Actor Shin Ye-eun | Provided by Npio
Actor Shin Ye-eun spent all of her twenties running toward the characters she wanted to play. Starting with Do Hana, the school-uniform girl in the web drama ‘A-Teen’, to Ok Chan-mi in Disney+ ‘Revenge of Others’, where she began to reveal a fierce image, and even the young Park Yeon-jin in her breakout Netflix ‘The Glory’, every one of them were people Shin Ye-eun wanted to resemble or capture as an actor.
It was no different afterward. The plucky Yoon Dan-oh in ‘Flower Scholar Love Story’, Heo Young-seo in ‘Jeongnyeon’, whose arc moved from jealousy to solidarity, the prickly Seo Jong-hee in ‘A Hundred Memories’, and Choi Eun in ‘Turbid Stream’, noted for her grit. Shin Ye-eun sought in her roles what she did not have herself. Yet the label ‘sunshine heroine’ has now come to follow her. In ‘Doctor Seomboy’, Yook Ha-ri is, as she puts it, “a character about 90% like me.”
Drama ‘Doctor Seomboy’ | Provided by ENA
“Yook Ha-ri is a character about 90% like me”
From villains to rom-coms…an acting spectrum that filled her twenties
“While playing Ha-ri, what I discovered is that she doesn’t wear a mask. If she has a feeling, it shows right on her face. In that way she’s similar to me, so it felt a bit comfortable. Even with sad emotions, you can portray them heavily, but you can also toss them off lightly…. Her storyline with her grandmother also had many similarities to mine, so I think I was able to immerse myself.”
In ENA’s drama ‘Doctor Seomboy’, which wrapped on the 7th, Shin Ye-eun plays Yook Ha-ri, a nurse at the public health clinic on the story’s setting of Pyeondong Island. She has come from a large mainland hospital carrying an untold secret, but with a sunshine-like demeanor she wins over the islanders and captures the heart of the male lead Do Ji-ui (Lee Jae-wook), who bears a trauma tied to the island.
Drama ‘Doctor Seomboy’ | Provided by ENA
“No 100% satisfaction”An endless thirst for diverse genres
An actor who keeps seeking another self through another role
“I’ve liked director Lee Myung-woo’s works. Things like ‘The Fiery Priest’ or his recent ‘Boyhood’. There are so many fun scenes that I met him hoping to do scenes like that. Honestly, I thought he would be strong and tough, but he turned out to be delicate and sentimental. Especially since Ha-ri had many sad scenes from the mid-point on, it really gave me strength that he would cry and laugh with me on set.”
As mentioned, Shin Ye-eun had mostly lived other lives in period pieces or historical dramas, so ‘Doctor Seomboy’, which tells the story of contemporary twenty-somethings, was a project where she could reveal herself fully. Of course, though she chose a modern drama to avoid the strain of far-flung location shoots, it still meant the arduous journey of traveling yet again to Gajodo in Geoje City, but the healing power of the island and sea made her forget the hardship.
Drama ‘Doctor Seomboy’ | Provided by ENA
“I used to be a bit afraid of water. When I did ‘Jeongnyeon’, there was a rescue scene in water, so I took swimming lessons, and after getting comfortable with water then, filming at sea felt even more familiar. I also don’t have issues with bugs or acrophobia, which helped in portraying Ha-ri’s childlike innocence. And above all, the contributions of the actors I worked with were huge.”
An introvert, Shin Ye-eun received help from the extroverted Lee Jae-wook. Because Lee completed filming and enlisted before the broadcast, she expressed regret that it was hard for the cast to gather together. Hong Min-ki, who plays Hyun Chi-yeoncynical in the show but actually cuteJoo In-young, who felt like a real older sister as Hwang Shin-hye, Gil Hae-yeon as grandmother Oh Mi-ja, and Lee Won-jung, whom she met again as ex-boyfriend Jo Dong-seop after ‘A Hundred Memories’, there were also joys in these various connections.
“I heard ‘you’re cute’ a lot…(she blushes). I was very shy, but when people around me kept saying I was cute and pretty, some of that did come out. I deliberately pretended not to hear those comments, though. (Laughs) I think the label ‘sunshine heroine’ was very much thanks to the writer and the director. On set they joked around and created a relaxed atmosphere, which naturally allowed what’s inside me to come out.”
Whenever she takes on a role, Shin Ye-eun insists on and strives for completeness, and eight years into her acting career that has made her presence irreplaceable. Thanks to the lovable image she’s shown recently on variety shows, in private settings, and in her acting, Park Yeon-jin’s fishy smirk from her breakout ‘The Glory’ is barely remembered now. But she still harbors a desire to challenge herself with such villains again.
“This time I did a romantic comedy and played someone like me, but I don’t think there’s 100% satisfaction. I want to do a similar genre again, and I’ve gotten hungry for genre pieces, too. I even want to try wearing a school uniform again. Going forward, as I have until now, I think I’ll keep moving back and forth among diverse genres.”
After finishing ‘Doctor Seomboy’ in February, Shin Ye-eun has been traveling and replenishing herself while choosing her next project for the second half of the year, one that will make her heart race. In the meantime, the experience of a work that approached viewers with her unadulterated self has become another asset. If anyone thinks there are no standout actors in their twenties, especially actresses, this is precisely the Shin Ye-eun they should see now.
