Kim gives encouraging messages through ‘Tomorrow’
Actress Kim Hee-sun, who played a stylish grim reaper in the recently wrapped up series, “Tomorrow,” shared that she wanted to offer a sense of positive encouragement to the viewers through the series.
“I wanted to deliver the value of life, warm messages, and courage to those people who are struggling. I feel like I also came to learn to care for people around me, to empathize with and comfort others’ pain from watching the series. It also helped me grow,” she said during a written interview with The Korea Times.
Based on the webtoon of the same name, the fantasy drama series, which ended on May 21, revolves around a group of hardworking grim reapers at an underworld company that saves suicidal people rather than taking their lives.
Kim played the character of Koo Ryeon, a charismatic leader of the risk management team responsible for saving suicidal people. Jobseeker Choi Joon-woong (Rowoon) is accidentally put into a coma after interfering with Ryeon’s work, which leads him to join the team and to its journey to save different struggling people who are on the edges of their lives.
The 16-part series touches on various social issues from school bullying, eating disorders and workplace “gapjil” — a Korean word referring to the abuse of power by people in authority toward people they outrank or who are in weaker positions
than them.
The actress said that she felt the need to take the role when she came across the series.
“It’s very unfortunate that Korea has the highest suicide rate among the OECD countries … about 37 people take their own lives every day on average. This is heartbreaking, so I thought, ‘I have to take part in the series,’” she said.
“I believe this was the first project that I decided to join without thinking about the outcome. I felt I wouldn’t regret it no matter what the result is. I thought, ‘It’s only right to do it,’ if I were given the opportunity to take such a role that would offer a sense of encouragement and comfort (to other people).”
Kim’s character seems unyielding, speaking bluntly to people whom she is supposed to save, to face the harsh reality. But she eventually steps in to empathize with them and helps them realize that the life is worth living, as well as to seek revenge on whoever is responsible for their suicidal thoughts.
The actress shared that she tried to discover a new style of voice and intonation to portray the multi-layered character.
“I tried to use a voice and speech style that I’ve never used in my previous works … I did my best to look detached and hide my emotions at times and be expressive when I had to be,” she said.
“It wasn’t my character to overtly comfort other people and sympathize with their pain. Even though it would’ve been nicer if she could have encouraged them with warm words, I felt it was more like her to stay cool-headed and see what’s right and wrong from each person’s perspective. So I tried to set the tone (to fit that part of her character).”
She added that the most difficult part of playing the character was not getting emotional about each person’s story.
“Each episode touched my heart. I cried a lot reading the script and I also got teary watching the series. But when I was acting, I had to control my emotions, so holding my tears back was the hardest part,” she said.