Actor Yeom Hye-ran, who plays Kim Guk-hee in the film ‘Mad Dance Office’ by director Cho Hyun-jin. Photo ㈜NK Contents
“Is it a one-top (One-Top) film? No~ it is a two-top (Two-Top) film.”
Actor Yeom Hye-ran debuted on stage in 2000, and the moment she truly came strongly into the public eye was with ‘The Glory’ on Netflix in 2022. When she played Kang Hyun-nam, ‘cheerful even while beaten,’ more than 22 years had passed since her debut. Always working behind others, able to let her acting explode in short spans, she was called a ‘scene-stealer.’
But in director Cho Hyun-jin’s film ‘Mad Dance Office,’ which opened on the 4th, she is the lead. Moreover, it is a ‘one-top lead’ that everyone on set, from the director to all the staff and actors, focused on. She herself describes it as a ‘two-top’ with her junior Choi Sung-eun, who plays Kim Yeon-gyeong, but those who watch can sense the presence of Yeom Hye-ran leading the entire film. Yet she still finds all of this awkward.
Actor Yeom Hye-ran, who plays Kim Guk-hee in the film ‘Mad Dance Office’ by director Cho Hyun-jin. Photo ㈜NK Contents
“At the preview, I even stepped up to watch for no real reason. I was so nervous I wanted to hide behind my seat. I was curious how people saw it, and I even hoped they would look kindly on any small mistakes. Because it was a small-scale film, the time was short, and I often wished we had just one or two more days. While shooting, the monsoon also gave us a hard time with the schedule.”
‘Mad Dance Office’ tells the story of Kim Guk-hee, a ‘leader’ and a ‘mother’ who was racing down the road of success as the head of planning at a district office yet, because of her straight-ahead nature, did not realize she was making others struggle. She hits a turning point in life and, through flamenco, which appears like a gift as a conduit for passion, is reborn a little as someone else. For Yeom Hye-ran, the experience of seeing herself in nearly every scene was intriguing.
A scene featuring actor Yeom Hye-ran in the film ‘Mad Dance Office’ by director Cho Hyun-jin. Photo ㈜D Station
“Please, I thought, do not let this work make future lead roles stop coming in. (Laughs) As a supporting actor, there are things you can avoid. There are moments when you think ‘this much will do,’ but a lead has no hole you can slip through. As a lead, there were certainly many devices that helped, but in the position of steering the work there was also much to shoulder. When I was supporting, I felt regret if my scene was cut, but as the lead, although it is a pity, I found myself thinking, ‘it could have been left out.’”
‘Mad Dance Office’ was the kind of film Yeom Hye-ran likes. It was a women’s narrative, and it was good that the woman was a normal person rather than the villain or the victim in a genre piece. She liked the growth arc that dance films carry. She also liked that it was presented with a light, comedic touch. The first film that came to mind was the 1996 work ‘Shall We Dance’ by Masayuki Suo.
A scene featuring actor Yeom Hye-ran in the film ‘Mad Dance Office’ by director Cho Hyun-jin. Photo ㈜D Station
“As for the art of flamenco, I thought it only had dance. But it also has singing and playing. When I first went to the teacher and saw the stamping, there was a force that felt as if the ground would collapse. And beyond simple boldness, it was a boldness that holds rage and han, so I thought it could match the theme. I learned it with great difficulty, but the director also learned this dance. So I took it on with confidence.”
The burden of being a one-top lead was overcome together with the supporting cast, including Woo Mi-hwa, who plays a gypsy woman and had been with her since her Yeonwoo Stage days, and Park Ho-san as a rival. As it happened, through director Jung Ji-young’s film ‘My Name Is’ she was also learning Korean dance, so for the past few years Yeom Hye-ran’s days were dance and more dance. She is not strict with others or with herself like Kim Guk-hee in the story, but she approached it with her own acting, drawing the character out of herself.
A scene featuring actor Yeom Hye-ran in the film ‘Mad Dance Office’ by director Cho Hyun-jin. Photo ㈜D Station
“Whatever person I act, I end up asking, ‘Why did I think of them as someone different from me?’ I always seem to regret not getting closer, wondering whether there were not parts similar to me. This time there are also feelings as a mother. In the scene where I write a letter to my onscreen daughter Haeri (Arin), when only my legs were being filmed, I actually wrote a letter to my real daughter. As a mother and as an actor, it was a work from which I learned.”
After releasing the film ‘Citizen Deok-hee’ in 2024 and shooting ‘84 Square Meters,’ Yeom Hye-ran then devoted herself to works such as Park Chan-wook’s ‘It Cannot Be Helped’ and Jung Ji-young’s ‘My Name Is.’ She laughed that, as these works did well and took her around overseas events such as the Berlin and Venice film festivals, she caught a ‘film-festival high.’ Because she started in theater, there were times she did not feel like a ‘film person,’ but she is gradually becoming naturally immersed across multiple media. Her acting craft shows all the more for it.
Actor Yeom Hye-ran, who plays Kim Guk-hee in the film ‘Mad Dance Office’ by director Cho Hyun-jin. Photo ㈜NK Contents
“In the past, if the need for a financial base for acting was great, now I think this is a time when it is hard to remain pure to desire. I want to focus only on acting and not think about the financial side, but as I slowly grow older, I think I may not remain pure to desire. As with taking the lead now, I want to gain even more experience by acting with many good directors. If one were to call something Yeom Hye-ran’s ‘heyday,’ only after it all passes and we look back will we be able to know when that is.”
