“I’m a bit bewildered to [make] my film debut; I tossed and turned last night with excitement, before the press conference,” IU said during the event in Seoul on Wednesday.
“I accepted the offer, thinking it was a fresh experiment.
“Four directors through their own interpretation created four different characters. And I had to play them in a fairly short period of time. I think this project will remain in my memory for a long time.”
IU began her music career as a singer-songwriter in 2008 and had many hit songs including Good Day, You and I and Bbibbi.
From 2011 she began to act in television dramas, including that year’s hit teen drama Dream High, alongside another K-pop star, Suzy Bae, the 2013 romantic comedy series Bel Ami – for which she won the best new actress award at the KBS Drama Awards – and Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, in 2016, and last year’s My Mister.
Yoon Jong-shin, a singer-songwriter and producer of Mystic Story, first suggested the idea of Persona.
“I often say a song is a story, and so are films,” he said.
“Watching short films, I thought it is a genre in which viewers can feel the creative side of directors more than any other genres.
“Through meetings with [the four] short film directors, I came up with IU’s name.
“I remembered her curious eyes about new things. And I thought she would be the icon we could try something new with.”
In the first short-film in the episode, “Love Set”, directed by Lee, the singer-actress takes on the role of a young hot-tempered woman on the tennis court. She plays a game against her English teacher who has become her father's new lover.
In the second episode “Collector”, directed by Yim, IU portrays an attractive woman in a weird romance.
“Taking the motif from the foolishness of men, the film tells a strange love story. It is about a romance that cannot and should not happen in real life,” Yim said.
“I wrote the story, inspired by IU's song Jam Jam.”
The actress said her part in “Collector” was the hardest role in the four short films. “It is a unique and liberal character that I've never met before, either in films or in books,” IU said.
The third short film, “Kiss Burn” by Jeon, is a revenge story, while the last, Walking at Night, by Kim, tells of the innermost feelings of a couple when they meet in dreams.
Persona will be released through Netflix on April 5.
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This article was originally written by Park Jin-hai for The Korea Times .ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuqKzwLOgp52jZMC1xcueZqmdn6W5pnnEr5ynrKNkrrPAyJyjnmdjZX10gpRxZqRloKS9br%2FIp56eql2ewm6x16mjqKqVqHqpsdFmp56qo6S7onmTZqmopJWoenJ5xaKjpg%3D%3D