An interview with Baek Seo-ra, the lead of TV Chosun’s weekend mini-series ‘Doctor Shin’, was held on the 28th of last month at the Ilgan Sports office in KG Tower, Jung-gu, Seoul.
Reflecting on the series finale, Baek Seo-ra shared, “This was the first project where I could properly see my own acting, and experiencing the finished work was completely new. There were days during filming when I felt upset because I wasn’t satisfied, but seeing the polished final version made it look okay. It was a process of building my own database of experiences one by one.”
Baek Seo-ra made headlines by being cast as the female lead by star writer Im Sung-han in her very first acting role. In ‘Doctor Shin’, she plays Momo, who falls into a coma after a tragic accident and undergoes a “brain change” surgery performed by her fiancé, the genius doctor Shin Ju-shin (Jung Yi-chan), allowing various characters to inhabit her body.
This meant Baek Seo-ra had to pull off multiple roles! Recalling the experience, she said, “When I first heard the audition results, I couldn’t believe it and was totally stunned. I was worried when I learned I had to play several different people, not just one, but it felt like such an amazing opportunity that I became even more driven.”
To perfectly synchronize her performance with Hyun Ran-hee (Song Ji-in) and Kim Jin-ju (Cheon Young-min), who take over Momo’s body, she spent a lot of time observing and asking questions.
Baek Seo-ra explained, “We all gathered in the practice room and practiced from morning until evening. Since I had many reading sessions with the writer, my questions about why the characters spoke and acted a certain way were quickly answered, and I just naturally absorbed those habits.”
She also admitted she didn’t expect writer Im Sung-han’s unique phrasing, such as “ganjeol-seureowosseoyo” (I was so earnest/desperate), to become a viral meme. Laughing, Baek Seo-ra said, “I didn’t notice anything unusual about the way of speaking while filming. I expected unique lines from Shin Ju-shin, like ‘Don’t just poke the brain,’ but I never imagined expressions like ‘ganjeol-seureopda’ or ‘naenggal-seureopda’ would become such a hot topic, so it’s really surprising!”
Meanwhile, TV Chosun’s weekend mini-series ‘Doctor Shin’, which wrapped up on the 3rd, is a medical thriller about a genius doctor challenging the realm of God and a woman who loses her soul as her brain is destroyed overnight.
