South Korean actress Park Ji-hyun has revealed the extraordinary physical and emotional sacrifices she made to portray her character across three different decades in the Netflix drama "You and Everything Else." The actress shared details about her dramatic weight fluctuations, including a dangerous three-week fasting period, during a recent interview in Seoul.
In the Netflix series, which premiered on September 12, Park plays Cheon Sang-yeon, a complex character she portrays throughout her 20s, 30s, and 40s. The show explores the deeply intertwined relationship between two lifelong friends - Eun-jung, played by Kim Go-eun, and Sang-yeon - whose bond is characterized by admiration, envy, resentment, and love spanning several decades.
To authentically portray Sang-yeon's struggles in her 20s, when the character's wealthy family loses their fortune and faces financial hardship, Park decided to lose significant weight. "I didn't measure my weight precisely, but I thought Sang-yeon should look thinner in her 20s," Park explained. "At that point, her family is struggling financially, and the refrigerator is practically empty."
However, Park's weight loss efforts were largely obscured by the harsh filming conditions during winter shoots. "I wore several layers of thermal underwear and even made a kind of Iron Man suit with thin electric heating pads powered by six batteries," she revealed. "Because of that, the weight loss wasn't very noticeable on camera."
For Sang-yeon's 30s, when the character achieves success as a film director, Park underwent the opposite transformation by deliberately gaining weight. "I felt Sang-yeon should look more settled and mature, so I deliberately gained some weight - not by tracking numbers, but just enough for my face to look fuller," she said. This physical change was meant to reflect the character's newfound stability and professional accomplishments.
The most extreme transformation came when portraying Sang-yeon in her 40s, as the character faces mortality and death. Park revealed she fasted for two to three weeks, consuming only water and Americanos to achieve a more fragile and gaunt appearance. "It made my body thinner, but my face became swollen - and I thought, 'This is it,'" she explained.
To enhance the visual effect of illness and emotional distress, Park employed additional extreme methods. "Right before shooting, I cried a lot on purpose to enhance that effect," she admitted. The emotional intensity of the role sometimes made it challenging for her to maintain the character's composed demeanor. "Sang-yeon is supposed to be calm and detached in her 40s, but every time I made eye contact with Kim Go-eun, I couldn't stop crying," she confessed.
Park acknowledged that achieving the desired physical appearance for her character's final chapter required pushing her body to its limits. "I usually don't swell up easily - which can be a strength - but to achieve that look, I cried a lot," she said. The actress's willingness to manipulate her physical and emotional state demonstrates the lengths to which she went to embody the character's journey through different life stages.
Park's extreme dedication to the physical and emotional transformation of Sang-yeon has garnered significant praise from both fans and critics. Her nuanced performance in "You and Everything Else" has been recognized as a testament to her commitment as an actress and her willingness to undergo dramatic personal changes for the sake of authentic character portrayal. The series continues to receive attention for its compelling storytelling and the actors' dedicated performances.
