Eddie Redmayne inspire her career and her secret to give acting a literary spin.

"It feels so strange, and quite complex," said Go, giving a radiant smile. She is belatedly getting a flood of ideas, tinged with regret, about how she should have acted in certain scenes."I want to keep this flow of ideas and inspiration going," she says, and "jump into the next project as soon as possible."

The actress says she remains in close contact with the trio of friends from the TV series, affectionately dubbed "Eunjangdo" by fans, formed with Lee Dong-hwi and Lee Ho-won. "I feel so lucky to have met such great friends and actors, and I think we really will remain lifelong friends," she said.

"Radiant Office" marked Go's return to television after 2015's "Heard It Through the Grapevine" (SBS). Though the break was only two years, the actress says she discerns a big change in the industry. The fast-evolving production process for movies and TV dramas, in particular, has become much more apparent as of late.

"Film production has gotten a lot shorter, from about five months before to three months, which is now about the same as TV dramas. I've noticed that crew members can now work more freely by crossing back and forth between the two industries," she said.

The entertainment scene has also seen the digitization of cinema, as movie theaters in Korea now only screen films digitally. "As far as I know, "Snowpiercer" was the last analogue film in Korea. I was really lucky to have seen the end of the analogue film age."

But personally, she remains more inclined toward analogue films: "I find it a bit difficult to adjust to even Blueray. Films shot with standing cameras are OK, but the moving camera shots for action sequences still dizzy me."

An analogue soul, Go also makes sure to spend time with books and other textual media. "I tend to reread books I like," she said. "Movies are about audiovisuals, but actors' first impression of a given piece is through text. Acting is surprisingly close to literature," she said.

One of the reasons this book lover chose Radiant Office was her respect for the writer Jung Hoe-hyun, who made her writing debut through the series by winning an open competition hosted by MBC. "There were so many great lines I was dying to spill out and deliver after reading the script," she said.

Not surprising for a bookworm, a pair of glasses were tattooed onto her left wrist. "There's a foreign publishing company called Santa Monica Books that releases a lot of books on musicians. I've always wanted a tattoo and the company logo caught my eye," she said, recalling the time she got it when she was 21.

Not only did Radiant Office mark Go's return to the small screen, it signified a big shift in genres for the actress who has been largely known for tackling darker characters in dire circumstances.

"Looking back at my past work, I've been part of stories with social issues that spoke for the weak. There's no denying it. My heart seems to go out to those types of stories. While it's probably my personal taste, I think it also seems to reflect how there are an increasing number of stories capturing reality," she said.

This time, however, she wanted to do something "happy" for a change. "The title of the drama itself features the word radiant." But the series, of course, was not entirely happy-go-lucky, and heavily features the woes of today's younger generation. "There is a scene where Do Gi-taek (played by Lee Dong-hwi) says that the monthly rent is 70,000 won more for a home with a window. He points and says "That's 70,000-won sunshine." It's a short line but is full of condensed social messages and is very connotative.

"And my character says 'Be happy just today,' and I try to say that to myself every day. It's not easy," said the actress, especially now that she has free time on her hands.

"I think about the way in which you spend your hiatus. There are a lot of things you notice in everyday life that are easy to miss when you're busy working. Resting allows you to open your horizons a bit. I loved ‘I Daniel Blake,' but if I had seen it while filming it would've been different. Things feel closer when you're at a response," said the actress, who, apart from moviegoing and reading also loves extreme sports such as paragliding.

"I started acting at a young age but I become greedier every time I did a scene in a way that's satisfying. I just love cinema, TV dramas. I love books and music, too, but it's movies that really move me," she said, adding that she'd like to be a radio DJ one day as well. "In any case I'd like to continue studying people and offer something out there."

In the future, Go said she'd like to tackle a role based on a real-life person.

"I think I'll be able to stand at the crossroads between imitation and reinvention," she said, mentioning Eddie Redmayne in "The Danish Girl" as a strong source of inspiration.

"In The Danish Girl, there is a scene in which the protagonist dresses up as a man again in order to fulfill his wife's wish of reliving their old days as a more typically married couple. He is wearing men's clothing but he looked like a woman in every sense.

"(My Snowpiercer/The Host co-star) Song Kang-ho once said that when playing the role of a homeless person, you must know how to capture the essence of a homeless person even after you take away all the stereotypical tributes, such as torn and worn clothing, unkempt hair, body odor, lax attitude," she said, adding, "Acting is no easy deal."

Former Korea Bureau chief of Blounin Artinfo, the writer is the Seoul correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter.