Actress Go Ara, who played Kim Ah-ro in the recently concluded historical fantasy drama 'Hwarang: The Beginning,' talked about her career as an actor, the challenges she faced in her early days in the industry and what helped her polish her craft further.
In a recent interview with Soompi, Go Ara, who was cast as the female lead in dramas 'Sharp,' 'Snow Flower' and then of course in the campus drama 'Reply 1994,' talked about how her roles in these films gave her the platform that would eventually help her get cast in 'Hwarang.'
"Ok Rim received a lot of love, and I'm thankful that many people still remember her. Starring on 'Reply 1994' was a chance for me to learn a lot, but I think this is only the beginning. I feel like there's a lot more I'll be able to do in the future," she said.
As Go Ara entered Chung Ang University's Department of Theatre, her acting career suffered. It is here that she began to think deeply about acting as a profession and the kind of performances she hoped would help her.
"What should I be doing as an actor? What kind of actor do I want to be?" Go Ara said, adding that during her time at the University she studied a lot about the craft of acting.
"That's why I focused on my studies even more. I saw a lot of theatrical works and participated in them when I had time. I thought deeply about what new things I could try out, and I naturally became who I am now as a result of the time I spent having those thoughts. I'm still young, so I want to challenge myself to do many more things from now on," Go Ara said.
In KBS2's 'Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth,' Go Ara displayed a maturity as an actress that made the audiences empathise with her. The two male lead characters played by Park Seo-joon and Park Hyung-sik were fighting to win her affection. She displayed enough charm in her role as a Silla dynasty commoner which helped the audience root for the poor villagers rather than the royals.
The 27-year old actress also revealed that she had changed her entertainment agency from SM Entertainment which was managing Jung Woo Sung and Lee Jung, whose work had inspired her. She said: "There was a lot I wanted to learn from them after I saw their works. It was very interesting to hear stories from seniors who've been in the industry for over 20 years, and I wanted to get more advice from them."
She added: "I'm still in the process of developing my own goals as an actor, but my goal to take on various challenges, whether it's about the genre or the role I'll be playing, remains unchanged since my debut."
Go Ara also added that she is trying to secure another role in a drama or movie. She is looking at various scripts to select a proper one and return to television and cinema.
