On November 5, Lee Se Young appeared on the YouTube channel 117, where an episode of “Sungchan’s Interview” featuring the actress was released.
During the interview, Lee Se Young talked about Disney+’s original series The Remarried Empress. Playing Rashta, a runaway slave in the drama, she introduced her character as “someone who raises viewers’ blood pressure and drives them crazy.”
When asked how she approached the role, Lee Se Young explained, “In the original work, Rashta is incredibly beautiful and lovable, but her actions are so wicked that she is practically pure evil. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to portray her as a character people couldn’t completely hate. I felt that I had to commit evil acts with a genuinely innocent heart.” She said she performed with the mindset of, “I’m just Rashta, so why am I doing this?”
Having appeared in numerous historical dramas, Lee Se Young also discussed what made filming the romantic fantasy series The Remarried Empress different. “When you watch foreign films, the ballroom scenes, dresses, and interiors are all completely different. There’s a different kind of visual appeal,” she said. “It was my first time actually wearing costumes like the ones I’d seen in textbooks or movies and being treated like a princess. I really enjoyed that during filming.”
Lee Se Young also admitted that she followed a strict diet to prepare for The Remarried Empress. “I needed to work on my figure, so I made a greater effort to eat enough protein and quit drinking alcohol,” she revealed.
Explaining why she was so serious about avoiding alcohol, she joked, “Muscle loss makes me so angry. It’s not even easy for me to build muscle in the first place, but when I lose it, it disappears so quickly.”
Sungchan expressed surprise, commenting, “Usually, it’s men who work out at the gym who give up alcohol because they don’t want to lose muscle.” Lee Se Young responded, “Those men exercise every day and eat properly every day, so they always have opportunities to build muscle. But for me, gaining muscle is difficult.”
Meanwhile, the first four episodes of Disney+’s original series The Remarried Empress, starring Lee Se Young, Shin Min Ah, Ju Ji Hoon, and Lee Jong Suk, were released on November 3.
Sources: Naver