| Kim Se-jeong played the role of Shin Ha-ri in the SBS' rom-com series “Business Proposal.” Courtesy of Jellyfish Entertainment |
Singer-turned-actress takes stab at rom-com genre
By Lee Gyu-lee
Kim Se-jeong, who rose to stardom as a member of K-pop girl group I.O.I after competing in Mnet's hit audition show “Produce 101,” has taken her first step in a romantic comedy with the recent SBS series “Business Proposal.”
“My emotions toward the series' wrapping up is 'relief.' We went through a lot, from the pre-production to its production … with the coronavirus and such,” she said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. “Going through plenty of issues, we finally came to an end on a pleasant note.”
Based on the popular webcomic, “The Office Blind Date,” the rom-com series follows a woman named Shin Ha-ri (Kim) who goes on a blind date on behalf of her best friend and meets her CEO Kang Tae-moo (Ahn Hyo-seop). Faced with the unexpected encounter, she juggles the dates with her boss while trying to hide the fact that she works for him in order to keep her job.
The 12-part series ended on April 5 with an 11.4 percent viewership rating. It also garnered popularity on Netflix, topping the platform's top 10 weekly charts for non-English TV shows for three consecutive weeks since last month.
| A scene from the series “Business Proposal” / Courtesy of SBS |
The actress, who previously played a brazen teenager in “School 2017” and a tough demon hunter in “The Uncanny Counter,” said she took the role of Ha-ri because she wanted to accept the challenge of playing a different type of character.
“It started out simple, like I want to take a stab at rom-com. I'd been playing tough, high-spirited characters so my previous work genres were usually drama and emotional, which I liked. But I felt the need to take a challenge with different stories. I wanted to show a different side,” she said.
Ha-ri makes up a different persona as she goes on a blind date, using the alias, Shin Geum-hee. Kim said she liked how she had a lot to show through the character of Ha-ri.
“There are different images to the character, which I thought was appealing. I liked how this is a rom-com series yet there are so many aspects I could portray with the character and decided to take the role,” she said. “But that was the part that made this character difficult … the more I read the script, the more complicated it felt.”
The actress shared that she put in a lot of effort studying her character and how she can portray Ha-ri in different situations, from trying to ruin the blind date for her friend to struggling to stay under the radar at work from Tae-moo.
| “Business Proposal” ended with an 11.4 percent viewership rating last week. Courtesy of SBS |
“There's a portrayal of Geum-hee and also of Ha-ri. So I knew it wouldn't be easy. I had to set the tone (for each portrayal) and needed to spend a lot of time studying the character. But without that process, I couldn't have made this character,” she said.
Despite the series being based on the webcomic, Kim added that she tried to avoid studying the character from the original work so as to create her version of the character.
“I felt like I wouldn't have a chance to create my own character if I read the original work and see how she is portrayed in it,” she said. “But I did need to grasp why the original piece became a hit. I felt I needed to carry a sense of responsibility to keep the elements that made its fans like the original work.”
The series has made a buzz with its comical scenes and cute romantic stories of the two leads and supporting characters, despite the cliche-ridden Cinderella plot.
| A scene from the series “Business Proposal” / Courtesy of SBS |
Kim expressed that she knew that the series will draw popularity from global audiences. “What I was more worried about was whether the Korean viewers will like the series. The reason K-romance is popular abroad is that it follows everyday life. Rather than involving some big, dynamic plots, Korean rom-com stories revolve around small, daily parts of our lives,” she said.
“And 'Business Proposal' did a good job in capturing those stories so I knew that the global audience will respond to the series. And I hoped the Korean audience will feel the same way and I'm grateful that we got such great responses from both locals and people abroad.”
She added that her great chemistry with her counterpart, Ahn, contributed to the quality of the series.
“Our romance chemistry worked really well. A lot of the romantic scenes that made a buzz were improvised on the set,” she said. “He's very considerate so we would work out the scenes that either of us felt uncomfortable with. We were able to come up with such lovely scenes by sharing our opinions.”
Referring to the series as her “spring,” she said this work has marked the end of her 20s.
“This work set the start of my last years of my 20s,” she said. “So after I get into my 30s and get older into 50s when I think of my 20s, I feel 'Business Proposal' will be the first thing that will come to my mind.”