Choi Soo-young, Jeon Hye-jin to show feel-good comedy in 'Not Others'

From left, actors Park Sung-Hoon, Choi Soo-young, Jeon Hye-jin and Ahn Jae-wook pose during the press conference for the new comedy series, "Not Others,” held at Stanford Hotel in Mapo District, Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of KT Studio Genie

By Lee Gyu-lee

Actress Jeon Hye-jin and singer-actor Choi Soo-young portray a special mother-daughter bond in the new comedy series "Not Others,” which premiered on Monday.

The new ENA series, based on the webcomic of the same name, follows a single mother, Eun-mi (Jeon), and her grownup daughter, Jin-hee (Choi), exploring romance and life. Eun-mi had her daughter when she was a teen, and raised her now-29-year-old daughter by herself while working as a physiotherapist. She is bubbly and straightforward, keeping a friend-like relationship with her daughter.

Jin-hee is a cool-headed police officer who leads a patrol team at a local precinct. Although she bickers over everything with her mom, she is the more responsible of the two and looks after her.

Choi expressed that working with Jeon has been a dream come true.

“Anyone who knows me would know that I've been a fan of Jeon for a long time. I've imagined working with her as a colleague or sisters but I didn't think we would be playing mother-daughter,” the actress said during the press conference for the series, held at Stanford Hotel in Mapo District, Seoul, Monday.

“I've been wanting to do a story about family or a mother and daughter. So this series and opportunity to work with Jeon came to be like a beautiful gift.”

A scene from the series, "Not Others" / Courtesy of KT Studio Genie

She described her character as a responsible daughter who faces a crisis in her relationship with her mother.

“Jin-hee always looks after her troublemaking mother. As she is about to become 30, she is going through delayed puberty from her role as a daughter and the relationship with her mother,” she said. “When I read the script for this series, I thought it was refreshing how the story unfolded.”

Working with the actor she admires, Choi said she tried her best to get close to Jeon quickly to get in character.

“We are playing mother and daughter anyways so I thought it would be best for me to just get close to her and not see her as difficult. We would go grab drinks a few times,” she said.

Jeon expressed she also felt close to Choi instantly. “When I heard Choi from the girl group Girls' Generation will play the daughter, I was curious. At our first table reading, I saw how good she was,” she said.

“I felt like we have already been close for a long time. Choi was Jin-hee from the start to the end.”

The series is led by director Lee Min-woo, whose previous works include the 2016 romance series "Cinderella and the Four Knights," and is written by scriptwriter Min Sun-ae.

The director shared that the series presents a funny, relatable story.

“'Not Others' doesn't have dynamic characters or big stories. But I wanted it to be an easy-to-watch, relatable series that has ordinary people like our next-door neighbor and our family.”