Ko Asung

Actor, The Host

Go Ah-sung, credited here as Ko Asung, played Hyun-seo, the girl at the heart of Bong Joon-ho's The Host. The film looks like a creature feature and plays like one, but underneath it is about a family and a country, and she carries a lot of that. She was a teenager when she shot it. We talked about working with Bong that early in her career, what it asks of you to anchor the emotional centre of a monster movie, and how a film that became a national phenomenon in South Korea still feels personal. The Host is one of the films that pulled me towards Korean cinema in the first place. Getting to ask the person who lived it what it was like was a genuine thrill.