"Am I Supposed to Lie?" Shin Min-a Fails a Small Talk Test

Actress Shin Min-a has opened up about having a hard time with small talk. She tried to work on it live on camera, and it did not go smoothly.

On the 30th, a new episode of the web variety show "Gilyeon" went up on LEE EUNJI's YouTube channel. The video was titled "Pretty Gumiho Shin Min-a, Who Walks Confidently Anywhere (Even Though She Gets Lost Easily)." A gumiho is a nine-tailed fox from Korean folklore. Shin appeared as the guest and talked about a range of topics.

"I'm not very good at small talk, but I've been trying lately," Shin said. "My brain gets tangled. I'll say something, and the other person goes, 'You asked me that last time.'"

Lee is comfortable with small talk, so she suggested a practice run. She set up a scene at a script reading, the first table read where a cast meets to read through a project together.

"Hello, sunbae. How have you been?" Lee asked, using the Korean word for a senior colleague. Shin hesitated, then gave up. "I can't do it," she said.

Lee showed her how it's done. "Did you dye your hair today, by any chance?" she asked. Shin answered honestly. "No, I didn't." That was the end of the conversation.

"Why won't you keep the conversation going?" a flustered Lee asked.

"If I didn't, I say I didn't, and then the conversation just seems to stop," Shin said, looking embarrassed. "Am I supposed to lie?"

In the next round, Shin made more of an effort to keep the chat moving. Her words soon got jumbled again, and the awkward exchange drew laughs.

The conversation then turned more serious. Shin said her position on set has changed over time.

"At some point, the directors on set became younger than me," she said. "What I said early in my career and what I say now could feel different in weight to the people hearing it."

She added, "I think even something I say casually could sound pushy to someone."