On the afternoon of the 18th (local time), Jung Ho-yeon held an interview at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes, France, during the 79th Cannes Film Festival to talk about the movie ‘Hope’ (directed by Na Hong-jin). ‘Hope’ tells the story of Beom-seok, the head of the Hopo-hang outpost in the Demilitarized Zone, who hears from local youths that a tiger has appeared, leading the entire village into a state of emergency and eventually facing an unbelievable reality.
‘Hope’, the first film from director Na Hong-jin in 10 years since ‘The Wailing’, had its world premiere at the Lumière Grand Theatre on the 17th and received a standing ovation for about 7 minutes. The film has captivated the world as a thriller and an SF movie featuring aliens.
Jung Ho-yeon plays the role of Seong-ae, a police officer at Hopo-hang who gets her job done no matter the situation. She personally performed all the thrilling action, including car chases, drifting, and the use of grenade launchers.
Having become a global star through ‘Squid Game’, her first acting project, Jung Ho-yeon shared her feelings about coming to Cannes for her first film, ‘Hope’. “It is truly a huge honor. I was so happy and honored to work with director Na Hong-jin, and seniors Hwang Jung-min and Jo In-sung, whom I’ve been a fan of. Just being able to see my first movie at the historic Lumière Theatre made me feel like a very lucky person,” she said.
Jung Ho-yeon boasts impressive action in the film, from car chases to gunplay. To achieve this, she trained for 5 to 6 months before filming to master the action.
“Can I brag a little? I trained for about 5 months,” Jung Ho-yeon said proudly. “I received gun training and did a lot of weight training for a long time because I had to perform multiple takes. As a result, I gained 4kg of pure muscle over 5 to 6 months.”
She added, “I gained weight, and since I couldn’t drive a manual car, I even got a manual driver’s license and learned car chasing techniques. It was very difficult, but I had a lot of fun. It felt like enjoying extreme sports.” She explained, “Because of the dopamine rush, I wondered for a long time after filming how to calm down that thrill. While I’m proud that I did it all myself, there are some parts I feel could have been better. Because of the time and effort I put in, I felt emotions I’ve never experienced before during the action scenes.”
Jung Ho-yeon added, “Director Na Hong-jin made it possible for me to do that. He allowed me to prepare in advance for 5 to 6 months and gave me his full support. That’s why those action scenes are very rewarding.”
Meanwhile, the Cannes Film Festival will announce the winners among this year’s competition entries at the closing ceremony on the 23rd. All eyes are on whether director Na Hong-jin’s new SF film ‘Hope’ will take home an award.
