Cho Yeo Jeong opened up about the doubts she felt as she came of age alongside fellow actors Jun Ji Hyun, Song Hye Kyo and others.
A video featuring Cho and producer-director Park Hye Ryoung in conversation was uploaded to the YouTube channel “PDC by PDC” on November 5th.
In the video, Cho said, “There’s an awkward age to be an actor.”
“When actors get together, we often say that without a project, we always seem to be in an uncertain position,” she said. “When you find a role that fits just right, people say, ‘You’re perfect for this role. Where have you been?’ Outside of those moments, it feels as though we actors are always in an ambiguous position. We have to accept that, too, and tell ourselves, ‘It’s okay to be in an uncertain place.’”
“I’m still amazed and grateful that there are characters I can play at this age,” she continued. “That’s true of Possible Love, too. I had looked forward so much to working with director Lee Chang Dong, but if I’d been just a few years younger, wouldn’t I have been too young for it? In that sense, isn’t it lucky that I’m older? I think it can come down to the tiniest difference.”
When Park remarked, “You’re positive. You look at things in a good light, don’t you?” Cho replied, “Turn it around, and it’s the exact opposite. I think, ‘The world is unfair by nature.’”
“That’s why when a good opportunity comes along, I’m genuinely happy, not putting on an act,” she said. “Opportunities don’t come in the order of how hard people work. I don’t think they go to people in order of how diligently they’ve worked.”
“I work hard because I don’t want to have regrets. Working hard doesn’t mean every opportunity will come your way. The rest is luck. No one is the only person who works hard,” she added.
Asked what she would like to say to her younger self now that she is in her 40s, Cho said, “I wouldn’t want to praise her too much. I’d like to tell her, ‘You held on well.’”
“I never stopped moving forward,” she said. “I could have walked faster or run, but I think I did well just to take at least one step each day.”
Park then noted that there were many actors around Cho’s age, broadly defined as those born between 1980 and 1984, and named Jun Ji Hyun, Song Hye Kyo, Han Ji Min, Kong Hyo Jin, Bae Doo Na and Lim Soo Jung, among others.
Cho responded that they were all leading actresses and formidable talents. “Even in my 20s, I wondered, ‘Can I make my presence felt as an actor among all these wonderful people?’ That was what frightened me most. There were so many good actors, each building a world of their own with a distinct strength. I felt anxious, scared and overwhelmed, wondering whether I could do anything at all,” she said.
Cho said she did not regard her fellow actors as rivals. “They all had different charms. No two were alike; each had a distinctive appeal, and they were all good at acting in different ways. I think that makes things richer for audiences,” she said.
“It was less about competition. Everyone has their own special something, after all. I wondered, ‘Can I make my presence felt as an actor, too?’ It felt like that challenge was growing. Competition is meaningless. Actors are all different. You have to be the same to compete,” she explained.
“I think it took me a little longer to get fired up about my work. I started making films around 30, so I had a lot of worries in my 20s,” she added.
Cho made her debut as a magazine model in 1997 and began her acting career in 1998 with the SBS sitcom How About Me? (literal translation). She has since won over audiences with films including The Servant and Parasite, as well as dramas such as In Need of Romance, Ms. Perfect, Woman of 9 billion, High Class, Made in Korea and The Affair was Just the Beginning.
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