Love That Never Ends

Lee Mi-yeon is an actress with charisma. Sometimes she is just like a gentle and caring lover and other times like a female boss.

In “Addiction, ” a romance set to be released nationwide on Oct. 25, Lee plays a role of a woman falling in love with her brother-in-law who in fact has soul of his late husband. It’s about the story of a soul moving into another’s body.

When it comes to dealing with new souls, actors and actresses must be used to it. Lee herself seems to have two different souls inside – a woman with tearful eyes and a woman with a big laughter.

She had to cry for 30 minutes by herself.

I am supposed to convey the delicate feelings to the audience, playing a woman who comes to believe the unbelievable. So it was like walking on ice all the times.

There is the so-called “peak scene” where you have to absorb yourself entirely to the scene. When that time comes, actors get very nervous, without saying a word sometimes.

For Addiction, I was supposed to shed a drop of tear in a close-up cut, but I doubted it would be enough. So I told the director. “I’d like to do it differently. Can I have some moments myself to cry for a while.” Then I went into a room next to the set and cried for 30 minutes thinking about Eun-soo (her character in the movie). I thought I needed to have those feelings for myself. Like Eun-soo, I believe there is love that you can feel without seeing it and touching it.

If I were only outspoken and unreserved, I could not play a fragile woman in love. I am also very delicate, but people always say that I am straightforward and open. Then I say to myself, “They don’t know me at all.”

She learns a lot as she grows old!

When they say that I am a good companion to have drink, it sounds like a compliment to me. Some actresses say “I only drink fruit juice,” and others get into their cars and stay there while they are not shooting scenes. As for me, however, I feel kind of responsibility to buoy up the mood as a main character.

My manager once told me “ Since you look younger than your age, we might tell people you are 27.” I snapped back. My age means a lot to me. I have learned a lot as I grew old, and now I am what I am. I am proud of myself.

I often go to see the movies without sunglass and makeup. I liked Kim Seung-woo a lot in his latest movie “Strike a Light.” I met him when I was 23 and broke up with him at 30. He is still my best friend. It means something that we spent long time together.

Living alone as a divorcee is not easy.

Sometimes I ask to myself whether I could have gone for divorce just like that if I were not an actress. Still, if the same thing happens to me again, I will do the same. I like things clear. I just can’t stay in the middle. So now I am saying I will only do my best every moment because I really can’t tell if I could continue acting throughout the rest of my life.

I feel exhausted these days. They don’t believe me when I say so. Writer Park Wan-suh once wrote in the closing of her book “A Very Old Joke” that she felt pain to create works. Now I can understand what she meant. After some time, we learn to face the pain willingly. For now, however, it’s really hard for me. Guess it’s time to take a rest.

Hee-Kyung Kim susanna@donga.com