Gong Hyo Jin Talks about Her Play "Educating Rita" and Reveals Her Philosophy for Choosing Roles

High Cut revealed new photos of Gong Hyo Jin for their January pictorial. In the photos, Gong Hyo Jin is in two contrasting looks. In the first, she is in a fancy black dress with thick makeup on like an actress. In the second, she is in a simple black dress with minimal design and does not have any makeup on, as if depicting her true self.

Along with the photos, High Cut also revealed a short interview with Gong Hyo Jin, in which she talked about her new play “Educating Rita” and her goals for the New Year.

Regarding the play, she cried, “It’s so weird because every day I make mistakes in different scenes!” and added, “I tell myself to concentrate but I think I do worse every day.” When asked why she chose to perform in a play after 15 years of acting, she replied, “I want to be energized by the audience. I am as empty as anyone can get, and now I want to fill myself up with people’s energy. As I’ve been acting for 15 years, I wanted to show my performance live to an audience, and finish this year a little differently from the others.”

While talking about taking on similar characters in her dramas, she said, “These days, most of the dramas have a love story included. But rather than playing characters that simply find love at first sight, I want to play a character that grows in the drama. Maybe that’s why I take on roles that go through some kinds of hardships.” She added, “Sometimes when I’m reading scenarios, I find characters that have no potential for growth. The character would simply pursue her love and that’s it. A girl that’s a nobody meets a cool guy and lives happily ever after. Instead of that, I want characters that start from the bottom and grow. It needs a clear story of how the character developed.”

More photos of the pictorial are to be revealed online January 7.