I relied on intuition and instinct

South Korean actress Chun Woo-hee has spoken about her experience playing a villain on her recent Netflix series The 8 Show. 

Chun Woo-hee recently sat for an interview with South Korean outlet The Chosun Daily to speak about her latest project, The 8 Show, which premiered on Netflix on May 17. She played the character known as 8th Floor, which was also the final stage of the survival games depicted on the series.

“When I saw the script, I thought, ‘I can let my hair down and go crazy’, but I held back a bit because I didn’t want to stand out too much,” Chun told the outlet, before adding that 8th Floor’s characterisation was trickier to depict than expected.

“I was concerned about playing 8th Floor too realistically, as it might disgust viewers,” the actress said. “So, I aimed to depict her as a fantastical character with no real-world grounding, ensuring not to exhaust the audience.”

Chun also touched on how the “hardest part” the production was “portraying a character who enjoys watching others suffer”. However, she said her approach to overcoming it was “acting as if I had removed my brain and heart”.

She also added that although her tendency to “prepare extensively” for each project she’s involved in, her role on The 8 Show has introduced a new approach to personifying her characters: “I wanted to strip everything back and rely on intuition and instinct.”

Based on Bae Jin-soo’s hit webcomic series Money Game and Pi Game, Netflix’s new K-drama The 8 Show will follow eight people desperately in need of money who are invited as contestants on a mysterious reality show.

Her co-stars, all of whom also personify various floors in The 8 Show, include Reply 1988‘s Ryu Jun-yeol, Hellbound‘s Park Jeong-min, Nevertheless‘ Lee Yul-eum, Arthdal Chronicles’ Park Hae-joon, Believer’s Lee Joo-young, Times’ Moon Jeong-hee and Bae Sung-woo, among others.