Actress Go Ara is aiming for her ‘life‘s work’ through the TVING original drama ‘Sexy Love Story’, her comeback drama after 5 years.

As the fictional historical drama ‘Madam Ok’s Story’ ended with great popularity, giving the main character Im Ji-yeon a new ‘life character’, ‘Sexy Love Story’, which is of a similar genre, is garnering even greater expectations. In particular, this drama is further stimulating the curiosity of viewers by putting forth the unconventional subject matter of ‘Night Story Collection’.

Go Ara, who returned to the small screen after a long time since ‘Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol’ in 2020, plays the role of Hwa-ri, a direct princess of the royal family and the best celebrity in the city who attracts people‘s attention with everything from her fashion to her every action.

In the drama, Hwa-ri, despite the unconventional romance collection (night story collection) ‘Chunhwa Yeonaedam’ that reminds her of her own story shaking up the city, makes an unconventional declaration of ‘Direct Selection of the Prince’ to find a partner on her own, shaking up the country. It is expected to continue the lineage of proactive female characters in historical dramas that have recently received attention, such as Gu-deok (Im Ji-yeon) in ‘Lady Ok’s Story’ and Queen Won-gyeong (Cha Joo-young) in ‘Won-gyeong’.

Seoul, 5th At the production conference held at CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall, Go Ara said, “I think I spent a long time choosing the project in order to meet such an interesting project,” and added, “Even though it was a project that I chose in a hurry and started filming, the story was so good that I didn‘t feel any pressure at all.”

‘Chunhwa Romance’ was originally preparing to film with Go Ah-sung cast as the lead, but Go Ah-sung suffered a fractured sacrum that required 12 weeks of recovery right before the first shoot, and Go Ara was cast as the new lead.

Go Ara received the script in a hurry at a late hour with the words, “Please review it quickly.” In fact, at the time, I was preparing for another classic historical drama, so I was ready (to go straight into the project). More than anything, I sympathized with Hwa-ri’s personality of choosing for herself, and since it‘s a fusion historical drama, the lines (different from traditional historical dramas) were fun,“ she said.

She also revealed her determination to show a variety of sides of herself that she hadn’t shown in her previous works. Go Ara said, ”At first, Hwa-ri appears as an immature girl who doesn‘t know anything, but as she experiences various incidents, she shows a different side of herself. It was a chance for me to show my appearance from a girl to a mature woman,“ she said with a laugh.

Meanwhile, although this drama is a youth historical drama with a bright and light tone, it received a youth-restricted rating for scenes that are somewhat sexually explicit as it is based on a shocking collection of erotic novels. Regarding this, Go Ara said, ”It’s rated 19+, but what‘s important is the message this drama is trying to convey (a life that you choose for yourself)“ and explained, ”All the actors, including myself, focused on the message of the drama while filming.“


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

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