The 42-year old actress said it’s “one of those rare things” you do in your career. But she said there was a bit of hesitation initially after reviewing the script. However, the director of the film, who also happens to be her boyfriend, advised her, “There’s nothing a ‘real’ actress should be afraid of,” and so she took the role as a big challenge in her life.
But of course there were people opposed to the idea. Her manager, for example, was concerned of Kim Hye Sun tarnishing the clean and cute image she built over her 22-year acting career. She was able to convince him by saying, “The image I built over 20 years could remain the same, but with this scene, I would be adding an alpha - someone that’s not the real me to that image.” But the manager was still upset to the point where he had to run out of the filming set, weeping out of disappointment. Now, for those of you who don’t know Kim Hye Sun, she’s a veteran actress who debuted in 1989. She won the “Best New Actress” award the following year and the Blue Dragon’s “Best Supporting Actress” award in 1993. In the early part of her career, Kim Hye Sun was a pop icon with a very sweet image (sort of like Lee Min Jung but less popular). Later in her career, she started playing a lot of older and classy roles. So her nude bed scene comes as quite a shock to many because it’s something you would never expect from an actress of her status. It remains to be seen how it will be received by the fans, and how much she actually “reveals,” but one thing’s for sure - it generated a lot of publicity and her new movie will attract lots of interest, especially from the older male audience.
In recent years, we’ve seen some of the older, more experienced actresses take drastic turns by taking nude (or semi-nude) photo spreads, or filming bed scenes with a younger male counterpart. The first person that comes to mind is the 64 year old actress, Yoon Yeo Jung. In her 2008 film, “A Tale of Legendary Libido,” Yoon Yeo Jung plays an old woman that gets in bed with the male lead, Bong Tae Gyu. It is still regarded as one of the most surprising acts in Korean film history as the age gap between the couple was 34 years. She later admitted she had to do it for the money, but nonetheless she left a long-lasting impression in Korean film history.
Another example is Kim Hye Su. Despite her hot body and repeated calls by male fans to go topless, Kim Hye Su rejected all offers for sex movie scenes until her 36th film. Since her debut in 1986 at the tender age of 17, Kim Hye Su starred in countless movies and TV series, becoming a popular teen idol star in the 80s and 90s. But in 2004, through the movie, “Hypnotized,” she finally filmed a bed scene, reinventing her image as a sexy yet confident woman. She went nude again in 2006 movie “Tazza: The High Rollers,” which firmly cemented her title as the “Sexiest Female Movie Star” in Korea.