Cannes: Doona Bae Thinks She’s Boring, But We Respectfully Disagree

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Cannes: Doona Bae Thinks She’s Boring, But We Respectfully Disagree

At each phase of the South Korean film industry’s climb to global ascendency over the past two decades, the work of Doona Bae has been near the center of the picture.

She starred in both Bong Joon-ho’s directorial debut, Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), and his international breakthrough The Host (2006), not to mention the first installment of Park Chan-wook’s vengeance trilogy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002). She has worked on acclaimed international projects, such as Japanese titles like Linda, Linda, Linda (2005) and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll (2009); and she has crossed over to Hollywood more successfully than virtually any other Korean actor of her generation. She starred in the Wachowski’s ambitious sci-fi efforts Cloud Atlas (2012) and Jupiter Ascending (2015), and she has also been a leading figure during the dawning of the streaming age, appearing in Netflix’s Sense8 (2015-2018), the streamer’s first Korean hit, Kingdom (2019-), and more recently in the sci-fi series The Silent Sea, again with Netflix.

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At Cannes 2022, already a strong edition for Korean filmmaking, Bae is back with starring roles in two features: Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s competition contender Broker, his first Korean film and something of a companion piece to his 2018 Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters; and Korean director July Jung’s Critics’ Week title Next Sohee, her second film with Jung after 2014’s A Girl at My Door. In both films, Bae plays a police detective, investigating cases that involve crimes against young people.

Sadly, the actress won’t be in attendance at Cannes this year, because of shooting commitments in Los Angeles for Zack Synder’s Netflix sci-fi feature Rebel Moon. Ahead of Cannes, The Hollywood Reporter connected with Bae after a day of filming to discuss her current approach to her craft.

Congratulations on both of the films you have in Cannes this year. It’s striking that in both Broker and Next Sohee you play a police detective, because you also played a police officer in July Jung’s first film, The Girl at My Door (2014), and you recently starred as a cop in the hit TV series Stranger. Do you think there’s something about you as a person or a performer that makes you uniquely well suited to play this kind of role?

Well, it’s not out of any special preference on my part, or because I feel my persona is particularly appropriate for these kinds of roles. I think it’s probably more of a coincidence. But with regard to Broker and Next Sohee, I guess, in a way, I like to do films that touch on social issues, so perhaps that’s one reason I’ve often ended up playing various agents of justice.

Can I float a theory? You have a really amazing gift for playing characters who initially seem kind of indifferent or cold on the surface, but over time really delicate emotional shifts begin to register. So maybe detectives are good vehicles for your talent, in a way, because on one level cops are kind of unflappable, as they’ve seen it all before, and they’re just following procedures; but of course they’re still human beings who respond to extreme situations emotionally. Some of the other characters you’ve played share this quality to an extent — like the air doll that comes to life in Kore-eda’s Air Doll, or the clone in Cloud Atlas. What do you think? 

Yeah, I would fully agree! (Laughs) When I portray a character, I tend not to focus on analyzing the character’s profession,  per se, and I don’t approach roles in that kind of way. I want to pe into it, so that the human inside the character shines through — whether it’s a human or a non-human character that I’m playing. I guess what I want is for my audience to look at my characters and my performance and to feel what’s inside the character’s heart rather than what I’m showing on the surface. And that has been consistent across the 20 years or so of my acting, from the very beginning.

You mentioned you’re interested in being in films that touch on social issues. Could you elaborate on that a little? 

Well, it’s nothing particularly grand, but it’s more of just a natural concern — especially social issues that involve children or adolescents. I suppose my mind and heart goes to these issues. It’s not out of my own experience; I just hope for a better world for young people. Even when I watch the news these days, the issues that really outrage me are issues that involve children.

So you’ve worked with July Jung and Hirokazu Kore-eda twice now. What it’s like working with each of them and what are some of your reflections on them as artists?

Oh, I wouldn’t presume to assess or evaluate them. They are two directors that I have huge respect for. I worked with Mr. Kore-eda for the first time for Air Doll in 2009, and ever since then he has been the number one director in my heart. He is greatly respectable in all ways — in the way that he looks at the world, how he treats his actors, crew and all of the staff members on the set. Just the way he looks at life. He is in every way the type of person I aspire to be. When you imagine working with these great master directors, you might picture that they demand their own way on the set to an extent that is oppressive. But, really, with Mr. Kore-eda, he lets you be entirely yourself on the set — almost to the point that you sometimes wonder, am I doing it right? But at the same time that he gives you all of that freedom, he really knows what he’s looking for and perfectly captures all of it.

As for July Jung, she’s a director whom I really just adore. I decided to do her first film, A Girl at My Door, just five minutes after reading the script. I love her style of writing, how she writes each of her sentences with such controlled motion, but such strength. And working on Next Sohee, it was a film that I had a strong personal love for, and I really enjoyed my time on set. The way she led everyone on set was quite different from working with her on her debut a few years ago. Then she was still a little tentative, even girlish, but now she’s in complete command and totally on top of her game. It was a great experience.

So the Korean film industry, of course, has gone through such an incredible evolution and expansion over the past two decades. And you’ve been a central figure and driver of this movement all along the way. What does the recent global recognition of Korean filmmaking mean to you? And what’s your assessment of the current state of the Korean film industry?

Compared to 20 years ago, like you say, Korean film has come a very long way, and it enjoys attention and love from audiences all around the world. I’m really proud of that. Especially when you consider the relatively short history of the Korean film industry compared to Hollywood. I’ve worked on various international projects as well, and one thing I can say is that from an early stage of our Korean industry, our artists had a very strong passion and will to pursue their unique visions — and all along the way, even when the industry was so much smaller than it is today, they were saying, okay, one day this will shine through and be recognized.

But that kind of creative passion is not something that money can buy, so while I’m very proud of where we are today, I’m not without worries or concerns. I’m worried that as we become more and more successful, we will focus on fewer and fewer genres, themes or ways of handling material, and we’ll lose some of the creative persity that made Korean cinema great.

So when I choose Korean projects these days — much more so than when I pick Hollywood projects — I intentionally try to focus on subjects that are a bit different, or that might have something new to express.

Earlier in your career, there was a brief period when you took time off from acting to pursue other things. I think you took up photography, right? How are you feeling at this stage of your career? Is acting something you think you’ll always want to be doing for the rest of your life, or do you envision a time when you’ll want to pursue something else?

You know, to be honest, at this moment in my life, being in front of the camera is the thing that makes me feel most alive. I still find acting very difficult, but it’s the only thing that makes me feel alive. I don’t know how else to put it. I really love it. My life outside of my filmmaking is quite boring. I’m a boring person. But being another person during a performance — while it’s very challenging and difficult, and every day is a struggle — I still very much enjoy it.

Before I used to have this feeling of maybe wanting to be a better person — a more mature person, so that I could become a better actor to give better performances. So I would have this desire to take some time off, explore myself and just have more life experiences. But now what I feel is that I don’t know when I might not be able to do this work anymore. You know, it could be health issues, or career reasons, or something else that drives me away from acting. But for now, while I have this chance, I want to focus all of my being on this thing that I love doing.

Interview edited for length and clarity.