INTERVIEW : PERFORMER

Lumen's 23 F/W season opened under the title 'Performer.'
The Winter collection follows an actor who looks closely at the strangers
passing through ordinary days, exploring what lies within.
The performer who shared her story is actor Joo In-young.

LUMEN
We are curious how you came to be an actor.

IN-YOUNG
I did not study acting. During an ordinary university life, while thinking over my path, I planned to go abroad on exchange.
Then I happened upon a sitcom on television.
I simply loved the way the family in it shared so many emotions.
I wanted to be with them, even as an actor.
So instead of the exchange, I took a leave of absence and enrolled in an acting academy.

Learning to act, I realized how closed off my own emotions had been,
and as I learned to express them, I fell deeper into acting.

LUMEN
Beyond expression and speech, is there another element important to acting?

IN-YOUNG
Having never majored in acting, I entered the field almost unprepared.
There, I was advised to move my body more.
So I took up exercise — boxing, Pilates, yoga, many things.
Using my body gave my mind more room as well.

LUMEN
How do you go about learning a script?

IN-YOUNG
When I receive a script, I read it alone at home, setting emotion aside. Many times.
Rehearsing with a partner on set certainly helps me absorb it faster.
For lines that do not come naturally, talking with the director
about my own reading of them helps me take in and internalize the story.



LUMEN
Immersing yourself in a role so different from who you are cannot be easy.

IN-YOUNG
That was the case with my most recent work, a short film.
It follows two sisters who each find their own way of gathering themselves after losing their mother to illness.
In truth I am rather reserved, even with my family.
Worried that I was more blunt and less affectionate than the character,
I talked at length with the director and tried to stay close to the role.

And from the moment I step onto set, I begin to feel emotions I never knew in real life.
That is when I sense I have become someone other than myself.
Staying immersed in a role every moment is difficult, but with the help of the crew and fellow actors,
within the environment and the air they create, it somehow gets done — and that never ceases to amaze me.

LUMEN
How do you approach each work as an actor?

IN-YOUNG
(It differs with each work, but) I love the sense of being alive, and the calm, that films give me —
so I hope audiences feel the same watching the works I appear in.

On mornings when it is hard to open your eyes and everything feels listless,
watching a film's protagonist move through a diligent, spirited day can lend you energy.
I want to breathe inside works that show a life full of things
that seem like nothing, yet are in truth everything.
Better still if they carry a resonant message or a story with depth.

LUMEN
Is there anything you do especially for inspiration?

IN-YOUNG
I do not watch films purely for inspiration.
Rather, I find it in the small things of daily life.
I like ending the day with a quiet drink alone. (everyone laughs)

A beer or a whisky while watching a film, writing in my diary,
calling a friend, listening to the radio — that kind of ordinary day.

LUMEN
We are curious about your everyday life as well. Your preferred way of dressing, your preferred style of bag?

IN-YOUNG
As for clothes... I used to wear boxier, more comfortable things.
These days, feminine styles no longer feel uncomfortable or demanding,
so I find myself trying many different looks.

And I have always liked large, sturdy bags.
(pointing to the Journal bag) I like this one. (laughs)

LUMEN
How would you define a performer?

IN-YOUNG
Someone who is seen? Intended or not, you act in the awareness
of being seen — and giving a good performance in that moment is not easy.
To do that difficult thing naturally and beautifully — is that not the performer's role?