IU says “swearing scene, more nervous than any other emotional scene”

▲ This photo, provided by CJ ENM, shows actress Lee Ji-eun from the film "Broker." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, May 28 (Yonhap) -- “Strangely enough, I was offered a role in ‘Broker’ when I thought I wanted to try a role of a mother. So I wanted to do well.”

Lee Ji-eun (IU), who stars in the 75th Cannes-competing drama “Broker,” said this through an official press conference held in Cannes, France, on the 27th (local time).

Lee plays a young mother So-young who abandoned her son in front of the church's baby box due to unavoidable circumstances.

In an interview with the Korean news media, Lee said, "When I was thinking about what role to play in the next work, I thought it would be nice to play a mother," adding, "I wanted to play a person who has experienced a hard and great thing as childbirth."

However, So-young was a character that was difficult to act because she was an unmarried mother who lived a completely different life from ordinary women in their 20s and was at a dead end.

Lee said, "I thought she was the type of person that I didn't know at all," and added, "It was difficult to estimate how much burden and self-hatred that person would have."

"It's true that I had worries and burdens in expressing my role as a mother and a single mother that I've never experienced before. So I looked up interviews and other things like what kind of social perspective single mothers endure and raise their children. I reflected on myself and became interested in not knowing much about the issue of single mothers."

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda said he saw the drama "My Mister" starring Lee Ji-eun and offered her a casting offer. In a recent interview, the director praised Lee saying, "She showed a perfect performance like the answer."

Lee Ji-eun recalled, "I was eating with Lee Sun-kyun, who starred in ‘My Mister,’ and I saw the director sitting at another table," adding, "I was very surprised to receive an offer for the work a year later."

"While the director liked 'My Mister,’ I think he found something in common between Ji-an and 'Broker' So-young in the movie. They both have a tough past and are not favorable to the world, and pessimistic."

However, if Ji-an is a person who "tolerates" the world, So-young is a person who has to express her feelings right away. She curses in a scene when a young couple bargains over her son.

Lee said, "The director's screenplay only had a curse like 'It stinks', but I thought it was awkward," and laughed, "I asked the director if I could come up with a curse and filled that part."

“I didn’t think So-young would only say that in a situation where she was angry (laughs). In the end, I wrote it myself and gave it out to the actors. It was my first time swearing so hard, so I was more nervous than in any other emotional scene and practiced a lot. Fortunately, the ‘ok’ sign fell off after one or two times."

Lee said for the first time that she attended the Cannes Film Festival, "It was a very bewildered, amazing, and very fun experience."

When asked about the review of "Broker," which held its first screening the previous day, she said, "I think it's a movie where people with very different values accompany each other and find a process of bonding and symbiosis. It's like a small society. Even if your thoughts are opposite, wouldn't it be human to live together and unite?"

(This article is translated from Korean to English by An Hayeon.)

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