Yoo, who was raised in Germany and studied in New York and London, explains what went into making the film.I’ve had a feeling of displacement for a long time. I was born and raised abroad — I’m basically the only German-Korean actor working internationally, and from a Western perspective, I’m a Korean actor, but Koreans don’t perceive me that way. It’s given me an underlying current of sadness and melancholy, which I think Hae Sung has.
It has always been a struggle in my life to express certain feelings or emotions that exist in one language but don’t exist in another. For example, I think vulnerability is one of the most beautiful words in the English language; in Korean the translation is used to describe peeling away a layer. But it can be hard to express the right emotions for the specific cultures who are going to view this movie.
During rehearsal, Celine never wanted Greta and I to touch. I’d go in for a hug or to shake her hand, and she would say, “No, save it for the screen.” So when you see us meet in New York for the first time in 24 years, that’s actually the first time we ever touched, so we yearned for each other. I had this really visceral feeling [while shooting] — my palms were sweating and my heart was pounding out of my chest. I’m really grateful the audience gets to experience that, too.