[INTERVIEW] Yoon Jung-hee - Part 3

Published on 2010/05/20 | Source

Actress Yoon Jung-hee [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

Q: You were spunky. (laugh) For you to think like that at such a young age, your parents must have instilled a tremendous amount of confidence in you when they raised you.

Yoon: My father was an incredible romanticist. He told me it was his dream to send me to France and my younger siblings to the U.S. And his dreams came true eventually. And when we started kindergarten, he had us learn dancing and singing which helped a lot when I was acting. I did ballet and traditional Korean dance, my body knew how to move when I was doing dancing scenes in my movies.

Q: Wow, surely it couldn't have been easy to do that back in those days.
Yoon: My father went to Tokyo to study abroad. He went to law school in Japan and he took a lot of pictures with actors when he was studying there. (laugh) He didn't want to be an actor himself but he was very interested in that world.

Q: And you also have a lot of interest in romanticism and art, like your father. (laugh) It wasn't your goal to be an actress or a star.
Yoon: Yes. When I was busy working as an actress, I didn't have a personal life. When I go outside, girls would mob me and men would write letters in their blood. (laugh) I was grateful for that kind of adoration but I didn't have any freedom. So I went to France to find my freedom and studied film. And whenever I got a good script, I would come to Korea and shoot the movie. Even after I got married, I did about twenty movies. (laugh) How wonderful is that? Life isn't all about being young, whether you are a man or a woman. Look how beautiful life is for me, a ninety-year-old woman living a fabulous life. I think about how I can spend my time here beautifully and live with the hope that I will meet a film that tells the story of my life.

Q: In that respect, the films that you chose after you went to France must have more special meaning to you.
Yoon: That is right. Because I shot just one film at a time over the years. I wanted to do just one movie at a time, cherish them more and dig deeper into them. And after I did the film "Manmoobang" [in 1994], I got a lot of offers from all kinds of industry people for fifteen years. But I had saved myself and waited for something good to come along, and I got a wonderful film like this one. (laugh) After I had decided to leave for France to find my freedom, every film I did felt more precious to me. An actor is someone who re-enacts life and I started thinking that I would never leave this field until I die.

Q: How does living in a country like France influence you in maintaining that kind of sensitivity?

Actress Yoon Jung-hee [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

Yoon: I don't think living in France has an enormously huge effect. It's just that Paris is the city of art. There are so many exhibitions, so many concerts and you have so much freedom living in Paris. Nobody interferes with your personal life. I suppose such freedom could influence you. My husband and I travel to all parts of the world but when we get back to Paris, there is definitely a certain vibe about the city. What influences me the most is my family. What makes it possible for me to do this is because my family is more into film than I am and they love it when I make good movies.

Q: When you were working on "Poetry", I heard that you practiced acting in front of Sir Paik Kun-woo for the first time ever.
Yoon: I never did that before. (laugh) Because I could do it by myself then. But there was one scene that I wanted to do really well in and I needed another person to act in that scene. I always work hard but I worked particularly hard for this movie. On the contrary, my husband and I talk a lot about his music. When he is making a set list for his concerts, he is like, 'Do you want to hear this?' and plays it for me. He regards me as an audience who likes classical music and asks me what I think. Of course, when I am doing a movie, my husband gives me a lot of ideas.

Q: I heard that you have never been to the Cannes Film Festival. How can that be -- you love film and you even live in France.
Yoon: Why would I go when none of my movies are competing there? I didn't have time to go play. (laugh)

Q: Well, you get to go there this time. (laugh) How do you feel?
Yoon: I really love that I can experience what it is like to be at Cannes. The best thing about serving as a judge at an international film festival is meeting good talent in the film industry. I want to meet a talented movie person at Cannes too.

Q: Have you thought about what you are going to wear on the red carpet at Cannes?
Yoon: I will leave that to your imagination. (laugh)