With the sound of cicadas performing their high-pitched rhythmic symphony on an particularly humid summer season morning in Seoul, Hoyeon arrives early at our October cowl shoot fresh-faced and all smiles—regardless of having simply endured a 13-hour flight from Los Angeles. The decrease two-thirds of her naturally curly hair that had been beforehand dyed cobalt blue at the moment are a beautiful cherry hue, maybe as a nod to the bright-red locks that had been as soon as her signature. It is an formidable day forward with over 9 appears to be like, 4 hair modifications, and a video interview on the schedule, however the South Korean actress and mannequin would not even bat a watch or break a sweat. (Sweltering temps be damned.) Ever the skilled, she’s up for the problem and able to put within the work. That tenacity, it seems, is a via line in all of Hoyeon’s creative pursuits.
To be truthful, Hoyeon is not any stranger to an arduous shoot day. It is par for the course for somebody who has been working as a profitable mannequin for over 14 years. Hoyeon, who describes herself as an extrovert, turned to a profession in entrance of the digital camera as a solution to get exterior of her dwelling and begin working. She began with a number of courses, and by 16, she was already strolling in reveals throughout Seoul Style Week. In 2013, she competed on the fourth season of Korea’s Subsequent High Mannequin, the place she positioned because the runner-up and was quickly showing in spreads for Korean Vogue, Elle, and W.
Hoyeon’s dad and mom, each restaurateurs, imagined totally different profession paths for her. Her dad needed her to be a pharmacist as a result of it provided job safety, whereas her mother thought she might be a TV information anchor. “When out of the blue I stated ‘I’m going to be a mannequin,’ I do not suppose they took me severely,” she says with a chuckle. As soon as Hoyeon signed with The Society Administration and moved to New York, her profession took off.
Touring incessantly for modeling gigs and residing on her personal in New York Metropolis away from her dad and mom for the primary time, Hoyeon rapidly realized how to spend so much of time alone. She turned to books and films as hobbies and have become entranced by the fictional worlds and actors she was watching on-screen. She tells me, “I used to be actually mesmerized by this type of artwork and was naturally drawn to it and needed to be part of it.”
So she put within the work.
Throughout downtime between jobs, Hoyeon participated in appearing courses. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than she signed with a supervisor in Seoul and submitted her first-ever video audition for, you guessed it, Squid Sport. She bought the half, taking part in the reclusive and fan-favorite Kang Sae-byeok. Little did she know on the time that her efficiency within the Netflix mega hit would make her a breakout celebrity, thrusting her to worldwide fame (she gained almost 15 million followers on Instagram within the weeks previous the present’s premiere) and making her some of the in-demand new actors in Hollywood.
Within the midst of the Squid Sport frenzy, dozens of scripts had been piling up for the newcomer, and Hoyeon’s American agent despatched her a suggestion for an audition for an English-language TV collection. It was for four-time Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón’s subsequent mission, which was later revealed to be the Apple TV+ thriller miniseries Disclaimer.
Hoyeon wanted no introduction to Cuarón’s work. Roma and Y Tu Mamá También had been among the many influential movies that formed her ardour for appearing. “I began dreaming of changing into an actor due to these many movies [I watched back in my modeling days], together with his movies,” she says. “The truth that someday I might be sitting throughout from him talking to him, that is simply one thing that was fully out of something I may have ever imagined for myself. The entire expertise felt so surreal, and it was simply unbelievable.”
Understandably, Hoyeon’s nerves had been at an all-time excessive throughout that first assembly with Cuarón. She remembers the Zoom name vividly. Like a swan gliding via water, she appeared cool, calm, and picked up from the waist up, however simply exterior the digital camera’s view, her palms had been shaking uncontrollably. She impressed Cuarón together with her audition and nabbed the half. “Once I bought the information that I used to be forged [in Disclaimer], I used to be overjoyed and elated. I feel I set free a scream and nearly collapsed once I heard it. It was simply an inexplicable stage of pleasure,” she says.
Cuarón has equated his tv debut to a seven-hour-long movie damaged up into seven episodes. Based mostly on the 2015 best-selling novel of the identical identify by Renée Knight, Disclaimer follows well-respected documentarian Catherine Ravenscoft, performed spectacularly by Cate Blanchett, who on the peak of her profession discovers she is the distinguished character of a novel that reveals her darkest secret. What unfolds is a fantastic and gut-wrenching depiction of grief, human fragility, and betrayal.
It took Hoyeon round 10 days to learn via your complete script, which is customary for the native Korean speaker when going via any English-language mission, particularly a collection. “It was simply so gripping, extraordinarily immersive, and really intense. [It’s] mentally intriguing and fascinating, and it actually gained my coronary heart over,” she says.
Hoyeon instantly cleared her busy schedule and set to work. If she was going to correctly embody Jisoo, Catherine’s formidable assistant, she wanted to present the character her full, undivided consideration.
There’s that tenacity once more.
