[EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW] Beauty 101 with Won Jin Ah, Our ‘She Would Never Know’ Marketing Star

Made based on popular novel by Elise in 2017, She Would Never Know, successfully grabbed the hearts of many throughout its run. The drama stars Won Jin Ah, Rowoon (SF9), Lee Hyun Wook, and Lee Joo Bin, who played as four people trapped in a complicated relationship with each other.

We have met the powerful couple Lee Hyun Wook and Lee Joo Bin before, now it’s time for KLAR’s marketing star Song Ah, who played by Won Jin Ah, to share her tips on love and beauty inside out!

How did you prepare yourself to act as a marketing staff of cosmetic brand? Did you do any special research?

As I didn’t know well about the job, while preparing for the character I asked for help a lot. I watched many videos on Youtube by beauty vloggers, as well as people who work as marketing in cosmetic brand. Fortunately, the production team arranged meeting with popular cosmetic brand marketing team for me and they exceeded my expectation on how into the field and knowledgable they are. I was so impressed. They (the marketing team) know well what matches them and how to do makeup that can express each personality. In a sense, Song Ah is expected to be great in the field as the star of KLAR, thus I put more care to my make-up, hair, and fashion styles to bring out Song Ah’s personality. I wished that every detail could show Song Ah’s love and passion toward her career.

What do you think is the strength and charm of your character? Do you have any similarity with her? What did you learn from your character?

In my opinion, Song Ah’s strength is her kindness. It’s not something that should be underestimated nor ignored. She has pride over her career, she thinks and acts on her own and not easily got swayed, and all of this make her cool. Nevertheless, if it was concerning her family and love life, she is awkward and quiet tiresome. She is so charming because of her “tough yet gentle” persona, she is someone who can’t stand seeing other treated unfairly, but she turns quiet once it involves herself. She can be trusted and uses her brain in everything, which also makes people can sympathize with her and be consoled.

Both Song Ah and I are ambitious at work and want to do our best. Just like Song Ah who could even skip some fun only to visit KLAR, I also like to work without rest.

Why did you take the offer to star in She Would Never Know?

In the beginning, I was interested because of the powerful and provocative title. After reading the script, I feel empathy because of 2 things; first, the story easily yet explicitly show feelings that you can experience for real, and second because of how I see Song Ah solves her problem. I feel interested by the contradiction of the title and story. I thought taking the offer to star in this enchanting drama is the best opportunity for me.

Please share your impression of Rowoon and the experience of working with him! How do you evaluate your chemistry with him?

I thought he’d be brilliant and full of spirit as he’s active in various fields, but once we worked together, he surprised me with his calm and careful personalities. He is an open person, but has a lot of knowledge. He’s also humorous, playful, and funny, he’s the moodmaker on set who raised our spirit. I learned a lot from him as an actor. Viewers can rate our chemistry, so instead I’ll rate the extent of how happy I am working with Rowoon and the score would be 100 out of 100!

Tell us which scene is the most appealing and memorable in the drama?

I will choose scene from first episode where Song Ah and Hyun Seung were in the middle of meeting. It explicitly showed how their relationship was in the beginning of the drama.

“He’s quite outstanding, I wonder who taught him.”

“She taught me.”

The dialog shows clearly their senior-junior relationship at work, but at the end of episode when Hyun Seung removes lipstick that doesn’t fit Song Ah’s lips, suddenly their relationship changed. It amazes me how the difference between the opening and closing of an episode can show how will the story go.

As the story comes from novel, people might have certain expectation of each character before the drama. Do you have any tip on making your depiction of the character shines?

This character isn’t mine. I prefer to say that the character is created by director, crew, and all actors together. We discussed before the filming began to keep the balance between Song Ah and other characters. And as usual, we always freely discuss and share ideas on set while filming. I feel really thankful to the director and staffs who created an atmosphere that let us openly exchange our ideas until we come to great understandings.

The drama feels more like adult romance than a romantic comedy. What makes the love story special?

When Song Ah and Hyun Seung started to share their stories and concerns, their relationship changes to a romantic one from only co-workers. I think this is very special. I could feel the support from viewers for them to grow and make progress in having this relationship and finding their own selves.

As a marketing staff of cosmetic brand, are you good at make up? What thing that can’t be left out from your makeup pouch?

In reality, prefer a “quick 5 minutes make up” because I’m not used to doing makeup and if it took a long time. I like it simple, haha. But there is a thing that I must bring everywhere and just like our drama title*, it’s lipstick! The key is lip product. I have many lip products in similar colors. I use my lipstick as my blusher as well.

Now you mostly have to use mask, how do you prevent your makeup to stick on your mask? And usually how do you take care of your skin?

For me, not using makeup is better for your skin if you use mask, that’s why I don’t really do any makeup on purpose these days. Plus, it makes my preparation time to be shorter. Once I got home, I usually clean my face carefully to protect the skin from exhaustion after a long day activity.

For you who have finished your lovely journey with She Would Never Know or those of you who decided to be patient until it ended, the drama can be binge-watched now exclusively on iQIYI! You can enjoy various titles and type of shows, including She Would Never Know, through iQIYI app on your mobile or go directly to iq.com to enjoy it on your desktop.