Park Seo Joon and Won Ji An in Talks for jTBC Romance Drama Waiting for Gyeong Do

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• But if their characters are the same age then why the 11 year age gap between the leads? If JJH and JYM can get cast together then PSJ can definitely find a age appropriate female lead can't he? A 99 liner with a 88 liner is it really necessary? In other news Love Scout just started with age appropriate leads! Shout out also to Show Business, Love Next Door, Trunk and Tempest for giving us age appropriate leads. Even CWS in his upcoming drama has an age appropriate female lead.

• I don't understand why Asian drama fans care so much about age "appropriate LOL." They both are professional actors and ADULTS. They should be able to take any roles of any ages given magic makeup except for very young looks.

  • It's not just Asian drama fans tho. I don't know if you've noticed, but women all over the world are rightfully becoming more aware of how predatory large age gap relationships are. Plenty of women have been speaking out about their experiences when they got in relationships with men 10+ years older when they were teenagers or early 20-somethings, how they got manipulated into doing things they didn't want, how their confidence got affected, etc. I'm not a fan of Taylor Swift, but I like her song All Too Well as it documents how shitty she felt during her relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal when she was in her early 20s and Jake was like 30+.

    And let's be real here. Literally what is the point of casting an actress 10+ years younger when they literally can get any actress in his age bracket? It's just reinforcing the patriarchal idea that women “expire” when they get past 26, so they must cast under 25 actresses as romantic leads. And no, don't come at me to say that noona dramas also exist because those are few and far between. And not only are noona dramas rare, they're also heavily criticized by drama fans (who are mostly women, which is sad). Meanwhile, pairings with a large age gap where the woman is the way younger party is the NORM— in K-ent, in Hollywood, even in my country's entertainment industry. So please don't act like women are just being offended over nothing. This is a concerning trend

    • Also in noona dramas the age gap is the selling point because the male lead is the puppy retriever types but this drama specifically has two same age characters played by two actors with a major age gap. This is not sensible and like you said makes women in their 30s seems less valued than women in their 20s. This actress is also not very believable as a 30 year old no matter the hair and makeup because she lacks the aura and experience. Plus PSJ is too old to be doing roles in his 20s. His team is giving him terrible scripts.

    • Your comment @ Sope, made me think of french actresses who are voicing that much older actors , directors manipulated them when they were actresses in their teens , the 1srt who dare talking about it was Judith Godrèche and Adèle Haenel. In the past , Maria Scneider was mistreat by Marlon Brando and Bernardo Bertilucci while filming Last tango in Paris ! Keira Knightley wasn't 18 years when she played in Love Actually and she confessed recently that she wasn't at ease while filming the scene Of Love actually with Andrew Lincoln because of the age gap and it wasn't even about a kiss ! But some collaborations are good because of some kind actors in the industry as Clive Owen who was praised by her co stars, Eva Green said that Johnny Depp was the sweetest and kind partner , Robert Mitchum who took care of his partner when the director wanted him to slap her rudely for a scene ...he slapped the director instead !

    • I too have issues with young artistes being cast in non appropriate roles. And also young artistes with huge age gaps romancing partners. But if both artistes over 21yrs old , they can decide that on their own. Anyone younger...example 19yrs to 35yrs, I feel uncomforatable. I just dont watch the drama.

      One other issue I have too are scenes added last min without informing fellow actors to get a more realistic reaction. One famous scene is the kissing scene between Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye, there was a very uncomfortable kissing scene added. Park Shin Hye was not told about it ahead...and it made her uncomfortable after. Such actions are very common industry practise.

• The plot does sound generic but I like the play on "Waiting for Godot" in the title. I wonder if the stage play will tie into this drama at all or if it's just wordplay.

  This is a great opportunity for Won Ji An. She managed to organically stood out in Squid Game 2. She wasn't a huge role and didn't have a big publicity push behind her like Jo Yuri. She wasn't featured in any of the cast promo and didn't even post about it on her social media so fans have had to hunt down her Instagram. But her character, acting and looks stood out on their own in the show and got lots of people talking.

  She also has a role in 'Made in Korea' with Hyun Bin directed by Woo Min Ho this year too so 2025 should be a big year for her.

  WJA is young for the role but she is a good actress and is tall and has a mature look and aura compared to her age so I think she can convincingly play the character from 20s through to 30s.

  • And just saw she is in Tempest with Jun ji Hyun and Kang Won to so definitely a big year for her!

• Damn, I misread it and thought it was Won Jin-ah (Rain or Shine/Life), who would have been more age-appropriate for Park Seo-joon. Whatever happened to her television career?

  • She is a good suggestion. Won Jin Ah is a good actress but seems to have little luck with projects. She is in Artist Company and I've seen her fans mention that they are not good at promoting her. Also since Lim Jiyeon got so popular I suspect all the promising roles for actresses in their 30s that are coming in to the agency are going to her rather than WJA.

• PSJ has been in talks for this very drama 6 months ago so obviously it’s a done deal now. He hasn’t done a TV drama in a very long time and just stuck to OTT / movies since Itaewon Class. A pretty poor move in hindsight since none of his projects took him anywhere. At one point, he was on his way to becoming a serious contender for the TOP drama actor. It’ll be interesting to see how this one does and if he’s back to domestic dramas FT.

  No impressions on WJA. I don’t remember much of her in SG, or any of her previous works. I’m no fan of the PD-writer combo but a decent opportunity for her to make a splash.

  • Oh that’s right! Completely forgot he was being courted for this drama (or any drama really) last year! I wonder if they offered it to other actresses and it fell through. That’s a long time with no movement for a cable drama.

  • @Millie: PSJ had an exceptional drama run 2017-2018 but since then except for his Parasite cameo and supporting appearance in Concrete Utopia where he was overshadowed his output has been rubbish. I don't know if he was getting bad advice or just wasn't listening to advice lol. He is fortunate that he was in a very popular variety show for the past few years so that has helped him maintain his profile and I noticed he has a lot of fans from his friendship group with some other high profile celebrities like Park Hyun Sik and Choi Woo-Sik.

    I do wonder what about the script got him back to a TV drama as synopsis sounds generic and the director and writer previous drama works aren't too exciting.

• Just watched season 2 of Squid Game, and I just noticed how WJA looks so much like Nam Da Reum, it's crazy. Like a female version of him lol. Am I the only one who thinks this? Lol

  Anyway, not a fan of Park Seo Joon, not a fan of the large age gap (it's only okay for me if the younger one is already at least late 20s/early 30s), not a fan of Encounter and King the Land either, tho I quite liked Thirty Nine. So yeah, I don't really find this exciting. That said, I kinda get the feeling that WJA will get more popular soon. She has this special something about her when I was watching Squid Game, at least to me. And she has that bunny-like type of prettiness that Koreans like (Suzy, Han Hyo Joo, and Yoon Eun Hye also have this kind of look). Looking forward to seeing her in more things!