Kim Hye-soo on playing Kyung-hee in Coupang Play's 'It's Not About the Affair'

Kim Hye-soo is playing Kyung-hee in the Coupang Play series It's Not About the Affair — a self-made interior design company CEO, a 1-million-follower influencer, and the sole breadwinner of her family. Five of the show's eight episodes are now out, and it has reached #1 in Coupang Play's popular content rankings.

The role required her to separate her own public image from the character's. "I had to show a glamorous image as a character, not the glamorous image of 'Kim Hye-soo' personally," she said. "Kyung-hee's exterior was ultimately a device to show the character."

She went into the script skeptical. "'Is infidelity not the problem? Then what is the problem?' I watched the script thinking that, and it really wasn't about infidelity," she said. The show explores how different people reveal themselves under extreme pressure. The back half escalates beyond the infidelity storyline into larger incidents that expose another side of each character.

The audience response has been unusually direct. "This time I'm receiving especially many messages," she said. "Some ask to see the next story quickly, and others react together from Kyung-hee's perspective, and I'm grateful for that."

On working with her co-stars, she was blunt about hierarchy: "There's no concept of junior or senior. We're just actors. When I see an actor who acts well, I'm so pleased, amazed, and envious." (That last word — envious — is the tell of someone who still takes the craft seriously.) Good actors grow together, not alone.