Youn Yuh-jung, Han Hyo-joo share behind-the-scene stories at BIFF

South Korean veteran actor Youn Yuh-jung and prolific actor Han Hyo-joo went over their latest acting career feats with the audience in Busan during the 28th Busan International Film Festival’s flagship special talk session Actors' House.

Launched in 2021 as an intimate, in-depth talk show, Actors' House has become a place where actors go over their filmography, reveal behind-the-scene stories and their new plans and projects.

Youn shared what it meant for her to receive the prestigious best supporting actor award at the Academy Awards in 2020 with Korean American director Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” a heartwarming Korean American immigrant story.

“(Having received an award from the academy) has become a shackle to me,” Youn said in front of some 400 movie buffs and her fans who participated in the talk late Friday.

“Before, I wanted to become respected. But now, respect is a word that scares me the most. I’m just a human being with so many flaws and I don’t deserve to be respected,” Youn said wryly.

She has remained low-profile after her Oscar-winning performance in "Minari" and even as her next role in the Apple TV+ series "Pachinko" was another huge hit. She hasn’t conducted any interviews with local media since.

“I even thought I shouldn’t have gotten the award,” she said. Describing the award as a “happy accident” in life, she said there was nothing more to add and felt embarrassed to do an interview.

“Nothing has changed, and I put a lot of efforts to make sure not many things has changed,” she added.

While going over her significant filmography “Fire Woman” (1971), “A Good Lawyer's Wife” (2003) and “The Bacchus Lady” (2016) during the 60-minute talk show, she said she earned a precious lesson from director Kim Ki-young, who discovered Youn’s talent in “Fire Woman.”

“One thing I learned from him was that you should become a person of high class. I’m not talking about spending money to become luxury, but you should hang out with people of better knowledge, sophistication -- someone who reads a lot and someone you can learn from,” Youn added.

Another featured guest on Actors' House, Han Hyo-joo, sat down with the audience Saturday evening, speaking about her latest action franchise "Believer 2." She has shown her multifaceted acting in recent projects such as the Disney+ series "Moving."

“I find his unique, different kind of exhilaration from BIFF, not just because I’m a movie buff, but especially since I visited here with my own project,” said Han in front of some 400 fans and the media.

In “Moving,” Han was cast in the role of a mother for the first time. Her character, Lee Mi-hyun, has a 19-year-old son with inherited superpowers. The drama series received explosive feedback soon after its release in August.

“When I first received the role, I was at the age of 33. I wasn’t really confident about the role, because I thought I was too young to play that character,” she said, adding that she almost shed tears of joy after seeing the positive feedback.

“I decided to act like my mom, someone who is really passionate and sacrifices for the family. She even had her own job, but gave it up to become a mother, losing her own time as a human being,” Han said.

“That kind of image and aspect was what I decided to put into Lee Mi-hyun,” she added.

Through that project, Han said, she came to learn that she is the type of actor who loves exploring different paths and taking on challenges.

“I feel more attracted to paths I’ve never been on, wearing clothes that I’ve never worn before. Then I feel huge happiness in achieving such challenges,” she said.