Seo Hyun-jin on way to find ‘Beauty Inside’ herself

“Rom-com queen” Seo Hyun-jin will take on the role of a top star in JTBC’s upcoming Monday-Tuesday drama series “Beauty Inside.”

The character has a secret -- her face changes into that of another person for a week every month. 

Co-star Lee Min-ki plays a successful director of an airline firm who also has a secret -- he cannot recognize anyone’s face. For him, it is always as if he is meeting a new person.

The drama is inspired by a popular 2015 film of the same name, starring Han Hyo-joo. The film and the drama are produced by the same production company.

In the film, Han’s character falls in love with a male furniture designer whose face changes every day.

“I myself watched the film around 30 times because I like it so much. That’s part of the reason behind how I could work with this production company,” producer Song Hyun-wook said at a media briefing Monday in western Seoul.

The producer added that he had to change certain details to adapt the story into a drama series, as some of the film’s details were impossible for drama production.

“But I still tried to keep the film’s warm sensibility and detailed touches,” Song said, adding that more humor has been added to the drama version.

“Also, the secrets of the lead characters are disclosed in the first and second episodes. The strategy was to reveal the fantastic setups and to focus more on the process of getting to know each other and falling in love.”

It will be the producer’s second time working with Seo, after the hit tvN series “Another Oh Hae-young.”

Seo rose to stardom through the romantic-comedy drama. After starring in the 2016 series, Seo landed the lead role in another romance drama, “Temperature of Love” on SBS, and earned the nickname “rom-com queen.”

“It is as if (I shot the drama) yesterday. As a result, I could act in this production with a lighter heart. I am not confident about doing better than ‘Another Oh Hae-young.’ But it will definitely be a different yet similar production,” Seo said.

The 16-part drama will air its first episode Monday at 9:30 p.m. JTBC has changed the starting time of the usual Monday-Tuesday drama timeslot from 11 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)