Kim Ji-won, "Stopped Chinese Food for the Role? Just Briefly Quit Sichuan Jajang Ramen"

Actress Kim Ji-won personally cleared up the misunderstanding of "fasting from Chinese food for one year" that had followed her for about two years. While the story that she underwent rigorous diet management for her third-generation chaebol character in a drama had solidified as fact, Kim Ji-won's actual explanation was much more modest. What she stopped was not all Chinese food, but the Sichuan Jajang ramen she had been enjoying for a while.

Appearing on tvN's "You Quiz on the Block" broadcast on the 6th, Kim Ji-won looked back on the time she played the role of third-generation chaebol Hong Hae-in in the popular drama "Queen of Tears." As she was the heiress of a chaebol family in the drama, glamorous costumes, luxurious spaces, and a perfectly managed appearance were important elements of the character, but the actual experience she felt on the filming set was unexpectedly closer to realistic aspects.

Kim Ji-won first cited the advantages of the third-generation chaebol role, saying, "Honestly, my body was comfortable." She even thought, "Being a third-generation chaebol is good," because there were many scenes where she rode nice cars and filmed in warm places when it was cold or cool places when it was hot. It was as if the actor indirectly experienced the glamorous fantasy world created by the drama through the filming environment.

Of course, there were also discomforts. She confessed that since most of Hong Hae-in's costumes in the drama were expensive products, she was more concerned about not damaging the clothes than the acting of moving her body itself. Even if she acted naturally during filming, she was careful about sitting down during breaks for fear of snagging the clothes, and she had to return all the costumes once filming ended. The character's "wealth" essentially returned to the actor as a form of tension.

Conversely, she said that the so-called "strong" characters she often played in previous works were relatively free in terms of clothing and environment. She explained that instead of being cold when it was cold or hot when it was hot, she could move her body as much as she wanted and felt more comfortable in the sense that she didn't have to be overly conscious of her clothes. The actor's experience, that glamour does not necessarily mean comfort, was also a part that showed the reality outside the screen surrounding chaebol characters.

The story of diet management, which became a controversy of sorts, was also settled on this day. When Yoo Jae-suk mentioned the story that Kim Ji-won had quit Chinese food for one year, Kim Ji-won drew a line, saying, "It wasn't to that extent." When asked what special efforts she made for "Queen of Tears," she recalled that while most actors make similar efforts, she thought of her own special case and said, "I was into Sichuan Jajang ramen, so I briefly quit that," and this statement subsequently expanded into the content that she "quit Chinese food for one year."

Kim Ji-won ultimately explained that what she said was not that she quit all Chinese food for a long period, but that she briefly refrained from the Sichuan Jajang ramen she liked. The process where a short variety show remark is compressed into a provocative single sentence and the original context disappears is not unfamiliar in celebrity interviews. In particular, topics with high public interest, such as dieting or diet management, are easy to consume as a much stronger narrative than the actual remarks.

This clarification is meaningful not in exaggerating or beautifying Kim Ji-won's level of self-management, but also in the sense that the efforts actors make for a work do not necessarily need to be extreme. What Kim Ji-won did to complete the unrealistic character of a third-generation chaebol was not a grand fast, but rather briefly stopping the food she liked. In the end, the story of "fasting from Chinese food for one year" that had followed her for nearly two years revealed a slightly different face in front of the actual person's explanation.

Read the original (Korean)