Ryu Hye-young wants to 'stay new'; Nam Yoon-su dreams of being an actor, not a star

A camera switches on in the corridor of an abandoned hospital. The internet broadcast crew "Killing Time" — whose reputation collapsed after a fatal accident on set — has staked its comeback on a hidden-camera stunt. Where fake ghosts and horror props once sent guests screaming, something unidentifiable now appears before them. The shoot turns instantly into a fight for survival. Those who once converted other people's screams into view counts find themselves the ones in terror, and the ones on display.

In the film "Killing Time," opening Wednesday, Ryu Hye-young plays Yeon-woo, a streamer who returns to the camera carrying a burden of guilt, while Nam Yoon-su plays Ju-won, the crew's leader and PD who pushes everyone hard in pursuit of a comeback. Meeting recently at a cafe in Seoul's Samcheong-dong ahead of the opening, Nam said he hoped audiences would feel "not the fear of ghosts, but the fear that comes from people."

The two actors arrived at this project by different paths. Ryu, who will mark 20 years since her debut next year, has always knocked on doors rather than waited for them to open. For Nam, "Killing Time" is his first lead role on the big screen.

For Ryu — known to viewers as a slow-running evangelist through the MBC variety show "I Live Alone" — the film demanded far more physical exertion than usual. Action performance had long been something she craved, but desire alone could not carry her body through it. "At action school, learning 15 seconds' worth of moves left me needing 15 minutes just to catch my breath," she recalled.

"The first day I ran along the Han River with a fitness trainer, I ran nonstop for 20 minutes and then lay flat on a park bench for 30 minutes to recover. The next day I ran for 30 minutes and realized it wasn't as hard as I'd thought." (Ryu Hye-young)

She kept up slow running five or six times a week after that, and when she returned to action school two months later, she felt the difference in her body. "I started running because I hated it," Ryu said, "but now I want to keep running slowly, even when I'm a grandmother."

The character Nam plays, Ju-won, is goal-driven — someone who moves people to serve his purposes and has no qualms about deception when it suits him. What drew Nam to the role was precisely the distance between Ju-won and himself. Where Nam might feel anger, Ju-won controls relationships with fluid, almost effortless ease.

"I thought of Ju-won less as cunning and more as realistic," Nam said. "I'd want to get back to where I was too, but I don't think I'd trample over someone to do it." He added that playing a character so unlike himself was what made it fun.

Filming had to be wrapped tightly within 20 showings over a single month in October 2024. On a set filled with newer actors, Ryu — who is normally reserved around strangers — was the one who broke the ice first. During the days the cast stayed at accommodations in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, she would run along a stream with her colleagues and talk. Nam, who had initially assumed Ryu was only "two or three years" older than him, said he clearly remembers how she led the set. "Even during promotions she'd come up and say, 'Don't worry' and 'Don't be nervous' — just like that, casually. I was really grateful for that." (Nam Yoon-su)

Watching Nam, six years her junior, Ryu found herself thinking back to her own thirties — a time when outside judgments and her own standards collided and she hit an emotional low. "Yoon-su already seems like someone who has been through it all and found peace," she said. "He knows how to enjoy nature, and whatever comes up, he knows how to let it pass." (Ryu Hye-young)

Getting to where they are now, both have fought hard in their own ways.

Ryu's acting career is grounded in the toughness she built on independent film sets. Having channeled raw energy through multiple indie productions — including the 2013 film "Ingtoogi" — she brings that same sharp instinct to "Killing Time." To the general public she is best known as the spirited Sung Bo-ra in "Reply 1988" or the steely Kang Sol-A in "Law School," but she has always had a rare gift for portraying the fragile, anxious underside of human nature.

But those vivid impressions have always come with a cost. Casting offers kept landing in the same narrow register, and her refusal to compromise stretched the gaps between projects longer than she intended. "Having all my limbs intact and still having to sit and wait to be called felt like a prison," she said. The hunger to show a new face has, with this film, finally found some relief.

Nam, for his part, has steadily shed the label of runway model and carved out his own territory as an actor. His turn as the chillingly delinquent Ki-tae in the Netflix series "Extracurricular" left a powerful mark on audiences, proving he could wipe away his easy smile and become a villain at will.

"I don't particularly want to be a star," he said. "I want to play a wide range of roles as an actor. A lot of people worried that taking this part would close off other projects, but I found myself wondering whether I should even be thinking about that when I act."

Different as their paths have been, both ultimately converge on the same destination: a long career as an actor. "I don't know how long I'll be able to do this, so I want to learn as much as I can while I still can," Nam said. Ryu, on the verge of her 20th year in the industry and having endured silences she never chose, has a few words she would like to say to herself.

"'You've held on through so much hardship. And you're still new.' I think that's all I need." (Ryu Hye-young)