Hyeri of Girl’s Day Still Being Considered for Leading Lady of Answer Me 1988

Did no one at tvN get the memo from the audience feedback on Hyde, Jekyll, Me? Tucked into the critical panning of the entire drama was a very big line item on supporting actress Hyeri of Girl’s Day being singularly terrible even within the bigger bad that was Hyde. Watching her trying to emote from a dull soulless expression was nails on chalkboard excruciating. I may not have loved all the Answer Me dramas but at least the series has been memorable and unique enough to deserve a better leading lady.

News broke this weekend that Hyeri was confirmed for Answer Me 1988, to play the daughter of Sung Dong Il and Lee Il Hwa‘s characters in this third installment. The feedback was as bad as when news first came out two months ago that she had received an offer to join this drama. Her agency quickly clarified that Hyeri auditioned two months ago and is still waiting for confirmation from the production as to her involvement, i.e. nothing has been confirmed yet. Sadly that’s not the clarification I wanted to hear, the better one would be that she’s proactively decided to take herself out of consideration for the drama, period.

The Answer Me series, aside from the narrative quality or lack thereof debates, has been a pop culture phenomenal and launched or reinvented the acting careers of many actors and actresses. The two leading ladies in Jung Eung Ji and Go Ara basically owe their career success now to doing AM, which makes it doubly ignominious that this drama series is now considering an idol-actress of Hyeri’s caliber. I don’t have a problem casting idols, especially in the AM dramas, but Hyeri has acted before and sucked so bad. Pick another idol, tvN, anyone but her. Can you have a do-over?


Comments

Hyeri of Girl’s Day Still Being Considered for Leading Lady of Answer Me 1988 — 23 Comments

  1. I think the PDs of Answer Me are good, they can make that their actors become good. Because I saw Jung Eung Ji in two other dramas and she was not so good in, the same for Go Ara. And I was disapointed by the story of the version 1994, there was no doubt about the end.

    • honestly, even Jung Eunji in her weakest performance from That Winter The Wind Blows, is still better than whatever Hyeri managed in Seonam High School Detectives or Hyde. I feel like Hyeri’s groupmate Minah would be a better candidate, she can at least act a bit decently. Shame that idol casting screws over even idols who do have talent, in favour of the more popular ones.

      The PDs can draw out a good performance if at least a little raw acting talent is already there, but they can’t magick that talent out of nowhere.

    • Pretty much. A good PD/writer is important.

      I’m willing to watch the drama to see how she does if she’s picked. They obviously must have a reason. I’m sure every agency is banging down the PD and writer’s door for an audition chance for their clients. So if she gets it I’ll trust them.

    • Sorry, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear (and this is one giant, hairy sow’s ear). No matter how good the writing or direction is, you can’t paint an expression on a face that has none. You can’t coax suble emotion when the brain only understands aegyo. This is yet another egregious example of an idol gettting preferential treatment even when they are a talentless zombie.

      And as for those who point out Go Ara as an example of what this PD can do, Go Ara was doing serviceable work long before her “breakout” in Answer Me – for example, I thought once she got over being shrill in the first few episodes, her work on Who Are You was extually quite good.

  2. I think even Go Ara was criticized initially when she was cast for A94. So maybe A88 will be that vehicle for Hyeri where she shows off her acting skill. Well, let’s be hopeful!

  3. Her agency is infamous for media play, they probably have some activity of her girl group that they want to draw attention to and that’s why they got this article+ “clarification” released about her audition.

    I think you can rest easy for a while yet, koala. The Answer Me franchise and brand is strong enough that they don’t need to be chasing useless idols for buzz, if anything the idol agencies are the ones who will be begging the PDs to cast their products.

  4. Who is she? I’ve never heard of her. All I know is that she looks annoying in that pose. What happened to the good old smile for a photo?

  5. Hmm, I’ve never seen act before so I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt especially with this team behind the camera. Also, I dislikes Go Ara before she did AM 1994 so hopefully they saw somwthing in her to have casted her

  6. She was really bad in HJM without counting the fact that her role was very minor there.
    i don’t know why, but i don’t like her. i can’t forget how in the MAMA awards she laughed on B2ST dongwoon and imitated him during the ceremony. tha’t’s not nice thing to do especially when they are from the same field. she gives some snob aura, like she thinks high of herself.

  7. I drop Seonam Girl because I felt annoyed with her ‘pretend cute’ acted. I watch HJM because the two leads but Hyeri totally destroyed it. I can stand with the stories, but I really cant stand saw his ‘pretend cute’ act. Sorry for her fans. But, no for her.

  8. It all depends on the PD to me. Go Ara was terrible before the AM series and JEJ was a newbie. For the latter, she has a lot of innate talent but Go Ara acted for years without improving. I think Hyeri might be okay if she gets the right PD guidance. But really, I’d rather someone else. There are tons of idol actresses. I hope they go for someone who’s shown some promise because third time lucky isn’t guaranteed.

    • I agree that the PD matters a lot more than most people think.

      Otoh, I enjoyed Go Ara in Who are you? So I wasn’t terribly surprised that people liked her acting in AM94, particularly since she showed that image wasn’t what she cared about when she shed her hair and her beautiful doll-like image for the role.

      I think there has to be something that the PD can work with to get the actor to give a good performance. Some people just don’t have it. I’m not sure if Hyeri has it, but now I’m curious to see them try, just because I want to see how much the PD matters.

  9. ugh… I don’t like to post mean remarks but that pose in both her pictures makes her look like a brainless twit. it’s like she’s totally serious about her aegyo instead of how other idols do it for laughs and cringe at themselves, she’s totally into her own aegyo.

      • Eunji never acted before Reply 1997, and she’s very good!
        It’s no matter she’s SM idol or not, as long she’s decent, it will be okay..

    • Just curious, why Irene? Is she the short pretty one from Red Velvet? Is she the one that said she was so pretty people come from far away just to look at her? I can’t even tell if that was suppose to be a joke or not.

  10. I saw Hyeri in Hyde and she was terrible. I hated her ‘cute’ acting since it was super annoying. I hope she doesn’t bring in her ‘cute’ acting into this series.

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