“Lies Hidden In My Garden,” the Korean suspense thriller drama starring actresses Kim Tae-hee and Lim Ji-yeon, premiered on Prime Video on June 19.
In the drama, Kim Tae-hee is Moon Joo-ran whose life turns upside down when she finds a dead body in her backyard.
"Lies Hidden In My Garden" stars (from left) Choi Jae-rim, Lim Ji-yeon, Kim Tae-hee and Kim Sung-oh (Prime Video)
The scent of fear can be more pungent than death. #LiesHiddenInMyGarden is now streaming, only on Prime Video. pic.twitter.com/rUa6319SiI
— Prime Video Philippines (@primevideoph) June 20, 2023
Kim Tae-hee and Kim Sung-oh in "Lies Hidden In My Garden" (Prime Video)
Lim Ji-yeon portrays the role of Chu Sang-eun, a pregnant woman who suffers from domestic violence and poverty.
The series also stars Kim Sung-oh as Joo-ran’s husband, Park Jae-ho, and Choi Jae-rim as Sang-eun’s husband, Kim Yoon-beom.
In an interview with Manila Bulletin and other Southeast Asian media outlets, the four stars talked about their roles and the drama.
“Lies Hidden In My Garden” is Kim Tae-hee’s comeback drama after more than three years since the 2020 series “Hi Bye, Mama!”
Manila Bulletin asked Kim Tae-hee about starring in the new drama project.
"It was truly an honor and enjoyable experience for me because I was able to work with a director that I've always been a fan of as well as the members of the cast who I've been a long time fan of,” she said.
Kim Tae-hee added, “I was nervous and anxious at the initial script reading. However when I was on set, thanks to all the cast members and the director, I felt very comfortable and at home as I performed.”
“When I wrap up a particular project, I tend to feel a little bittersweet. However, this time the bitterness lingered for a little bit more because I almost ached for the character Joo-ran or I felt like I almost missed her. So there was a time when the shoot wrapped up, I felt a little lonely and empty inside,” she revealed.
During the roundtable interview, Kim Tae-hee was also asked about starring in a thriller genre.
“I think it was not so much that I was drawn to the genre that is thriller. Thriller genre is not something I’m usually drawn to or something that I watch often. It’s actually a genre and character that’s also something that I’m unfamiliar with,” she said.
Kim Tae-hee added, ““However, when I read the script, I was really intrigued and after reading episode 1, I wanted to know what episode 2 was going to be about. So it really tapped into my curiosity and I also wanted to learn more about the character Joo-ran.”
“She could be someone who could be rather strange to some other people but when you look at the history that she had gone through, including her childhood and her relationship with her husband, I thought she could be a character that I could truly understand and relate to. I think I was more immersed into the character and I think I was intuitively drawn to the story,” she said.
“Lies Hidden In My Garden” is Lim Ji-yeon’s new drama after starring in “The Glory.” Her Chu Sang-eun is the total opposite from her role in “The Glory” where she played a villain.
“I think because I played the role of a perpetrator of violence in my previous work, that’s probably and this time around, the character Sang-eun is a victim of domestic violence. However, I was drawn to the project and I chose to portray this character completely unrelated to the character I portrayed in my previous drama,” she said.
Lim Ji-yeon and Choi Jae-rim in "Lies Hidden In My Garden" (Prime Video)
She said the character Chu Sang-eun “is someone, for any actor out there, would be very intrigued by in terms of who she is, what kind of person she is and why she is motivated to do certain things. I think I was almost mysteriously drawn to the character.”
“Because she is completely different from what I portrayed before, when I was performing this character, I was in a completely different state and also my approach to understanding the character is very different as well,” she said.
According to Lim Ji-yeon, “I think I would call it [‘Lies Hidden In My Garden’] a successful project or call it a success if after seeing this character, people will not be reminded of my previous character [Yeon-jin].”
In the drama, actor Kim Sung-oh’s character is a doctor, father and a husband. In portraying the role, he said, “I understand it could come across as having different facets or different sides to my character.”
“However, I suggest you just look at it very simply. He’s a doctor by occupation but because he’s married, he is also a husband and a father. I think it would be better if you just look at him as a regular or normal human being who happens to be a doctor by occupation,” he said.
Choi Jae-rim as the violent husband of Sang-eun’s character in “Lies Hidden In My Garden.” When asked if he felt conscience while doing the scenes, he said, “When I was on set and when we were filming the series, I think it didn’t really occur to me there was a huge challenge because I performed my character based on the imagination that I created through the given situations written in the script and also dynamics between the characters.”
“And also based on the directions and discussions with the director of photography and the director himself, I focused more on how I need to play my character so that I can most efficiently and effectively portray the need for Chu Sang-eun’s [Lim Ji-yeon] desire to escape her very tragic and exhausting life through the pressure given to her by her husband Yoon-beom,” he said.
“Lies Hidden In My Garden” is now streaming on Prime Video.