Director Lee Chang-dong recently shared his thoughts and experiences on reuniting with actress Jeon Do-yeon for the upcoming Netflix film ‘Possible Love’ (tentative English title) after roughly 19 years.
On the morning of the 6th, an interview with director Lee Chang-dong was held at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. ‘Possible Love’ follows the story of a dismissed worker, his wife, a documentary director, and her husbandβtwo couples who meet to produce a documentary and ultimately confront their different lives and hidden desires.
When asked about how it felt to reunite with Jeon Do-yeon after such a long time, Lee explained that both Jeon Do-yeon and Seol Kyung-gu had returned after a significant hiatus. He noted that while he worked with Seol Kyung-gu twice, he had only collaborated with Jeon Do-yeon once on ‘Secret Sunshine’, which was about 19 to 20 years ago. Although they spent months together during that filming, they had continued to meet frequently over the past two decades, bringing them much closer on a personal level.
He elaborated that working together again felt entirely different from the initial compulsion to achieve something specific that they felt when they first met. Because they had become so close personally, they felt almost like siblings or friends rather than colleagues under pressure, naturally accepting each other during the creative process.
Lee also reflected on how much they had changed since their younger days, when they felt intense pressure to succeed and struggled fiercely against themselves. Having gained extensive experience over the years, their relationship had become much more relaxed, leaving them with no energy left to struggle. In short, they became much freer. He expressed his joy in that freedom, finding pleasure in watching the actors live out their characters in front of the camera rather than striving for perfection.
Discussing the character Mi-ok as brought to life by Jeon Do-yeon, the director explained that while they shared general conversations and ideas about the character’s traitsβsuch as being talkative or eccentricβthe true concrete nature of the character could only be discovered through performance.
He highlighted a specific unscripted moment where Jeon Do-yeon leaned in and drank a beverage through a straw while meeting Ye-ji (played by Cho Yeo-jeong), noting that these subtle, unprompted details are what truly build the character naturally on screen.
