[Dispatch=Reporter Jeong Tae-yun] From the moment she walked into the interview, she was already 'Eun-chae-ni.' Down to the patterned shirt and a hat in a style she'd never worn before.

She appeared wearing the outfit she had on during the script reading. Worn scripts were stacked to one side.

"Chaeni is a character with such conviction that she'd be called the neighborhood delinquent. So I challenged a style I'd never tried before. Today I need to talk about Chaeni's story. I needed help with appearance, so I took it back out."

Actress Park Eun-bin participated in an interview for the Netflix series 'Wonderfuls.' Her first hero project challenge came with different preparations from the start.

◆ Hero Challenge

'Wonderfuls' is a superpower comic adventure. Set at the turn of the century in 1999, it tells the story of neighborhood misfits who accidentally gained superpowers fighting against a villain threatening peace as they struggle to protect the world.

Park Eun-bin took on the role of Eun-chaeni, the official neighborhood delinquent of Haeseong City. Chaeni is the granddaughter of the most successful 'Big Hand Restaurant' in Haeseong City and a girl with a terminal diagnosis. After becoming caught up in an unexpected incident, she suddenly gains the superpower of teleportation.

She reunited with director Yu In-sik, whom she worked with on 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo.' She recalled, "I heard about 'Wonderfuls' during 'Woo Young-woo' filming, and the director said it was like his long-cherished project."

She continued, "The script was really fresh too. It starts with 'I died on such-and-such a date.' Chaeni dies early on, so I had great curiosity about the plot. And the dialogue was so fun," explaining her reason for taking the role.

"I'm grateful that I receive a lot of varied offers. Thanks to that, I think I've shown moves that others might consider challenges. However, the moment I call it a challenge, it could become burdensome. I'm thinking of it as attempting what I've wanted to try."

◆ Haeseong City's Delinquent

Her take on Chaeni was a character full of spite toward the world. Someone with many things she wanted to do, but constrained by her weak heart, unable to do anything. She felt those constraints made Chaeni twisted.

"Because Chaeni's heart is weak, I think she must have believed that if she held back what she wanted to say today, she might not be able to say it tomorrow. She must have lived not hiding her cries against the world, neither externally nor internally. I thought that was how Chaeni lived her life earnestly."

Park Eun-bin expressed Chaeni's free-spirited living as if there were no tomorrow with her entire body. Playful eyes and orange bridge-colored hair with an asymmetrical twin bun hairstyle. She even added a skull pendant.

She said, "Chaeni is a character who receives many pitiful looks in a way that doesn't match her grandmother's status," and added, "I made various suggestions because I wanted to project an untouchable force through appearance."

◆ Superpower Born from Deficiency

The superpowers in 'Wonderfuls' are intriguing. Rather than abilities that fall from the sky, they stem from each character's deficiencies. Chaeni, who was confined within Haeseong City due to her terminal diagnosis, gains the ability to teleport.

Park Eun-bin said, "I never imagined I'd use my body this much," and recalled, "All the characters were soaked in blood, sweat, and tears."

The first thing she did when arriving on set was put on a harness. She revealed, "I realized that a person could actually hang like this all day," and added, "I think I experienced everything that could be done with wires."

"Depending on where you position yourself and where you apply force, the motion changes. We filmed scenes that framed out and moved to different locations months apart. I had to work to maintain that image. It was a project that gave me many new experiences."

The scene she remembers most is the final one. Chaeni climbs onto an airship like a hero and uses her superpower. She said, "In that moment, I really felt like I became Chaeni and became a hero."

"Chaeni became a hero and was given life anew. But I felt various things at once—the fear that the end might come and the heroic side that I could protect the world—and it felt fulfilling. I thanked the director for making me a hero in the end."

◆ Comic → Action → Thriller → Emotion

The genre mixing also draws attention. The rapid transitions from comedy to action, thriller to emotion create a breathless structure. These transitions work organically than expected.

With the murky mood of the millennium as a foundation, Chaeni's straightforward brightness and the spirited element of superpowers strike a balance.

Park Eun-bin said, "If Chaeni goes down, the whole thing could become darker. I had the task of pushing a strong character. "

"Regarding the genre going back and forth, I thought if I didn't lose sincerity and pushed forward, it could improve the overall quality. So I tried not to lose tension."

The back-and-forth banter of the four heroes—Park Eun-bin, Cha Eun-woo (as Oon-jeong), Choi Dae-hoon (as Son Gyeong-hun), and Lim Sung-jae (as Kang Robin)—adds another layer of fun.

Park Eun-bin emphasized, "The set was exactly as it appeared in the behind-the-scenes videos. Because we had actors with great capabilities, our timing worked well without having to force it."

◆ "30 Years as a Debut, My Wish Is…."

'Wonderfuls' is Park Eun-bin's first Netflix series. Within three days of release, it ranked 6th on the Global TOP 10 Non-English Shows and claimed the top spot on the domestic TOP 10 Series.

Park Eun-bin said, "I did my first OTT project with 'Hypernife.' Back then episodes were released two per week, but this time with the full release at once, I feel strange," and revealed.

She laughed and said, "Usually round interviews are a time to reminisce about a character and send them off properly. But since this is my first full release, I'm not ready to say goodbye yet and I'm not sure when I should part with her."

"If I add a personal thought, I think the lifespan ends when there's no longer even one fan waiting for me, one viewer who wants to see me. Now that we've started, I hope the character is remembered for a long time until it reaches the last person."

Already 30 years since debut. She presents a drama every year without break. Regarding the descriptor "drama queen," she said, "I can't guarantee box office success, but I'm doing my best. I'm trying to endure with as much composure as possible without being weighed down by burden."

"It feels distant that 30 years have passed. If I were to call it my pride, it's that I showed one work per year without fail. With the precious time viewers give for their leisure, I want to be an actress who naturally convinces them that such a character exists and naturally conveys what I want to say through that character."

Meanwhile, Park Eun-bin is set to return on July 18 with tvN's new Saturday drama 'Eerie Romance.'

<Photo provided by Netflix>