[Dispatch=Yuha Sky Reporter] "What on earth was Lady Jo thinking?" (Son Ye-jin)

She reunites with the man she loved. Instead of saying she missed him, she proposes a strange bet. She suggests he seduce another woman. But when he actually falls in real love, she grows jealous and begins to waver.

Lady Jo is a character difficult to define with a single image. Son Ye-jin repeated the same question. 'Why would this woman say such a thing?', 'Why can't she express her true feelings honestly?'

"I acted like I was doing homework during filming. Every time a script came out, I asked the director, 'What emotion is Lady Jo feeling?' Even now, I don't think I can say I understand it 100%."

Love and jealousy, admiration and inferiority, desire and deficiency… Son Ye-jin accepted that Lady Jo was the very tangling of contradictory emotions.

Dispatch met with Son Ye-jin on the 29th. She shared the homework she undertook to understand the unfamiliar woman she encountered in the Netflix series 'Scandal'—Lady Jo.

◆ The Reason for the Bet

'Scandal' is set in the Joseon era. Lady Jo engages in a dangerous love bet with Jo Won (played by Ji Chang-wook), a playboy. When Hee-yeon (played by Nana), a young widow, becomes entangled, the relationship between the three twists.

Lady Jo reunites with her first love, Jo Won, after a long time. Yet she does not reveal her longing. Instead, she hides her own heart and suggests that he try to take Hee-yeon's heart.

It was an emotion not easily understood. But living sometimes brings words that contradict one's heart. There are moments when one wonders, 'Why did I do that?' Son Ye-jin saw Lady Jo's bet as such a moment.

"If she had expressed her true feelings honestly, it would have been fine. By hiding them, everything began to go wrong. That distortion is where the story begins."

She did not define her feelings toward Jo Won simply as love. Jo Won was Lady Jo's literary companion. He was someone she could share her dreams with. At the same time, he was also an object of envy and jealousy.

"I thought, 'Is this love? It doesn't seem to be only love.' There must have been a mix of affection and hatred, and a desire for revenge. Lady Jo's complex emotions felt both appealing and difficult."

◆ Desire Created by the Era

Another key to understanding Lady Jo was the era. Joseon was a society where family and community took precedence over the individual. Especially for women, there were many restrictions.

Lady Jo is a person of many talents. But she had no opportunity to exercise them. She had to live within the frame of a refined noble lady. Son Ye-jin interpreted that this oppression created Lady Jo's deficiency.

"If she had been born in this era, she would have been recognized for her abilities and achieved self-realization splendidly. But in that time, she couldn't express it. Having to hide it, she became distorted, and deficiency arose."

Son Ye-jin could examine Lady Jo's emotions more deeply because of this era. Her perspective on life changed through marriage and raising children.

"If I had been in my 20s or 30s, I would have ultimately only acted through imagination. Now I'm older and experience has accumulated. (laughs) Emotions I couldn't understand before, I'm beginning to understand little by little."

That's why she chose a historical drama again after 24 years. She was drawn to Lady Jo's multi-layered emotions. Son Ye-jin reflected that "being able to think about the lives of women in that era itself was fun."

◆ "I Wanted to Be Hee-yeon"

Lady Jo confesses to Hee-yeon, "I wanted to be An Hee-yeon too." It is the moment when a character who had hidden her inner self throughout her life finally reveals her heart.

Hee-yeon is a character who possesses what Lady Jo does not. Though she was trapped within the confines of chastity, after knowing love, she changes. She acknowledges her own emotions and chooses the direction of her life on her own.

Lady Jo could not do so. She knew her own desires better than anyone. But in the end, she could not escape the world that surrounded her. Son Ye-jin read admiration in the emotions directed at Hee-yeon.

"I envied Hee-yeon's honesty: 'I want to live a short life in the arms of the person I love.' It's a courage that Lady Jo doesn't have. There must have been regret—'What if I had lived that way too?'"

She also discovered Lady Jo's sincerity in the ending. Lady Jo ends up alone. Her always composed face also crumbles. Son Ye-jin accepted that moment as Lady Jo's most honest face.

"It felt like a person who was always hiding her heart finally revealed her true self. The letter was the same. It was the first moment she opened her heart with honesty."

◆ A New Face

Reactions to 'Scandal' were mixed. Criticism followed that it failed to capture the tense suspense of the original film. Due to the dragging pacing, the emotional arcs of the characters also failed to gain sufficient persuasiveness.

Son Ye-jin anticipated the mixed response. She pointed out that "nowadays people are accustomed to stimulating and fast-paced stories," and "'Scandal' series has a slow pace. The newly added direction could feel unfamiliar," she noted.

Nevertheless, she has no regrets about the challenge. Son Ye-jin departed from familiar romance and played a character entangled in desire and deficiency. She has also broadened the range of characters she can portray in the future.

"I've always wanted to try diverse roles. Now I'm trying not to draw boundaries around roles. There are still faces I haven't shown. I think there will be fun in unveiling those appearances one by one."

The significance of a work sometimes becomes clear only as time passes. 'Scandal' is that for Son Ye-jin. She said, "If I do another historical drama in the future, I wonder if this work might become the starting point for that."

<Photos provided by Netflix>