ACTRESS Park Eun-bin won over viewers around the world with her stellar portrayal of the titular Extraordinary Attorney Woo, a lawyer on the Autism Spectrum, and it turns out series director Yoo In-sik even convinced the studio to push back production for a whole year just for her.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo even topped Netflix’s Global Top 10 list of most-watched non-English shows for the week.
What makes it remarkable is that it is the first K-drama produced by minor TV station ENA. The drama was originally planned to be produced by giant network SBS, but was dropped.
Park was offered the role which she originally declined, stating that she wasn’t sure she would be able to portray Woo Young-woo, the neurodivergent attorney. She then chose to star in in KBS’s The King’s Affection.
The drama ended up doing really well, and the actress was praised for her acting. Yoo waited until Park finished filming The King’s Affection before he approached her once more.
At a press conference for her new series, Park said when she saw how the entire production team had waited a whole year for her, she felt that she could trust them and their director.
“I couldn’t imagine another actress playing Woo,“ said Yoo.
Yoo only had praise for her and explained why he was so adamant to have her play Woo.
“She’s shy and introspective in person, but in front of a camera, it’s like she can flip a switch. I’ve always thought she was a well-prepared actress, but she just has great pizzazz.
“She would only travel between her home and the filming locations because we filmed in the middle of a pandemic, and she knew it would be difficult if she got sick. It eased a lot of pressure knowing how responsible she was.
“Lastly, she’s really funny. During filming, she’d use the lights to make shadows to cheer us up. That was fun.”
