[Dispatch=Reporter Jung Tae-yoon] Kim Hyun-joo completed 80 percent of the film 'Fallen Paradise.' Kim Hyun-joo understood the script from her own perspective, and director Yeon Sang-ho observed it.

Kim Hyun-joo said, "The director said he 'wanted to appreciate how Kim Hyun-joo interprets the text I wrote.' That was exactly right. There were no demands whatsoever."

Ryu So-young, played by Kim Hyun-joo, has subtle dimensions that are difficult to express with ordinary motherhood. That is why the film's twisted perspective comes through more vividly.

Because it is unconventional, there may be mixed reactions. Kim Hyun-joo revealed, "Just like the line 'janggeumi tastes like jujube so it was called jujube,' I also acted as I felt."

Dispatch met with Kim Hyun-joo recently. She spoke about the twisted mother 'Ryu So-young' that she completed.

# Yeon Sang-ho | A Director Who Trusts

'Fallen Paradise' is a low-budget project by director Yeon Sang-ho. Regardless of budget, he chose it because it was a new story. Kim Hyun-joo said, "Because it's a character I've never played before, I decided (to appear) without difficulty."

She continued, "When I take on a new challenge, I see what I lack. I think actors develop and grow by filling that in. And when I do something new, it's fun."

Filming wrapped in 14 takes, approximately one month. Kim Hyun-joo said, "Because it was short, I worked with dense concentration" and "thanks to that, the raw quality of the character seemed to come alive."

She added, "There were also few staff members. Because of that, each person had something they had to do. We could only proceed if each person fulfilled their role. The synergy of each person being absorbed in their work was great."

She worked with director Yeon again following Netflix's 'Hellbound,' 'Jung-E,' and 'Seoshan.' When asked if she had become the director's persona, she drew the line, saying "It just happened that I worked together with him a bit more than others."

Still, she added, "The fact that there is a director who trusts actors is itself a great source of strength," and "If there is no opportunity, you cannot express what you have. I'm grateful that he gave me a sense of challenge and confidence about the parts I doubted about myself."

# Fallen Paradise | Already a Fake Life

'Fallen Paradise' is a psychological thriller. It depicts the story that unfolds when Ryu So-young, a mother who lost her son in a camping school bus disappearance incident nine years ago, miraculously finds her son Ryu Sunwoo (played by Bae Hyun-sung) alive, whom she only knew was dead.

It was not easy acting. Kim Hyun-joo said, "I was greatly interested in Ryu So-young's psychology. I had to carry the psychological changes with density," and "It seems I am mainly drawn to such stories."

After losing her son, Ryu So-young meets Sunwoo through glasses via the AI program 'Children of Paradise.' Then she faces her real son, who has turned evil, for the first time in nine years.

The wavering emotions between her son in AI and her son with an unfamiliar face may be difficult to understand from a typical standpoint. Kim Hyun-joo interpreted that Ryu So-young lived a life like death after losing her son.

She said, "So-young has already become accustomed to Sunwoo, whose face is frozen in childhood, over nine years. I thought she was already living a fake life like AI."

# Ryu So-young | Emptying to Fill

Kim Hyun-joo set up the script in detail for Ryu So-young to immerse herself. She said, "There's a setting where Sunwoo's father is absent. Ryu So-young became addicted and obsessed with the child, and tried to appear to be living a safe and perfect life."

In each scene, Kim Hyun-joo tried to give the feeling that Ryu So-young was not living a real life. The empty eyes meeting the morning, checking on Sunwoo living in the AI world even in the car going to work, and so on.

She said, "These are actually behaviors that would be difficult for a normal person to do. I thought she showed abnormal addiction to her AI son," and "So when the real son returned, I tried to give credibility to the confused face."

Regarding maternal love acting, she said, "There is a cautious aspect. I thought it was something that cannot be imitated," and "This film started from an interpretation of human loss rather than motherhood."

"Fathers develop paternal love even if they don't directly give birth to a child. I wondered if paternal love arises from the accumulation of the continuity of time. (So-young) lost nine years of time. So rather than motherhood, I thought deeply about the emotion of loss."

Perhaps that is why Ryu So-young completed by Kim Hyun-joo is unconventional, yet more painful for it. Because before being a mother, it is the face of someone who has lost something.

Kim Hyun-joo said, "Understanding a character seems to be the most important thing. When those things are the foundation, the emotions in the script naturally come out," and "It's fun to express emotions I've never experienced myself."

# Kim Hyun-joo | Continuing As Now

Kim Hyun-joo is a former high school star. She is already 30 years into her acting career. She has not consistently worked on projects. After completing SBS-TV's 'Land' in 2005, she stopped activities without hesitation and chose to rest.

She said, "I was too full. I was on the verge of bursting. Slump came and acting was no longer fun," and "As I rested and emptied it all out, the desire to fill again naturally arose."

"That's when I learned. I'm someone who needs to empty as much as I write in order to fill. Now I seem to know a healthy way to empty and fill. No matter how dark a role I play, now I leave it all in the car and go home lightly. Now I'm in a stable state to a certain degree."

She does not carry the burden of acting into her personal time. It was a method of survival she learned through long years of activity. She also rarely seeks out reactions to her acting. It was to keep her own standards from wavering.

Then where does she find certainty about acting? She said, "There is no right answer to emotions, and a single character changes depending on which actor plays it," and "It's difficult to have certainty, but I believe because I know for myself that I did it sincerely and authentically."

She began to see reactions to tvN's currently airing '100 Days of Lies' little by little. "People around me have said a lot, so I feel a lot of interest. Yu-so-ran is such a cool character, so as an actor I'm so happy to be loved," she said.

"I'm listening to praise joyfully. But that doesn't change my life. Like now, I will cherish each work, act with sincerity, empty out, and fill in. I will continue acting exactly as I do now."

<Photo provided by CJ ENM>