With her sweet soulful eyes and innocent expression, it's hard to imagine child actress Kim Yoo Jung as a bully, but that's just what she will play in a new film called "Elegant Lies."
Kim Yoo Jung will star as Hwa Yeon. She's a girl who seems sweet and cheerful but is really cruel and enjoys bullying others. As a result of her bullying, one of her victims is driven to commit suicide. After the girl dies, her mother, older sister and friends try to deal with their loss. Hopefully, Kim's character will also come to terms with the harm that bullying can do.
Bullying others is not something the actress says she would ever do in real life although some of her anti-fans have accused her of such.
"If you search my name online, 'Kim Yoo Jung bully' shows up as a search term," said the actress on the talk show "Strong Heart" last year. "First of all, I am not a bully. I do have a habit of looking at people sideways so people sometimes misunderstand and think that I'm glaring at them."
It should come as no surprise that the actress has taken on such a challenging role, since she has said in the past that her favorite roles are the ones with plenty of emotional scenes.
"I like roles where I have a lot of emotional scenes because you can express your own emotions," she said.
It has been a busy year for Kim. She was also cast in a new drama, "Golden Rainbow," in which she plays the oldest sister in and the most responsible member of a blended family of orphans. She will play the character in the first ten episodes. Singer and actress Uee is considering playing her character as an adult.
But every year since she was discovered has been a busy year for Kim. At 14, she is a veteran actress. She began acting at age 5, when she was discovered at a contest she attended with her older sister. She made her film debut that year in "DMZ" and has appeared in several films including "The Chaser" and "Haeundae." This year she also appears in the film "Alumni" with BigBang's T.O.P.
By the time she turned 10, Kim had already appeared in more than a dozen dramas and more than a dozen films. She won her first acting award for the drama "Iljimae," following that with good reviews for her performances in "Dong Yi" and "Flames of Desire." She played the young Han Ga In in "Moon Embracing The Sun." She also played Chun Hae Joo in "May Queen."
"Elegant Lies" is based on a novel written by Kim Ryu Kyung. The film will begin shooting at the end of the month.
