[Interview 1] Seo Soo-min of ‘Manager Kim’: “Sogi-seop’s dad really raised me like his own daughter”

“I still can’t believe I’m doing an interview for ‘Manager Kim’ or that I appeared as a daughter to my dad.”

Seo Soo-min, 19, who played Kim Min-ji, the daughter of Kim Manager (played by Sogi-seop), in the SBS Friday-Saturday drama ‘Manager Kim,’ recently met with Maeil Business Newspaper Star Today at the Maeil Business Media Center in Jung District, Seoul, to talk about the series.

The SBS Friday-Saturday drama ‘Manager Kim,’ which ended on the 25th of last month, was written by Nam Dae-jung and directed by Lee Seung-young and Lee So-eun. It tells the story of an ordinary family man, Kim Manager (played by Sogi-seop), who gives up everything to get his daughter back and confronts a conspiracy involving the state and powerful forces.

Seo Soo-min said she still could not believe she was being interviewed for ‘Manager Kim’ or that she had appeared as Sogi-seop’s daughter. “I feel endlessly grateful,” she said. “The reason this turned out so well is that every single person involved in the project, from the staff and the director to the actors, spent months focusing on just one production without exception.”

At a time when even a double-digit rating is considered a hit, ‘Manager Kim’ posted an astonishing peak viewership rating of 23.1 percent It would not be an exaggeration to call it a sensation

Seo Soo-min said she had “no real sense of it at all.” She added, “Since this was my first project, I didn’t really know how big a deal it was in the industry. But I gradually learned that ranking No. 1 on OTT and surpassing 20 percent in ratings is extremely rare. I can only feel grateful. It felt like every bit of energy was helping us.”

She continued, “I still don’t know why it did so well. While we were filming, the staff and director told me, ‘It has no trouble at all and was filmed in such a fun environment, so it was bound to do well.’ They said productions like that succeed because the set itself is enjoyable. Maybe that’s why it worked out.”

Seo Soo-min’s favorite scene in the series was the one where she ate a meal with her father, Kim Manager.

“The scene where I ate with my dad for the last time is the one I remember most,” she said. “I knew from the beginning that Min-ji was alive while filming. It was a story full of twists upon twists, so I thought viewers would be very surprised too.”

She also recalled her first meeting with Sogi-seop, who played her father.

“He was such a senior actor that I couldn’t easily start a conversation. I was just watching from a distance because I was worried it might interfere with the acting, but he came over first and handed me candy. That really eased my nerves. The first appearance scene for Min-ji, where she says, ‘That damn meal, meal,’ was also important, and he helped a lot by showing me the facial expression and body language of someone waking up from sleep.”

“He really treated me like his own daughter. He taught me a lot about how to treat people as a person before being an actor. He talked about how important it is to stay humble and grateful, and he told me how much the staff worked to make this project happen,” she said. “He talked about basic decency as a person before acting.”

Seo Soo-min also said, “Even things like MZ-style shots could have felt awkward, but he did them all. He would say, ‘Dad is not at that age anymore,’ but he still copied all the hand gestures. Thanks to that, it was fun.”

Not only Sogi-seop, but also the scenes with the so-called ‘dad universe’ trio became unforgettable memories. “Senior Yoon Kyung-ho talks a lot, and senior Choi Dae-hoon made it fun with his ad-libs,” she said. “Min-ji is scared and worried about being separated from her father, but they were so funny in front of me that it was hard to hold back my laughter.”

She added, “In the scene where I was hugging my dad and crying in the car, he said, ‘Your dad even got shot,’ and it was so funny that my tears disappeared, making it hard to get into character. Senior Choi Dae-hoon was just hilarious in himself.” (Continued in [Interview 2])

This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.