“I let my staff know that I needed to take the time to organize for the position, and I say that, in fact, understanding my position or display time total wasn’t that massive within the present,” Hoyeon says. She flew to London a month previous to filming, which she approached like a meditation interval, to isolate herself from some other distractions. As soon as there, she began working with a dialogue coach and interviewing private assistants—mates of mates and Korean expats who moved to the States and took on assistant jobs. “It was actually fascinating as a result of Alfonso requested me, ‘What do you suppose can be on the highest of your character’s desk once you arrive on set?’ I assumed that was a very fascinating query as a result of I had by no means considered it from that perspective,” she tells me. “Once I was interviewing these individuals who had experiences being assistants, I might ask them, ‘What’s your day by day life like? What are the issues that you just do as a private assistant? What’s your day by day work crammed with?'”
Hoyeon was a sponge soaking in each element. Sharing most of her display time with Blanchett, she acquired a grasp class in each craft and poise on set. On prime of the heat and persistence Blanchett confirmed Hoyeon throughout filming, she was in full awe of the Oscar winner’s professionalism and sense of internal self. “In terms of Cate—it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, it doesn’t matter what modifications on set—she is somebody who’s so constant,” Hoyeon says of her co-star. “I might like to even be somebody who, very very similar to her, is thoughtful of others.”
On the finish of August, Hoyeon reunited with Blanchett for the present’s Venice Movie Pageant premiere, the place each hit the crimson carpet in customized appears to be like by Louis Vuitton. Hoyeon wore a surprising crimson sequin bias-cut robe. Following a screening of the primary 4 episodes on the famed Lido di Venezia, Disclaimer and the forged acquired a six-minute-plus standing ovation accompanied by rave critiques from critics, positioning it as some of the anticipated reveals this fall.
First Squid Sport—now Disclaimer. Hoyeon is 2 for 2 in hit collection, and it is no coincidence. The success of Squid Sport has definitely opened extra doorways for Hoyeon, however she’s taking part in it good and being purposeful in her decisions by surrounding herself with business greats she will be able to study and develop from. “Once I take into consideration the form of ambitions I’ve about my profession, I might say it isn’t a lot concerning the characters or roles that I get to play however [rather] the folks I get to work with,” she says. It is the artistic course of of various artists coming collectively and influencing each other that retains Hoyeon coming again for extra. She provides, “If there’s one factor that I actually aspire to attain in my profession, [it] is to have the ability to meet and work with as many nice artists who’ve their very own distinctive views of the world and their sense of values.” Her subsequent mission—the Na Hong-jin–directed Korean movie Hope, by which she stars alongside Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, and Taylor Russell—is one other testomony to this.
Together with her appearing profession on hyperspeed, it begs the query: How does modeling nonetheless match into the equation? Hoyeon is adamant that one would not take priority over the opposite, telling me she approaches each with the identical angle and mindset. Nonetheless, she tells me there was some extent, for only a second, that she did query whether or not she needs to be approaching them in another way. The query got here up a lot at one level that she began to doubt herself. Good buddy and Louis Vuitton Inventive Director Nicolas Ghesquière provided her a brand new perspective. “He would inform me what [I’m] doing is wonderful and that it isn’t about “Is it modeling, or is it appearing?” however about expressing your self in your individual type of artwork,” she says. These phrases of reassurance gave Hoyeon the braveness she wanted to proceed with equal measure.
Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton, and Hoyeon go manner again—since 2016, to be actual, when she made her Paris Style Week debut as an unique for the home. In 2021, she was named a worldwide ambassador for the model, and earlier this 12 months, she closed out its F/W 24 present celebrating Ghesquière’s 10-year anniversary. The LV staff has lengthy been championing Hoyeon’s burgeoning profession, for which she feels extraordinarily grateful. It is a really perfect match, as Louis Vuitton’s androgynous aesthetic and the distinctive values that Ghesquière embodies via his designs align with Hoyeon’s personal values. “I hope for a really long-lasting relationship with them sooner or later,” she says.
Between runway reveals, worldwide premieres, and filming, moments of “me” time and solitude are rare for Hoyeon as of late. Whereas she has considerably adjusted to her new regular—usually getting acknowledged and approached on the road—she cherishes the quiet time she has at dwelling together with her two cats. Once I ask how she stays grounded via all of it, she lights up and begins telling me about an epiphany she had simply the opposite day: She loves cleansing and house responsibilities. On a latest uncommon break day, she spent hours deep-cleaning her rest room, meticulously overlaying each inch of the room. She tells me the extraordinary tidying grounded her and unlocked “this stage of confidence and self-awareness.” “I really feel like that act of cleansing your area actually has a huge effect on how you feel about your self, and I really suppose it is actually good in your psychological well being as properly,” she provides.
Cleansing, appearing, modeling—it would not matter. No matter Hoyeon places her thoughts to, she goes all in.
(Picture credit score: Heejune Kim)
Expertise: Hoyeon
Photographer: Heejune Kim at @co.op.dot
Stylist: Aeri Yun at @thewallgroup
Editorial Director: Lauren Eggertsen
Hairstylist: Seonyeong Lee at @agency_garten
Make-up Artist: Huijung Hwang at @dinnerout_
Manicurist: Eunkyung Park at @co.op.dot
Prop Stylist: Darak
Director of Video: Samuel Schultz
DP: Andy Iere Kim
Sound Editor: Yujin Search engine marketing
Inventive Director: Alexa Wiley
Producer: KNT Manufacturing
Govt Director of Leisure: Jessica Baker
Copy Editor: Jaree Campbell
