News Shot: Thursday 5/1/2008
ay_link May 1st, 2008
Yoon Eun Hye, Rain, Han Ye Seul: Stars cried and laughed over substitute casting
What is a common thing between Yoon Eun-hye, Rain, Han Ye-seul, Jo Seung-woo and Kim Ah-joong? They have all became big stars through ’substitute casting’. On 13th, the cable channel’s Story On’s ‘Cover story’ deals with those ’substitute casts’ who earned their roles over their original casts and made a big hits.The recent example is Yoon Eun-hye from drama “Coffee Prince” who literary was a centre of attention during the course of the drama. Initially, the role was first suggested to Kim Ah-joong but she was under an exclusive contract with a shampoo company and a contract term states that she maintains long hair until the contract finishes. So the role was given to Yoon Eun-hye, who was prepared to cut her hair short for the role.
Last year’s big issue, “Fantastic Couple”’s Jo An-na, Han Ye-seul, was also a substitute cast of Uhm Jung-hwa who refused the role due to her busy schedule from releasing her 9th album at the time. Despite the fact, Han Ye-seul brought out the character within herself and created many ‘analects of Jo An-na’, which became a sensational hit throughout the country. However, once in the past, Han Ye-seul same mistake as Uhm Jung-hwa when she refused to be in “My Name is Kim Sam-soon” and Jeong Ryeo-won took her place. The drama was literally a jackpot when it was on-air.
This goes same to Rain in “Full House”. Initially, the producing staffs gave the role to Jung Woo-sung and then to Lee Jeong-jae. Even so, Rain showed constant interests to the staffs of starring in the drama and when Lee Jeong-jae turned down the offer in preparing for his film “Typhoon”, Rain eventually got the role.
The film industry has no exception. Jo Seung-woo, who perfectly digested the role of autistic 20 years old man with the brain capacity of 5 years old in the film “Marathon” grabbed his chance when Shin Ha-gyoon, who was busy shooting other film and Park Hae-il, who felt a burden to act an autistic man, rejected the role.
Kim Ah-joong from “200 Pounds Beauty” also went around few turns before she could get her hand on the role. The directing staffs suggests many top female stars include Ko So-young, Kim Hee-seon, Lee Na-young and Soo-ae but many felt uneasy about a character who undergoes a complete cosmetic makeover. Meanwhile, Kim Ah-joong came into their eyes and she was given the role.
Also there are unlucky stars who have rejected their chances of fame. Cha In-pyo have rejected ‘Shiri’, ‘The Foul King’, “The Host”, “Friend”, ‘Kick the moon’, ‘My Wife Is a Gangster’ and ‘My Boss, My Hero’ and Kim Hee-seon missed out in ‘Autumn in my Heart’, “All In”, ‘Winter Sonata’, ‘Lovers in Paris’, ‘Phoenix’ and ‘Sorry, I Love You’.
Source: Naver Translated by: hancinema.net
I never knew that Kim Hee Sun was offered to do all those high-shot dramas like “Autumn Tale/Endless Love” (Autumn in my heart), which made Song Hye Gyo a very popular actress at the early 20th century. And also a few others that I happened to watch all of them (All In, Winter Sonata, Lovers in Paris, Phoenix and I’m sorry I love you). But knowing this, I can’t imagine how she would have pulled all those roles, haha. So maybe it’s for the best.
For Eun Hye and Kim Ah Joong, both picked roles that required them to go beyond their ‘comfort zones’ (in Coffee Prince, Eun Hye had to cut her hair and made it so she’d look like a true tomboy, same thing with Ah Joong, in “200 lbs of beauty” - a small budget movie that hit the roof at the box office). And the results? Yoon Eun Hye won the Best Leading Actress at the 44th Baeksang - huuuuge accomplishment. And Kim Ah Joong, I heard she rejected the role in the sequel of “200 lbs of beauty”. Good for her.
