Actor Park Bo-young (36) is making headlines for dramatically losing weight and going makeup-free in her first-ever crime genre role, instantly raising anticipation for the project.
On the 27th, the Disney+ original series Golden Land held its press conference, attended by Park Bo-young, Kim Sung Cheol, Lee Hyun Wook, Kim Hee Won, Moon Jung Hee, Lee Kwang Soo, and director Kim Seong Hun.
Explaining why she chose this project, Park said, "I wanted to take on a genre challenge. When I met with the director, I realized I give off an image of someone who would back down. I wondered if audiences might feel something different if someone with that image made the opposite choice, and that drew me in the most." She added, "I lost weight at the director's suggestion," explaining, "Hee-joo didn't grow up comfortably and has been through a lot, so he wanted her face to look gaunt. I kept losing weight throughout filming to reflect that."
Kim Sung Cheol also teased their "sibling chemistry" in this project. "I say 'noona' a lot in the script," he shared, referring to the Korean term a man uses for an older sister or older female friend. "Even when we were running lines, I'd call her 'noona.'" Park added with a laugh, "I've never been called 'noona' this much in my life — sometimes all day long. It even made me think, 'If I had a younger brother, would he be like this?'"
Meanwhile, Golden Land follows Hee-joo (played by Park Bo-young), who gets her hands on 150 billion won worth of gold bars from a smuggling ring and fights to keep it amid a maelstrom of greed and betrayal — a gold-fueled survival thriller. The series premieres on the 29th, dropping two episodes weekly for a total 10-episode run.