Seong Yuri Stars in MBC’s “First Love of the Prince Royal”

--Scene One:

Kwonhui (Cha Tae-hyun), a debauchee and an heir to a chaebol, holds his head high, saying, “I’m Choi Kwon-hui. I never disappoint women.”

Dead drunk the night before, he finds his way to Yoobin (Seong Yuri)’s room and spends the night there, thinking she is Japanese. The next morning, he pays her and leaves. On his way out, Yoobin calls out behind him, “You weren’t that great last night.”

--Scene Two:

Yoobin is delivering sandwiches to Seunghyun (Kim Nam-jin)’s office, a network manager at a big company. She is tense and shy in front of him because of her one-sided love for him. She is barely able to say, “Well…did you order this sandwich?”

She later says to her friend: “He was so cool-looking today. He had both of his sleeves rolled up and was ordering people around. What charisma. Oh, he was so sexy!”

These are two scenes from “First Love of the Prince Royal,” MBC’s 20-episode drama starting this June. Seong Yuri, age 23, plays a tomboyish girl, a departure from her previous, feminine roles where she played the dedicated lover to her mate. This drama portrays modern young people and their love, and it is also being broadcast on Japanese satellite TV.

“While I was a member of the group, Fin.K.LE, I used to be shy, and that stays with me still. It’s the real me, too. But this time, I want to really reveal my talents. My personality is so in synch with Yoobin’s now.”

Yoobin is a sandwich delivery woman three years after her college graduation, but she is always happy despite this fact. “The most difficult thing is that I have to turn into an energetic Yoobin even after working all night the night before when shooting,” says Yuri. She answered in a quiet and shy voice in a press interview on April 29, unlike the character she plays, Yoobin.

“I like my last role in ‘Love of Thousand Years’ because I had so much bad feedback about it, and it was a very difficult experience for me. I could cover up my lack of acting skills because it was set in ancient days, but I prepared myself very hard for this one because it’s set it modern days,” Seong said.

Lee Kwan-hee, the producer of the drama said, “She is the most beautiful actress on TV since Shim Eun-ha,” and he also added, “Yuri has the potential to be a great performer someday.”

Seong Yuri said to one of her best friends, Song Hye-kyo, “I envy you now that you are shooting with Be, the singer. We have to compete.” Song will appear in KBS 2’s “Full House” starting this July.

She commented about his partner Cha Tae-hyun, saying, “We go to the same hair salon, and he is a good leader to me when it comes to acting.”

Seong started her career as a singer, but is now paving her way as an actress and entertainment MC. “I don’t want to limit my career to one single area, but I want to focus on acting for now.”

We viewed on her stance on men through her comments about her two male costars in the drama.

“Seunghun is a good guy to look at from a distance. But he is so stern and does not know how to express his feelings. He seems like a guy who’ll give you hard time dating. Kwonhui is brighter, but he’s still too young.”

Seong Yuri will be staying in Bali, Indonesia for 45 days starting this early May. “I’ve never been abroad more than 15 days because I missed home so much. Now I’m really scared of the whole schedule.”

Katherine Cho kathycho@donga.com