Lee Young Ae revealed on MMTG that Jewel in the Palace almost got extended to a 100-episode saga.
During her appearance on MMTG, the actress shared a surprising story behind the hit series. She shared, “If you were to write 10 books about what happened, all of them would become bestsellers. There are many intriguing stories behind the series that only I know about.”
She added, “Because the show was so popular, MBC wanted to extend it to a 100-part series. Looking back, I basically didn’t sleep. I stayed up for like 4 days in a row,” leaving everyone stunned.
Originally a 50-part show, Jewel in the Palace got four additional episodes due to its immense popularity.
She added, “I was running on no sleep for days to the extent that I didn’t even know if my eyes were open or closed. One day, the director stopped filming right in the middle of everything, so I asked him why. He told me that I was a sleep with my eyes closed.”
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Continuing to explain how unexpectedly the situation unfolded, she shared, “I basically shot the show half asleep, but I found out they’re extending it to a 100-part series. I couldn’t believe it. I bawled my eyes out and straight-up said no to more episodes, so the head of the TV network came down to talk to me.”
She continued, “I told him no to everything, like I’m not even up for doing 10 or 20 more episodes. That’s how I ended up shooting just 4 more episodes,” she said.
But she said she was more than happy about the drama’s huge success. She shared said, “I never expected so many viewers to love the series. It was the project I starred in two years after the movie One Fine Spring Day. When I said I would do this project, everyone around me was like, ‘really?’ and the director also told me he was surprised that I said yes to the offer.”
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