K-drama fans may recognise Park for her role in Cinderella with Four Knights, while regional film buffs may have followed her earlier projects including The Silenced and The Priests, both from 2015. Yet before Parasite, Park was actually in a career slump. “I was taking a break and trying to figure out my career and my path,” she told Forbes.
Until the plot twist ensued: Park received news that Bong Joon-ho was considering her for a role, and she was in disbelief. While she accepted the offer, the actress didn’t hear from the director for months. “I was really uneasy and wondered if he had changed his mind,” she told Soompi, only to find out later that Bong was busy preparing scenes for Parasite.As well as its industry accolades, Parasite also saw Park gain a family in the acting industry: the relationship between the film’s cast – collective winners of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for best ensemble – is very close. Park proudly calls her on-screen dad, Song Kang-ho, “papa” behind the cameras.
She told Awards Daily: “To have him as a father and to be able to call him papa was such an amazing experience. He’s someone I’m going to hang on to for life because I want to learn so much from him and take from him.”
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Before Park’s transformation into the scheming Kim Ki-jung – and subsequently turning the “Jessica jingle”, a catchphrase from the film, into a viral meme – she came close to playing the lead role of Mija in Bong’s 2017 film, Okja. According to Soompi, the director saw a photo of Park, who was then 25 years old, and thought she could look 10 years younger and fit the role of Mija. However, when Bong met Park in person, he decided it wasn’t possible, and so he suggested they have tea together instead.
It seems as if the role of Ki-jung was meant for her. “In Parasite, my character is the second child, but she’s really the eldest,” she also told Soompi. “Since I was young, I had to look after my own younger siblings, so the role wasn’t very difficult for me. Her spunky energy and sense of reality are also similar to me, so I had a fun time acting.”
From Korea to a Gucci-endorsed chainsaw
“Two years ago, I would never have thought I’d be here in Los Angeles holding a chainsaw in full Gucci,” the actress told Wonder Mag, where she is photographed standing atop a table, projecting an air of fierceness and nonchalant cool.
Park also posed for the cover spread of Vanity Fair’s annual “extraordinary actors” round-up – sharing the pages with Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas, Eddie Murphy and Renée Zellweger, to name a few.
What makes ‘Ram-don’ noodles, from the movie Parasite, look so tasty?
In British Vogue’s February 2020 issue, Park joins yet another “Hollywood’s biggest stars” list, and is photographed clad in designer gowns, and in one, submerged in a pool at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont. She posted a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot on her Instagram, which naturally trended.
Cementing this transition from screen to page, as if on cue, the young actress was also recently confirmed to star in an upcoming TVN series about Korea’s modelling industry, where she will be working alongside actors Park Bo-gum and Byun Woo-suk.
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