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RIDING THE KOREAN WAVE
Meeting Jeon
She’s been our favourite ‘Sassy girl’ since that movie was released some five years ago.
Today, the nickname still follows her around, and Jeon Ji Hyun, for her part enjoys that moniker.
While I was waiting for her to finish her press interviews, I had a short chat with one of the coordinating managers. I
found out that Jeon’s favorite colour is white and she really enjoys eating.
The coordinating manager was telling me about how impressed he was at the amount Jeon was eating at last night’s
buffet. I can certainly empathise… we tend to believe celebrities, especially of the female ilk, consume only water and
obsess about their weight every waking second.
But Jeon belies that old stereotype. She eats what she wants but she burns it off.
It helps to be statuesque. She’s 1.72 metres tall, and with high heels on, she looks very long and svelte.
Jeon was every bit I imagined her to be. What we see on screen is Jeon herself. I suppose she studies the roles
very well, and makes it her own. She feels quite familiar even though this is your first face-to-face meeting.
Still young at 24, she seemed uncomfortable in front of the media and the cameras, even though she’s been in the
business for 10 years.
Perhaps it’s because, she’s in unfamiliar territory, and perhaps it’s because she’s just not used to doing media interviews.
It didn’t take very long to break the ice, and soon she was feeling more at ease. But you could tell she was conscious of the
cameras rolling all the time. She was very frank though, and she didn’t seem afraid to say anything.
The Only Hitch
The interview was going great, but halfway, somebody storms in and says we have to stop.
He must have been one of the representatives promoting Jeon’s latest movie because he insisted that we have a
poster of the movie up as a backdrop or we wouldn’t be allowed to continue with our interview.
It was a bit frustrating because nothing was mentioned before when they had come in to check the camera set up
and all. But obviously they had either overlooked it or there was a last minute change of mind.
Interruption is never good for interviews because it’s all about going with the flow. Well, we continued, and I was
thankful that Jeon was very obliging. We did have to repeat some of the questions.
More about Jeon
Jeon is better known as a model than an actress. She started her career as a model and is very much a huge presence
in the commercial world.
She has endorsed many popular products, notably in the world of apparels and mobile phones.
All the ads play on her being a sexy hot icon in Korea (she was voted as having Korea’s sexiest derriere).
She’s usually dancing in the ads to show off her figure, and it came to a point when one of her ads was censored by the
national advertising media censor board.
The reason? The TV ad's sassiness had gone a bit overboard and was deemed "too sexy for broadcast TV".
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