KUALA LUMPUR: After finding breakout success with Korean hit series Squid Game and All Of Us Are Dead, actress Lee Yoo-mi has received lots of offers for her next role.
What's interesting is that the two characters the 27-year-old artiste played in those popular shows get killed off onscreen.
According to Soompi, the actress joked in an interview with Hankook Ilbo that she can now play characters that don't die.
"Among the roles I've been offered, there are lots of characters who don't die and who have lots of screen time.
"There are also lots of characters who are happy and live a long time," she said.
Lee added that she was grateful for the opportunities and is contemplating hard about which new projects to take on.
She played the kooky and self-sacrificing Ji-yeong in Squid Game, while in the zombie series All Of Us Are Dead, she took on the contrasting role of the privileged and selfish Na-yeon.
The supporting roles in both series gained her immense attention from viewers and it was reported that her Instagram followers had grown from 40,000 to 7.9 million since the release of Squid Game last September.
Although her portrayal of Na-yeon was so convincing that she received a slew of hate comments online, Lee said that she was not affected by it.
"I'm the type who, if I get curious, will read all of the responses in one sitting.
"I don't get hurt. I even feel happy when I get hate because I think it means I did a good job acting and portraying my character's emotions."
"It might sound villainous that I feel happy but there's a certain joy in how it makes me feel, like I can look back on my own acting and find peace," she said.
Lee, who filmed both series at the same time, said it was hard to separate the two contrasting personalities.
"Both dramas were filmed outside of the city, so I had to commute back and forth a lot.
"I studied my characters in the car while moving from one location to another," she said.
Lee added: "When I was filming All Of Us Are Dead, I intentionally tried to fill up my acting with intensity and emotion, and when I was filming Squid Game, I emptied myself before acting."