For actress, fiction imitates real life

Choi Jin-sil takes role that is close to home

There is a woman who is trying her best to live happily with a man she knows does not love her. Then there is another woman who is trying her best to live happily with a man she knows she can no longer love.
It seems likely both women would be depressed, but add another detail and things become clearer ― the second woman believes having a secret affair with the first's husband is the best way for everybody to be happy; that way she doesn't have to get a divorce, she gets a lover and he doesn't need to divorce his wife to be with her.
This tale is currently just one plot for the upcoming MBC-TV drama series "Bad Woman, Good Woman", which airs its first episode in the New Year. But one actress involved in the project might consider the story line a bit too close to her own personal life. Choi Jin-sil, 38, is coming back to prime-time television as the "Good Woman" who has to put up with an unfaithful husband, his daughter from his first marriage plus a mother-in-law who is sick with dementia, all under one roof. Marital chaos is familiar territory for Choi.
In a previous role she was the victim of domestic violence; she has been the "good wife" on television many times and photos that allegedly proved she had been a domestic violence victim herself appeared two years ago.
"After I took the role, I asked myself whether I was supposed to be the good woman or the bad woman", said Choi speaking at a press conference in Yeouido last week. "I don't think there could be any woman in the world who could accept that her husband has been cheating on her for six years. If I were her, I would probably choose revenge".
Her previous role, in a KBS-2TV drama, had her playing a frugal middle-aged wife who doesn't mind wearing her husband's undergarments herself "just once more" before throwing them away if that allows her to reduce her family's expenses. For this hopeless auntie-like role, she gained six kilograms, or 13 pounds, before filming began. She did not mind screaming on screen as her husband beat her for refusing his request for a divorce. In real life, the actress was then still recovering from the messy divorce she endured with baseball star Cho Sung-min.
But the actress has lost all that weight now. Showing off her slender shoulders in a strapless gown, she said, she is again playing a wife whose husband cheats on her.
"You know", she said, "I wouldn't mind playing a wife who is loved by her caring husband for a change".
Seong Hyeon-ah, a model-turned-actress, will be playing the femme fatale who is determined to have everything she wants including the Choi character's husband.
Despite her provocative role as a sexy obstetrician on the show, she appeared with Choi at the press conference wearing a classic simple-cut dress.
"It's an honor for me to act with such great actors. They were my heroes on TV when I was young", Seong said.
Lee Dae-yeong, the producer of several hit series including "Be Strong, Geum-Soon!" and "Romance", will be the director, and actor Lee Jae-ryong will play the problem husband.

by Lee Min-a