연합뉴스
| yna@yna.co.kr 2026-03-11 15:55:14
SEOUL, March 11 (Yonhap) -- Actress Lee Na-young said her husband, actor Won Bin, kept trying to guess the ending of her latest drama while watching it.
"Since I wouldn’t tell him the ending, Won Bin kept trying to fish for it," Lee said with a bright smile during an interview at a cafe in Seoul on Wednesday. "He would say things like, ‘It’s something like this, right? I know,’ while watching my reaction, but I didn’t tell him until the very end."
Lee stars in the ENA Monday-Tuesday drama Honor, which recently concluded.
Asked about her husband’s response to the show, Lee said his feedback was casual, reflecting their everyday married life.
"Rather than giving detailed feedback, he would just say things like ‘That part went well,’ or ‘You did pretty well,’ and sometimes tease me," she said.
Based on a Swedish drama of the same title, "Honor" is a mystery thriller that follows three female lawyers who have been friends for 20 years as they confront a massive scandal tied to their past.
Lee plays Yoon Ra-young, a glamorous celebrity lawyer who hides deep emotional scars behind her polished image.
The series marks Lee’s return to television after a three-year hiatus.
"It was my first time doing this kind of genre drama, and the script was so interesting that I jumped in without much thought — and ended up having a tough time," she said with a laugh.
"I thought there wouldn’t be many emotional scenes with tears like in other genres, so I figured I just had to memorize the lines well. But it turned out every scene required emotional depth. Acting while hiding the character’s inner wounds was quite complex. Yoon Ra-young is a role that would be difficult at any time."
The drama has drawn attention for centering on three female leads — Lee, Jung Eun-chae and Lee Chung-ah — who drive the narrative.
"I’m grateful that viewers didn’t find the theme too heavy even though the story is led by three women, and that they seemed to understand each character well," Lee said. "The characters are all very different, which created a good balance. It didn’t feel like the story leaned too much toward any one person, so I think that was a success."
Lee also spoke about her chemistry with the two actresses.
"They were actors I had always admired and supported, and since I don’t get many chances to meet other actors in my daily life, it almost felt like meeting celebrities," she said. "At first we were shy and approached each other cautiously, but later we would just chat about what to eat for lunch whenever we met on set."
She recalled suggesting a change to a scene in the first episode.
"There’s a scene where the three friends eat salad and cold sandwiches as a late-night snack, and as soon as I read the script I said, ‘When real girlfriends get together, they eat spicy tteokbokki and dumplings,’ so I suggested we change it," she said. "Since they’re supposed to be friends of 20 years, I tried not to force the closeness like in a romance drama."
The key message Lee hoped to convey through the series was "waiting and comfort."
"When someone is struggling, I realized that true healing comes not from forcing them to cover up their wounds or telling them to get better quickly, but from accepting them as they are and simply staying by their side and waiting," she said.
"Honor" ended its run with a peak nationwide viewership rating of 4.7 percent, according to Nielsen Korea, earning praise as a well-made genre drama.
Lee expressed both relief at completing the project and gratitude for the strong audience response.
"Psychological thrillers can feel heavy as a genre, but far more people responded than I expected, and I’m truly grateful," she said. "Even though my personal network isn’t very large, I received a lot of calls asking me to reveal spoilers."
After finishing the drama, Lee said she plans to take time to enrich herself personally before choosing her next project.
"Even when I’m not working on a project, I don’t just rest — I keep thinking about acting," she said. "Recently I even tried awkwardly following a choreography video by Zico and Jennie. I’ll keep learning different things so I’ll be ready to use them whenever the opportunity comes."
Asked about Won Bin, who has been on a lengthy acting hiatus of more than a decade, Lee said he still has a strong passion for acting.
"He still has a lot of desire to act," she said. "As someone close to him, I’m always grateful that people continue to remember him and show interest."
[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]