The Glory actress Cha Joo Young answered the questions many were wondering while reprising her role of Choi Hyejeong.
In an interview with various media outlets including Osen, Cha Joo Young discussed her break-out role as Choi Hyejeong in The Glory. In the K-Drama, she acts as the vain member of a group of school bullies. A flight attendant, she makes sure to keep up her appearance through plastic surgery on both her face and her breasts. She has a crush on Jeong Jaejoon (played by Park Sung Hoon) and is jealous of both Park Yeonjin (played by Lim Ji Yeon) and Lee Sara (played by Kim Hi Eora).
But in real life, Cha Joo Young is highly educated. She studied abroad in the United States, attending Utah State University for business administration before transferring to the University of Utah. She ultimately returned to Utah State University and graduated with a degree in business administration. She is also able to fluently speak four languages, including English and Japanese.
Cha Joo Young first talked about the scene where she is topless with Jeon Jaejoon.
I’ve been waiting for today.
This is a scene that I talked about with a lot with the writer and directoir, and it was something that I knew I had to do from the moment I decided to take the role as Hyejeong. Hyejeong herself made it clear she had breast augmentation surgery.
But I haven’t had that, and the part that many people are curious about is whether CG was involved in that scene. But rather than not taking [my clothes] off, yes, that was my body. It might sound vague, but I wanted to accurately point it out.
There was a body double prepared and CG was also prepared. There was a lot of effort put into the second part of The Glory and the important parts were written. I didn’t just take off my clothes for no reason.
In the scene with Jaejoon, when my back is showing, a body double was used. But in the scene where I am wearing a shirt and taking that off, that is my body. Yep, that part was my body. But in that scene, there was some editing done through CG.
— Cha Joo Young
The scene that Cha Joo Young was referring to was from Episode 13, where Hyejeong and Yeonjin are having an argument and Hyejeong takes of the shirt she is wearing and throws it at Yeonjin.
She expressed her relief at having The Glory rank number one globally on Netflix before talking about how she had to change her body and demeanor for the role of Choi Hyejeong.
Please write that I am actually pretty slim in the article. I gained around five to six kilograms (11-13 pounds) for the role, and it shows in the K-Drama. Right now, I have not completely returned to my pre-role weight, but it is slowly going down. I gained about six kilograms (13 pounds) when I filmed the K-Drama and I’m going back down to my regular weight now. I’ve almost lost it all.
Gaining weight like that wasn’t too much of a burden on me. When I was cast for the role, the topic of weight gain was brought up, so I put aside my worries. There wasn’t a single time where I was promised the role would be pretty at first or focused on visuals. Even though Hyejeong was trying to look pretty and did come out pretty, that wasn’t the focus of the role. Because of that, there was no pressure on me.
How did I prepare for how Hyejeong speaks? I looked up a lot of references, but it was hard to find them because this role was difficult to match. There was no such person around me who spoke like Hyejeong’s character. So I had to pull it out of myself. I tried to approach it in a simple manner because it was a difficult task, and I tried to maintain a state of tension. If you look at my notes app on my phone, it’s all swearing and cursing. Since my family is at home, I asked for their understanding as I cursed. I told them the times I would be practicing and asked for them not to be surprised at what I am saying. I simply thought ‘now I am living with the heart of swears.‘ That’s how I approached it.
— Cha Joo Young
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