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On the morning of August 7, Lee Hye Ri sat for an interview with local reporters for her upcoming K-movie Victory.
Victory tells the story of Pil Sun (Lee Hye Ri) and Mi Na (Park Se Wan), who started the cheerleading club Millennium Girls in a school located in Geoje, the southern tip of the country, in 1999. It is the first cheerleading-themed K-movie.
When asked about similarities between herself and Pil Sun, Lee Hye Ri said, "I debuted at a young age without going through a trainee period. In school, I was quite an attention-grabber, and I thought it would be great to become a celebrity. I started with the desire to be on TV, and then I gained fans who love me. I haven't done much for them, but they support and cheer for me a lot. I think those feelings are similar to Pil Sun's love for cheerleading."
She continued, "The people at the agency I'm working with this time say, 'Hye Ri is truly a celebrity.' To put it nicely, it's my sense of responsibility, and to put it badly, it's my stubbornness. I have this mindset that 'I have to work hard' as a celebrity. I started working at a young age and earned much more than my peers, so I think it's natural for it to be tough."
Earlier this year, Lee Hye Ri was embroiled in a scandal with her ex, Ryu Jun Yeol, with whom she had been in a relationship for about seven years, and who was rumored to be seeing Han So Hee. With Han So Hee's involvement, many suspected she was the reason for Lee Hye Ri and Ryu Jun Yeol's separation.
When the topic arose at the interview, Lee Hye Ri hesitated to talk about it and said, "I have no further comments to make." She added, "I will speak about it for just two minutes. My concern is that this issue might overshadow Victory, a movie I love so much that I cried at the press screening."
She continued, "Looking back, if I think about it — and I apologize for repeating myself — I think I acted that way because it was the feelings of Hye Ri as a person, not as an actress, that came to the forefront."
Hye Ri also expressed her gratitude towards Byeon Woo Seok, who attended the VIP premiere screening of her latest K-movie. She said, "I worked with Byeon Woo Seok in Moonshine, and he's such a hard-working fellow actor that I believed he would do well someday. But it's all going so well [for him] that it's a bit bewildering. We've known each other for a long time and are close, so I was worried he might feel burdened [with my request to attend the movie screening]. But he still posted about the movie on social media, saying it was fun, and I'm very grateful [to him for doing so]."
Describing herself as "a lucky person and someone who has received many good wishes/blessings from people," Lee Hye Ri said, "I wanted to brag about the movie, so I invited many acquaintances, and the ticket manager said, 'Everyone came.' How could that happen? Everyone is busy, but not a single person missed it. I was so touched. I posted this on social media earlier, and I thought, 'I've really lived well.'"
Lastly, thinking of her fans, Hye Ri said, "I am able to continue working thanks to my fans. Recently, someone asked when I would rest, but I can't rest because there are fans waiting for me." "I know that I can't always be perfect or meet expectations when I work, so I always feel sorry about it. Still, I hope people, after watching Victory, think, 'Ah! Hye Ri really worked hard.'"
Victory will be released on August 14.
