‘Boomsak’ Moon So-ri “Daughter=IU fan… Playing two roles in one is amazing and I’m proud of her” [DA:Interview③]

Actress Moon So-ri confessed that she looked back on her life while working with ‘Boomsak Fooled’.

In the interview for the Netflix series ‘Boomsak Fooled’ held at the Grand Ballroom of the Ambassador Seoul Pullman Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 2nd, Moon So-ri looked back on the connection between the mother-daughter narrative of Gwang-rye (Yeom Hye-ran) - Ae-soon (IU, Moon So-ri) - Geum-myeong (IU) in the series and her real life as a mother and herself, and as a daughter.

‘Boomsak Fooled’ is a Netflix series that unravels the adventurous lives of ‘rebellious girl’ Ae-soon, who was born in Jeju Island, and ‘unstoppable iron’ Gwan-sik, through the four seasons. The lives of ‘Ae-soon’ and ‘Gwan-sik’, who go on an adventure together against the waves of life, are expressed through the four seasons.

Moon So-ri took over the role of ‘Ae-soon’ in her youth from IU and played the role of ‘Ae-soon’ in her middle age. She also acted with IU, who played ‘Geum-myeong’, as mother and daughter. ‘Ae-soon’‘s counterpart, ‘Gwan-sik’, were cast together with Park Bo-gum and Park Hae-joon, and they passionately acted out the roles of their youth and middle age.

Moon So-ri said, “Some people said it was strange for me to be so flustered around my daughter (Geum-myeong). I think I’ve played a lot of strong characters, but some people said it was new to me, but my friends who have watched me closely said that a lot of my everyday life came out. I think Ae-soon is a mixture of many sides of me. I thought about what my mother did, and I confessed, “I must have unconsciously absorbed the image of her feeding me, chasing me around, and nagging me.” She confessed, “I also felt sorry because I wasn’t the kind of daughter who would call me every day and ask, ‘What did you do, Mom?’ in detail, and go to the bathhouse with me. I thought that through ‘I Was Fooled,’ maybe [my mother] was able to feel the things I didn’t say.”

In ‘I Was Fooled,’ she played ‘Ae-soon,’ who was born in 1951, but in reality, she was born in 1974, which is close to the same age as ‘Geum-myeong,’ who was born in 1968. She explained that her mother, senior model and actress Lee Hyang-ran, is one year younger than ‘Ae-soon.’ Her mother has a historical connection with ‘Ae-soon’, and Moon So-ri has a historical connection with ‘Geum-myeong’.

Moon So-ri recalled, ”When I talked to my friends, there were quite a few mothers who said to their daughters, ‘Don‘t live like me and do housework. I wish you had your own job.’. Most of my mother’s generation was housewives or worked to make a living, and there were quite a few who said, like Ae-soon, ‘I wish you would turn the tables. You don‘t have to get married, but if you do get married, I wish you had your own job.’. My mother raised me that way too. She often said, ‘I wish you had your own job’, ‘We studied hard and graduated from the same college, so it doesn’t seem like it‘s over once we get married.“

Like ‘Geum-myeong’, Moon So-ri was also the ‘K-eldest daughter’. She said, “My mother says I’m a dependable daughter. I wanted to be that kind of daughter and I think I should be that kind of daughter. When I was young, I was weak and worried my parents a lot. There was no hospital I didn‘t go to. Since I gave birth to a child and raised him, I thought, ’I‘m healthy and filial,’ and I was grateful for that alone,” she said.

She said that she thought of her mother a lot while filming the meeting scene of ‘I Was Totally Fooled.’ Moon So-ri, who got married ten months after her younger brother, said, “My younger brother got married before me. The two meeting scenes were less than a year apart,” and “She‘s my junior from school and I knew her well, so I went to the meeting with her. My mother’s attitude at the meeting was so clearly comparable to when I was young. At that time, it was so hard to understand, but this time, acting helped me understand more and it was helpful,” she recalled.

She continued, “I’ve never really upset my mother (except for when I was sick when I was young), and my younger brother often caused trouble. But when I compared them at the first-in-law meeting, I thought, ‘When was that kid so proud of his mom?’ & ‘Was I such a lacking child?’ I thought, ‘Have you watched a lot of dramas?’ But I realized that parents with daughters and parents with sons are still like that in Korea.” She added, “In the drama, Ae-soon trembles like a goat and says, ‘I didn’t teach you,’ thinking that her daughter’s wedding will be canceled. I think it was the best for Ae-soon. I thought it was fortunate that she was able to say even that one word.”

On the other hand, what kind of mother is she to her daughter? Moon So-ri confessed, “I think you should ask her… She’s an ordinary mother.” He said, ”Everything I say to my 14-year-old daughter now is nagging. She must be learning a lot at school, but she doesn‘t try to teach me. Since she’s talking to me as her favorite idol, she tries to match my guidance.“ ”I trust her, but I talk to her sometimes just in case. “You‘re the daughter of a famous person, so other people will talk about you a lot, and if you say something hurtful about other people, it’ll all come back to you, so I hope you don‘t say things like that,” and “I tell her to say what I say with the thought that you will receive the consequences someday,” but she doesn’t listen,“ he said with a laugh.

She said that even though she doesn‘t listen to her mother (?), she reacted passionately to her chemistry with IU. Moon So-ri said, ”My daughter is an IU fan. She was so amazed and proud. I didn’t change jobs and so many people came and went to our house, but she said, ‘Mom, I really didn’t know when I was little. ‘“ She said, ”I didn’t know even when Kang Dong-won came to our house and (Song) Hye-kyo bought me a doll, but my mom filmed a drama with IU, and the guys from Boy Next Door called me after watching ‘Fooled Me’, and she said it was so amazing and funny,“ and laughed as if she was dumbfounded. Regarding her daughter‘s dream or career path, she said, ”She said she doesn’t know yet. I think we‘ll have to wait a little.“

‘Fooled Me’, which consists of 16 episodes, was released four times a week, and the final fourth act was aired on the 28th of last month. ‘BokSsak Sootsuda’, which took first place in the ‘Today’s Korea TOP 10’ series category as soon as the first act was released, rose to first place in the Global TOP 10 Series (non-English) category in its third week of release, and has been in the upper ranks of the Global TOP 10 Series (non-English) category since the release of the first act. After the release of the fourth act, it recorded 6 million viewers (the calculation of the viewing time divided by the total running time of the work) and rose to third place in the Global TOP 10 Series (non-English) category. It ended on a high note by making it to the TOP 10 list in a total of 39 countries including Bolivia, Chile, Morocco, the Philippines, and Malaysia as well as Korea.

Jeong Hee-yeon, Donga.com Reporter shine2562@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.