Park Bo-Young Shares Her Thoughts On Choosing ‘Doom At Your Service’
In Strong Woman Do Bong-soon actress Park Bo-young plays a super strong heroine who can level a gang of thugs without breaking a sweat. In her new drama Doom At Your Service, she’s far more vulnerable.
Her character Tak Gyeong-dong not only lacks superpowers, but she’s out of touch with her own feelings. When learning that she has only 100 days to live she tells her doctor she can’t be sick because she doesn’t have enough vacation days. Getting drunk and cursing out the world do not help her deal with the devastating diagnosis. However, her out loud wish that the world would end does attract the attention of a supernatural being, Myul Mang aka Doom, played by Seo In-guk. Myul Mang has to grant one human a wish and, jaded as he is, her wish is one he would love to fulfill.
“The character I play, Tak Dong-gyeong, is a web novel editor,” said Park. “After learning that she only has 100 days to live, she wishes for the world to end and ends up offering her life to make a deal with Doom who comes to her door. She spends her last days in introspection and begins discovering things about herself that she had not known before.”
When she arrived on the Doom At Your Service set it had been two years since her previous drama, Abyss.
“At first I was excited yet nervous as I hadn’t been on set for a while,” said Park. “But now I’m enjoying my time on the set thanks to my fellow actors/actresses and staff.”
Park has a good track record for choosing interesting characters and scenarios. She played a girl attempting to civilize a feral boy, played by Song Joong-ki, in the film A Werewolf Boy and a bride who believes in love at first sight in the film On Your Wedding Day. Her TV drama roles include playing a timid chef possessed by a ghost in Oh My Ghost and a reincarnated murdered prosecutor in Abyss.
“I tend to choose a project based on how much I can relate to it or it’s a genre or the type of character that I’ve never worked on before,” she said. “I believe I was just lucky to have worked on many successful projects so far. When I first received the script for Doom at Your Service, I liked how it was fast-paced and entertaining plot-wise. I’ve always wanted to work with the writer Im Mea-ri and director Kwon Yeong-il, and that’s one of the reasons I chose to work on this project.”
Park has spoken in the past about how she finds it difficult to sleep when she’s acting in a project, since she worries so much about her performance. Having starred in successful films and dramas should help alleviate some anxiety, but worrying is part of her nature.
“I think my anxiety comes from within myself,” said Park. “Because I push myself hard to achieve the goal I set and to bring out performances I can be satisfied with. There is always something that I regret even if a project receives acclaim or is successful. I try to give my all to every project I work on and I hope that I can finish a project without regret one day.”
When it comes to the genres she likes to watch, Park enjoys blockbuster and action movies for the adrenaline they provide. She can soon be seen in the disaster-thriller Concrete Utopia co-starring Lee Byung-hun and Park Seo-joon. The film is directed by Um Tae-hwa and based on the webtoon Pleasant Bullying by Kim Sung-nik
“I read the scenario for Concrete Utopia and was immediately smitten with it,” said Park. “I’ve never starred in a disaster film before and I think it perfectly captures how people change when in a crisis. While reading the scenario, I kept asking myself what I would have done in such a situation. It also left me with a lot to think about even after I had finished reading it. We only started filming recently, so it’s a bit too early for me to share my thoughts on the project, but working with my co-star, Park Seo-joon, has been smooth and I am looking forward to working with the other actors as well. I think I will be able to enjoy myself as well as learn a lot while working on the project.”
Park describes her project choices as “adventurous” and that might be true, but through such choices she has created some entertainingly memorable characters.