So while I was filming this drama, I also was comforted and healed by it.” But through this drama, I reaffirmed and realized again that appearance is not everything. And my profession is one where I do have to be concerned about my appearance. “I want to become pretty and I like hearing that I am pretty. And even though I know strategies to mitigate it, I think I also obsess about my appearance sometimes.”
I internally firm up, or resolve it some other way, so I identified a lot with the drama. In those times, I try to concentrate on something else to find my mental balance. So there are times when my self-confidence goes down. “In my profession, I am constantly judged on my appearance, probably more than a thousand times a day. My ID is Gangnam Beauty wasn’t merely a college drama, it put societal issues like image obsession and hidden cameras in the spotlight. It was also the highlight of Soo-ah’s arc, and I think the dialogue played out well so that Soo-ah became more relatable and gained more fans too.” I hope it was conveyed well to many people. I remember the scene well because it contained the message we were trying to deliver. ‘Why do we have to do that? I’m going to find a way to live happily,’ were lines that showed Mi-rae’s growth. I didn’t know that I would cry that much. But I don’t know if I did because I only had one hour of sleep the night before, and I think I could have prepared better. “I thought this was the most important scene highlighting the entire premise of the drama, and I wanted to perform it well. But by the end of the series, she finds her voice and rightfully expresses her anger when confronting Soo-ah, who continuously antagonized her throughout the drama. Initially, some people may have found Mi-rae to be frustrating because of her passive personality and victimhood. I think because we all have our own scars that are similar to Mi-rae’s, everyone rooted for her to overcome them.” She judges people’s appearances because she’s wrapped up in her own trauma. “I think a lot of people identified with Mi-rae’s plight, thinking ‘Was I ever like that?’ Mi-rae’s situation is very different from heroines of other dramas because she’s not wealthy or pretty or knowledgeable, and she doesn’t have everything going for her. However, her scars begin to heal under the warm protection of two knights-in-shining-armor: her childhood friend Do Kyung-seok, played by Astro’s Cha Eun-woo, and her sunbae Yeon Woo-young, played by Kwak Dong-yeon. With a face that has clearly went under the knife, she’s constantly compared to her classmate Hyun Soo-ah, played by Jo Woo-ri, who is a natural beauty. Im Soo-hyang plays the main protagonist who has an overwhelming insecurity about her appearance, which leads her to make the decision to permanently change her look. The drama explores her early college years as she learns to adjust to campus life and finds her inner beauty. It was based on a popular webtoon about a girl named Kang Mi-rae who was reborn through plastic surgery after she was bullied for many years for being ugly.
39 SeptemSeptemGangnam Beauty Im Soo-hyang tells all by tineybeanieĪctress Im Soo-hyang gave an interview on her JTBC drama that recently ended, My ID is Gangnam Beauty.