'Squid Game' Star Jung Ho-yeon on Her Big-Screen Debut in Na Hong-jin's 'Hope'

Jung Ho-yeon is stepping onto the big screen for the first time. The actor, best known globally for Netflix's "Squid Game," makes her film debut in director Na Hong-jin's "Hope," which opens on the 15th.

"A film debut feels surreal," she said. "Seeing my face on a screen that big is like a dream. As an actor, I'm grateful if I can leave any kind of impression on the audience. I just hope they enjoy the time they spend with the film."

"Hope" opens with Beom-seok, a local field office chief played by Hwang Jung-min, hearing reports that a tiger has appeared in his village. Beom-seok and Seong-ae, played by Jung, come face to face with a being that lies beyond the limits of human ability, and they stand against it to protect the people around them. The film is the latest from Na, whose past work includes "The Yellow Sea" and "The Wailing," and it has drawn strong interest from Korean film fans.

Jung came to the project through Hwang, who recommended her for a meeting with Na. The moment she met the director, she said, his sharp gaze was overwhelming. "I felt like he would see through me no matter what I did, so I decided to just show him who I actually am," she said. She went in without high expectations. Not long after, Na sent her the script for "Hope."

"I felt like I was flying," she said. "The script in my hands felt more precious than gold or jewels. On the drive back, I didn't even put it in my bag. I held it in my arms the whole way."

Once she joined the film, Jung said she was struck by Na's attention to detail. Her character wears only a police uniform throughout the film, and even that single outfit went through four fittings before rehearsals began. Na considered several colors of the same uniform, thought through how each would read under natural light, and weighed which fabric would best show blood and dust in the frame.

"People around me told me Na Hong-jin doesn't compromise for the sake of a result, and I felt it from the very first fitting," she said. "I'd never done that many fittings before. I saw how relentlessly he tries to build a single moment."

Pushed by Na's precision, Jung threw herself into the work of becoming Seong-ae. In the film, Seong-ae fights an otherworldly figure and handles a firearm with ease. To carry the roughly 5 kilogram weapon naturally on screen, Jung trained with firearms for six months and added weight training on top of it. A former model long known for a very thin frame, she gained about 4 kilograms of muscle through the program.

"There are scenes where I fire and reload the gun," she said. "When I watched the finished cut, the reloads were fast and smooth. I could see the practice in it, and that made me happy. We shot the shooting scenes for more than 20 takes. Early on my stamina held up and I aimed well. After about 20 takes I was tired and even the focus in my eyes started to go. I think the director wanted to catch everything, from the polished version to the raw, worn-out one."

Jung said that when she picks a project, one of the things she looks for is the chance to work with an experienced director or with veteran actors. "I want to stand next to a senior actor and pick up all the small details," she said. The set of "Hope" gave her that.

"Hwang Jung-min always arrived at set early," she said. "Because he did that, I naturally started arriving early too. Normally you'd expect there to be a moment where everyone gets comfortable with each other, but he stayed alert against that and never dropped his focus. Jo In-sung has an energy that keeps a set loose and moving. I was basically the wide-eyed kid who found everything amazing. Ha ha."

Asked what she'd tell herself for making it through the shoot, Jung said, "That I didn't give up and finished it." She added that watching the director and her co-stars refuse to let their focus slip left her feeling sharper as an actor.

"I think the more important question is what comes next," she said. "How do I keep this opportunity going and hold onto it for a long time? That's the bigger homework. I want to keep a healthy mindset that lets me think about that seriously, every day."