'Ms. Temper & Nam Jung Gi' Star Lee Jo Won Discovers The Thrill Of Telling Her Boss To Go Shove It On The K-Drama
Lee Jo Won may be playing a fearlessly confrontational cosmetics saleswoman on the new K-drama "Ms. Temper & Nam Jung Gi," which premiered Friday on the JBTC network, but even the 35-year-old South Korean actress admits to being nervous about her character's behavior.
"As I read the script, I felt so liberated," Lee told the Korea JoongAng daily in an interview published Thursday. "I started to wonder if any woman would go up to a male boss and really say what she wants to say and I was even scared [my character] would really lose her job."
"Ms. Temper & Nam Jung Gi" focuses on Lee's character of Lee Yo Won, who leaves a job at a larger cosmetics company to work for one of the companies she used to buy products from.
"She seems like she doesn't listen to anybody and does things as she wants," said the actress.
"She can speak up because she's got talent. You will know why the character I'm playing became that person with such a personality. She is definitely not someone who would yell at people at any moment...although her job changes overnight, her attitude doesn't change."
Despite raising some important issues of workplace equality, Lee admits the show is fantasy. And she wouldn't have it any other way.
"It would have been so gloomy if the drama were to depict the power game between companies truthfully, but this one actually has a lot of comical elements in it," Lee said.
And what about the career struggles she's faced in real life? Lee admitted she's had to struggle for anything she's gotten, particularly as a starting actor.
"I was new in the industry without any name value. I struggled," she said. "[But] I was really set on making it work."
