Director Min Jin-ki of the ENA drama ‘Salon de Holmes’ paid tribute to the late actress Park Ji-a.
On the afternoon of the 17th, during a round interview marking the end of ‘Salon de Holmes’ at a café in Mapo-gu, Seoul, Director Min recalled, “I saw Park Ji-a on the theater stage and immediately suggested her for the role of the head of the women’s association, Choi Seon-ja.”
Park Ji-a, who always played strong roles, responded, “I really wanted to try this kind of role,” considering it a great opportunity. Passionately engaged in character development, Park Ji-a continuously collaborated with Director Min to prepare for the character of Choi Seon-ja.
“At that time, Senior Park Ji-a was juggling several projects. She was busy filming those works and couldn’t come to our set often, but whenever she did, she would always sit next to me after finishing her scenes and say, ‘I love this set,’ and ‘I really enjoy working to make people happy.’ As a result, we built a strong bond.”
After learning about Park Ji-a’s illness, the staff and actors were also emotionally affected. However, all members focused on the project, knowing that ‘Salon de Holmes’ was a work that Park Ji-a was very attached to.
“I visited her in the hospital, and she was in tears. I told her, ‘You need to get better soon,’ and ‘You have to see the broadcast.’ Even when she passed away after a difficult time last year, we wanted to make it even better since it was her final work, and we worked with the hope that many people would remember the name Park Ji-a.”
The ‘Salon de Holmes’ team not only included a tribute message in episode 8, where Park Ji-a’s character Choi Seon-ja appears the most, but also created and posted a separate tribute video on ENA’s official YouTube channel, drawing attention.
“We thought a lot about how to pay tribute in a way that felt true to us. Most works leave a scrolling line in the first or last episode, but I felt that was a bit weak, so we received materials from her agency in advance and created a video that organized Park Ji-a’s filmography in our own way. While viewers mostly remember her as Moon Dong-eun’s mother in ‘The Glory,’ we aimed to help them recall, ‘Oh, that actress was there.’”
Director Min Jin-ki has cast actors from the theater scene since ‘Blue Tower’ and has particularly thought that he should use more theater actors for ‘Salon de Holmes.’
“I wanted to create confusion between the villains and the criminals. Therefore, we needed actors who were relatively less known. If someone like Kim Kyung-bi, who is well-known, plays a role, it becomes predictable. To avoid that, I think we opted to cast more actors from the theater scene.”
Actors who primarily performed on stage were very satisfied as they made their media debuts. Director Min Jin-ki stated, “Even if it’s not this work, I plan to actively cast theater actors in films like ‘Shinbyeong’ and ‘Shinbyeong 4’ as well.” (Continued in [Interview②])
[Kim Mi-ji, Star Today Reporter]
