Jeon Jong Seo expressed her feelings about her latest work, Ballerina.
In Ballerina, grieving the loss of a best friend she couldn’t protect, an ex-bodyguard sets out to fulfill her dear friend’s last wish: a sweet, sweet revenge.
Working together with her lover, Director Lee Chung-hyun since The Call, she affirmed how just like any actress, she has a desire to work with the director.
“Director Lee’s work seems to have a fantasy aspect that he can try as an actress that is not realized in regular films or other works. As an actress, I had a desire for that kind of thing, and I was able to meet it through Ballerina. As for my directing style, I am not the type to decide on something from beginning to end and prepare thoroughly. I am open-minded when I go to the filming scene.”
In Ballerina, her character discovers a letter left by her only friend and ballerina, as she chooses to die. Through the letter, she recognizes the mastermind behind her death is Choi Pro, and she sets out to take her revenge on her friend’s behalf.
“I know that women’s friendships are more complicated than men’s friendships. I didn’t worry about whether such complex and subtle women’s friendships would be seen as ‘queer’ or how they would be seen. I just wanted them to look natural. I didn’t really decide what kind of relationship it was because I wanted to leave it alone. There may be people who watch it and say, ‘Isn’t it love?’, but I respect that. I think there will be a point where female audiences can sympathize with subtle things at least a little.”
When asked how she felt about the extreme scenes when she received the script, Jeon responded how she was able to punish in a cinematic way. She added that Ballerina is very stylish and there were parts that could be provocative.
“The shape of the incident was solid. I tried to approach it emotionally about the disappearance of the one and only being for someone. There were often unrealistic locations in the scenes we appeared in. They were all filmed against the backdrop of Korea. I thought it was the worldview of Ballerina. I wanted to captivate them right away from the opening sequence and draw them into that world.”
Confessing she had a strong poetic feeling when she first saw the scenario, she remarked how the description and the process of revenge had a strong feeling of being quietly cruel.
As the director said, the scenario depicts the process of revenge well, like a ballerina performing a ballet.
“When I looked at the completed scenario later, it was more colorful, dynamic, and energetic than I expected. Above all, it had a strong poetic feeling. It had a big influence on everything from music to lighting to filming. It felt like a metaphor to some extent. Like the line where she called her a ballerina and said, ‘Don’t you remember?’ I think the situation changes depending on how you look at it and what your perspective is.”
Jeon Jong Seo said she tried everything she wanted to do through Ballerina.
“I think I’ve done everything I wanted to do as an actor through this work. I’m really satisfied. I prepared hard at the action school. The action school was in Songdo, so I stayed nearby and went back and forth for training. I gained weight and I also exercised a lot.”
In particular, it was the first time for her to do rapping. Gray participated as the music director for the film and asked if he wanted to try but she was not confident.
“I’ve never done hip-hop before, but I’ve liked it for a long time. I had an admiration for people who worked in the genre, and I liked the way they expressed what they wanted to say in their lyrics without hesitation. I received the lyrics a day before the recording. I practiced for a day and recorded it right away and it was used as the OST. I was so embarrassed. But I’m glad it seems to have been incorporated into other OST music well.”
Ballerina can be watched on Netflix.
Source: enews IMBC
