'The Scandal' star Son Ye-jin on painful hanbok, new roles and slowing down after marriage

Son Ye-jin still remembers how the pins dug into her scalp, holding in place the hairpiece she wore as a Joseon-era (1392-1910) woman in “Chihwaseon” (2002), when she was still a budding actor.

“It felt like someone was stomping on my head with a hammer [the whole time]," she recalled in a roundtable interview on Tuesday.

“No matter how much I wanted to do well as an actor, it was so physically exhausting that acting became almost beside the point. I [thought] that maybe historical dramas just weren’t a genre I could do well," she said.

The pain was why it took her more than two decades to try her hand at period pieces again, Son said. And once again, in the Netflix original series “The Scandal,” the hanbok (traditional Korean dress) attire proved grueling: “There were moments when I felt like I couldn’t breathe," she said. "You have to cinch it tightly for the silhouette to look right, and it’s very heavy."

But this time, the discomfort helped her immerse herself more in her character.

In “The Scandal,” an adaptation of the 18th-century French novel “Dangerous Liaisons,” Son plays Lady Cho, an ambitious and intelligent woman whose talents are confined to managing the household by the strict patriarchal expectations of the late Joseon Dynasty.

The story begins with Lady Cho dutifully searching for a concubine for her husband, hoping to produce an heir. But when she finds his choice lacking — among other grievances — she challenges her cousin and first love, Cho Won, played by Ji Chang-wook, to seduce the young Hui-yeon, a widow played by Nana. If he fails, Cho Won must impregnate the new concubine, So-ok. The wager is struck, setting the plot in motion.

Lady Cho reminded Son of “someone boxed in on all sides — like a bird trapped in a cage,” the actor said.

She read her character as someone driven by a desire to live on her own terms and make use of her talents, but who was instead forced to suppress those ambitions and compromise with reality.

"[Lady Cho] looks very poised and proper on the outside, but that isn’t what she feels inside. In that sense, [the hanbok] actually fit the character very well," she said.

What does Son think Lady Cho would be doing in modern Korea, then?

“Obviously, she would have made something of herself,” the actor said. “She would have become a remarkable person.”

In her own life, however, Son described wanting something simpler — both in her acting career and in the life she shares with her family. She married Hyun Bin, her co-star in the tvN romantic comedy "Crash Landing on You" (2019-20), in 2022. The couple has a son.

“My career as an actor can, in some ways, be divided into before and after marriage. As I entered my 40s, I felt I was moving into a new chapter," she said.

“I no longer feel that I have to do as many projects as possible. Now I want to take things a little more slowly, finding roles one by one that I really want to do well and challenge myself with,” she said.

“I don’t think I should keep repeating what I’ve already done. I keep looking for something new — parts of myself I haven’t shown before that I can draw out and push further.”

These days, Son said she most envies “people who can slow down a little, live with more ease and find happiness in what they already have.”

“I watch ‘Human Theater’ when I’m having a hard time,” she said, referring to the long-running KBS documentary series. “It’s about people simply living their everyday lives. Watching it makes me think, ‘That’s right — that’s how I feel, too.’”

And for those who might look at her own life with envy, Son offered a reminder: Don’t believe everything you see on social media.

“I only post the happy moments,” she said. “You look at other people and think, ‘Why do they look so happy? Why don’t they look tired?’ But everyone’s the same.”

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]