Before breaking into mainstream success, Park was rejected at least 17 times in auditions – so she turned to indie films instead.
In an interview with Dramabeans, Park revealed how she had starred in at least 15 independent films while in school. Notable titles include Ingtoogi: The Battle of Internet Trolls, a Korean Academy of Film Arts feature, and Steel Cold Winter, which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival.
In an interview with Dramabeans, Park shared: “I saw the musical Grease as a freshman in high school. The actors looked so happy. That’s when I started thinking that maybe I would like to become a musical actor.”
Although dedicated to becoming an actress, Park never thought she would star in films or dramas. “Whenever I applied, actresses were expected to have large eyes and faces that automatically made people think, ‘she’s pretty’,” Park is quoted as saying on Soompi. “After I started acting, I didn’t think that I liked my face because it was pretty, but because it was unique. I can at least confidently say that no one can copy my face, even with plastic surgery.”
Parasite wasn’t Park’s first blockbuster, and she had already won plenty of major acting awards before gaining recognition in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winner.
Two years after her debut, she starred in her first commercial film, The Silenced, which won her a best supporting actress gong at the Busan Film Critics Awards.
Park bagged another major role in film The Priests, where she delivered what many believe to be one of her best performances. In the same Dramabeans interview, Park shared that she earned her role through auditions against 2,000 other hopefuls. “The director who saw me at the second round of auditions said, ‘this girl has a unique aura’,” she said. Park went on to win a PaekSang Arts Award for best new actress.
In Record of Youth, Park So-dam’s character Ahn Jung-ha is a make-up artist who believes in striving to reach her goals and achieve her dreams to please herself rather than others. In a Soompi report, Park gushed about her latest role: “Ahn Jung-ha has a defined goal in life, she knows exactly what she wants to do, and she never stops in her efforts to achieve her dreams.”
