MANILA — Before becoming one of South Korea’s most popular actresses, Suzy was first a K-pop star, debuting as part of the hitmaking female act Miss A. Now, almost six years since the group’s disbandment, Suzy was able to return to her idol roots through her new drama “Doona!”.

In the romance series, which premieres Oct. 20 on Netflix, Suzy plays the titular character Lee Doona, a member of a girl group called Dream Sweet who suddenly retires from the entertainment industry despite being at the peak of her popularity.

Doona moves to a share house at a college town, where she meets and gets entangled with a naive college freshman, Lee Won-jun (played by Yang Se-jong).

“As I was acting out Doona, I did think of the times when I was part of a girl group,” Suzy said at an online press conference on Wednesday.

“So looking back, I feel like there were moments that I felt I was struggling but I didn't really know much. I think I tried to deny that I was struggling. I tried to just stay [as] a bubbly person,” she said.

LOOK: #BaeSuzy, #YangSejong and Director Lee Jung-hyo attend the press conference for the upcoming Korean romance series "Doona!". | via @jaehwabernardo #Doona pic.twitter.com/2GrBMwrpfZ

— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) October 18, 2023

Making comparisons to her character, Suzy said, “Doona is different. She would express her feelings to every extent and she lets herself suffer. So I was kind of envious of her and I kind of resonated with her in that sense.”

Filming at KCON

Director Lee Jeong-hyo, who helmed other popular dramas such as “Romance is a Bonus Book” and “Crash Landing On You,” shared that “Doona!” filmed scenes at KCON Japan last year.

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“The four people in the Dream Sweet group, including Suzy, would do the choreography, dance and recording. And then we all flew over to Japan to do that performance on KCON,” he said.

Lee said he even felt like an actual manager of a girl group when the fictional Dream Sweet performed at KCON, one of the most renowned K-pop festivals.

“We weren’t on the actual stage but it was the prequel stage and we only had two takes to go,” he recounted. “When we did the whole song... I felt like I was an agent for Dream Sweet, that I was giving them this dream debut stage.”

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It had been “quite a long time” since Suzy, dubbed as “The Nation’s First Love” in her home country, performed on stage with other artists.

“It was quite new because I had different members this time. We got quite close to each other. At first, it was a mess but then later on we became better synchronized as a group. I felt very satisfied,” she said.

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‘Exciting’

Suzy said she decided to join “Doona!” after finding the story “exciting.”

“When I first got the script, I went ahead and read the original webtoon because it is based on an original webtoon… it was so exciting, really. There was that particular mood and vibe that was unique to ‘Doona!’,” she said.

“I was also drawn to the character because it’s a character I’ve never played before,” she added.

Yang similarly felt excited upon initially reading the script. “My heart was pounding so loud,” he said.

The 30-year-old actor said “Doona!” might be “the last drama series ever for me to be able to play a character like Won-jun, who’s in his early 20s so that’s why I decided to come on board.”

Yang admitted he initially felt “burdened” by “Doona!”, which marks his first series project after four years.

“Before going into the project, there was a very short but strong period when I felt this burden but I controlled it and said I should get into character and just focus on the script,” he said.

Suzy, on the other hand, said she did not feel pressure following the success of her previous project “Anna.”

“They are very different characters and as I was preparing for the character Doona, it was so vastly different… I think I was more excited [than burdened],” she said.

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