Bae Suzy Reflects on How Much Her Latest Hit Show, 'Doona!' Means To Her
Suzy gives fans a rare insight and shares the emotional symbolism and parallels between her character and her.
Bae Suzy and Yang Se-jong have recently been garnering a lot of attention for their new K-drama Doona!. The series that premiered in October on Netflix follows the tale of a newly-retired K-pop idol Lee Doona, portrayed by Bae Suzy, living in a shared house. There, she meets Lee Won-joon, played by Yang Se-jong, an average college student whose growing interest in the idol’s mysterious life brings him closer to Doona. In an interview with local news outlet TV Report, Suzy opened up about how her role in this new romance K-drama is hitting home for her, in more ways than one.
If you weren’t already familiar with Suzy, she kickstarted her career in 2010 with Miss A, a four-piece girl group formed by JYP Entertainment, one of South Korea’s leading idol management agencies. Since the group’s debut, Suzy enjoyed phenomenal popularity for her innocent and natural image, inadvertently outshining her bandmates. In early 2017, Suzy began pursuing a solo career as an idol, and the group eventually disbanded later that year.
So when Doona! first came out, fans were excited to see Suzy in a role that matched her own life. After all, Suzy herself had been an idol who decided to make it on her own as a soloist and as an actress.
In a recent interview, the actress was asked about how she could relate to her character in Doona!. To that, she referred to the parallels she felt in Doona’s emotions that developed throughout the drama, saying “I’m reminded of the line, ‘I’m the one who hurts myself. I won’t stand by and let it happen.’ This was a moment where you could feel Doona’s growth. Recently, I’m getting more reassured in myself, and I feel like I can just do as I’ve been doing all along.”
Suzy also shared that she chose to take on this project because she could truly sympathise with Doona as a character, given her own experiences. In the drama, Doona is seen smoking and wearing clothing that appears to be uncomfortable. Seeing Suzy, who is adored for her innocent and pure image, adopt her character in this way was shocking for many of her fans.
But for the actress who is known in South Korea as ‘The Nation’s First Love’, the clothing and smoking were merely symbols for Doona’s struggles. She explains, “I honestly felt refreshed by the scene of an idol smoking so openly. I felt that it showed a really human side [to idols]. I think smoking was used as a tool to express Doo Na’s loneliness. That’s why when she was dating Won-joon, she cut down on smoking, but started again when she became insecure. I think how Doona feels can be seen through her smoking. As for her clothing, they are short, thin, and uncomfortable in general. This is another tool through which Doona’s unstable emotions are expressed. I thought that it hints at how lonely and cold she felt.”
When asked about what advice she would give someone like Doona, Suzy divulged advice for her old self, “Things might be hard and tiring now, but all these moments will accumulate and make you shine even brighter. That’s what I want to tell Doona. Not everything will work out as you want it to, so I hope you hang in there. This is also what I want to tell the Suzy of the past.”
Through the process of getting to know Doona as a character and filming the drama, Suzy expressed that she managed to heal her own emotions from her personal journey as an idol. The affection that Suzy holds for the character created the perfect environment for both Suzy and Doona to thrive through this drama.
