Actress Park Si Yeon will return to dramaland in the fall, playing a single mother in the upcoming drama "The Greatest Marriage."
In a recent interview with the Chosun Ilbo, she spoke about motherhood and said that she had taken time off from acting to be a mother. She did not speak about her recent sentencing for prescription drug abuse or her two-network ban.
The actress, who married in 2011, gave birth to her first child, a daughter, in Sept. 2013, while awaiting the results of her trial on charges of abusing the pain relief drug propofol.
At the trial Park Si Yeon's doctor testified that he originally prescribed the drug to help her cope with the disabling pain caused by on-set injuries. She was injured while filming "Marine Boy" and again while filming "Dachimawa Lee." Although the injuries were treated, the pain lingered.
But the court ruled she had become dependent on the drug. She was ordered her to pay a $4,000 fine and serve two years probation. MBC and KBS banned her from appearing in their dramas.
Park Si Yeon stayed home and cared for her child for almost a year but then decided that she wanted to return to work. And she did so with the support of her family.
"If my husband expected me to just stay at home taking care of my daughter, I would," she said. "But he likes when I work, and he knows that I'm happy when I'm working. He said that it's my decision, and he will support me whatever I decide."
In "The Greatest Marriage," Park plays a successful TV journalist who becomes a single mother by choice. The drama also stars Bae Soo Bin and No Min Woo.
"I heard that being a single mother by choice is different from being a single mother by circumstance because the former decides not to marry and be single," she said. "Notions about marriage have changed greatly these days and there are single mothers who don't choose to marry."
Park's own marriage is strong despite the ordeal of the trial and she has devoted time to making it a success.
"I'm trying hard to have a great marriage. If you don't want to make the effort, you should live alone," she said. "You must make an effort to live with someone."
Her last film "The Last Knights," is on the schedule for the Toronto Film Festival in September. The Korean-American co-production, which also stars Clive Owen, Morgan Freeman and Ahn Sung Ki, premieres in Korea in 2015.
