Park Jin-hee Talks About Her Role In "The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry"

Mar 05, 2010

Nate News conducted an interview with Park Jin-hee,
the spirited actress currently playing everyone’s favorite single
thirty-something, Lee Shin-young, in MBC’s The
Woman Who Still Wants to Marry. The following is a summary and
translated quotes of her thoughts on the show, her co-stars, and turning
30.

Park Jin-hee Interview

The 33-year old actress debuted back in 1997, with the KBS drama “Start”
and has had a diverse career in film and television. She’s
graduate-school educated, and on top of being smart and beautiful, she’s
got a great personality to boot.

Park is game for a no-holds-barred interview: “When have I not been
honest? Ask me anything.”

She praises the drama’s staff, director, co-stars, and with a laugh,
says that the only thing it doesn’t have going for it is ratings.

When asked about acting with Kim Bum, she answers
with a question, “Does it seem realistic? People should watch Bummie and
me and think it’s for real. That’s my homework.”

The reporter asks if she would date someone that young in real life.
“Hm. Every case is different but I think I could do it. The thing I feel
when I’m with Bummie is that he thinks about a lot of things that I
didn’t at 22. His thoughts are deep; he’s like that. At that age, I just
did what I was told, but he knows how to assert his opinion.”

Park also praises Kim Bum for delving into his role, buying his own
guitars to immerse himself in the Ha Min-jae role.

She lauds PD Kim Min-shik, saying that he’s a sunbae
in real life, not just on set, and that she’d love to work with him on
any future project.

About turning 30: “When I was 20 I thought, ‘If I turn 30 without a
boyfriend or a career, I’ll have to commit suicide.’ But as 30 came
closer, as an actress, I started to live a much more comfortable life.
So from that point on I wanted to turn 30 sooner.”

Why she looked forward to 30: “In my teens and twenties I really
thought one-dimensionally. You could say my scope was narrow. I didn’t
understand things and couldn’t forgive a lot of things. But as I passed
30 I became comfortable.”

Concerning success in relationships: “I don’t know if I’ve succeeded
in dating or not. For now I’m not dating anyone. Honestly, I’m older
now; is there really a need to hide anything? When I was young I wanted
to marry early, so if a good man appears I’ll go for it.”

When asked if she has high standards (for men): “I did before. But
now every time it’s different. Truthfully the problem is I don’t have
the opportunity to meet men. To this day, while acting, I haven’t
experienced romantic feelings toward someone. I’m going to start from
now on. Haha.”

About the couples and characters in TWWSWTM: “Min-jae and Shin-young
are a cute couple, but with a big age difference. Ban-seok and Da-jung
are a comic couple, who are older but very innocent. Sang-mi and
Sang-woo are a more mature couple. If you watch them they are totally
adult. They often do provocative scenes and it’s really something.”

“And it’s not just the three couples. Bu-ki enjoys being single and
if she’s in a relationship that’s fine, and if she isn’t, that’s fine
too. Bu-ki’s character is really cool. She wears what she wants, she
meets any man she wants. She lives that way and I think that’s really
impressive. With Da-jung, Ji-won unni is just such a good actress. That
character, now that she’s found her match, we won’t see her damaged side
anymore.”

About Shin-young’s own damaging moments in the series: “Filming the
early episodes, we got lost in the mountains, my mouth got turned
around, and there were lots of incidents, but they were fun so I didn’t
feel like it was hard work. Kim PD comes from sitcoms so he says that
funny moments should be acted seriously to be even funnier. He believes
that you have to be sincere in order for the moment to play as funny.”

“Really that scene is a tear-inducing moment. Her relationship falls
apart, her news report can’t air, her ex is getting married as she
becomes newly single. Instead of being intentionally funny I filmed that
scene sincerely. Maybe that’s why it ended up being funny.”

About acting with Kim Bum: “The age difference worried me at first.
But now we’re actually comfortable because of that age difference.”

She teases an upcoming kiss scene as “a special kiss involving a
musical instrument.”