Must former child actresses strip down to escape their childlike image?

Former child actors and actresses have difficulty casting off their childlike image. This image becomes a double-edged sword for them: it can work as an advantage, but it can also become an obstacle in their long-term acting careers, as a young image limits the kind of roles an one can obtain.
It is no doubt an advantage to have gained exposure through many productions over a long period of time. This allows actors to approach the audience easily with their familiarity and allows them to gradually grow from experience.
However, a fixed image traps adult actors in a stereotype and makes transformation difficult. To the viewers who have watched the child actors act and grow on-screen, these actors will often become instilled in their minds as little gentlemen and ladies. If the now-grown up actors cannot overcome this obstacle, they have no choice but to give up their acting careers.
Kim Jung Hoon, who tried to transform into an adult actor after being immensely popular under the nickname “little gentleman” during his childhood, failed to find his place as an adult actor. Other former child actors also disappeared after failing to capture the viewers’ attention as adults.
For this reason, some actors are choosing options such as physical exposure to shatter their childlike image.
For example, Kang Hye Jung, who played the role of Eun Shil’s older sister in the drama “Eun Shil“, casted off her childlike image through participating in sexual scenes in the film “Old Boy“. Stripping down, especially for actresses, has become the most certain method for discarding their child actor image altogether.
However, some actors are gaining interest for choosing not to do shocking, sexual scenes and instead deciding to slowly mold into adult characters.
Moon Geun Young, who appeared as the child version of heroine Eun Suh in “Autumn in My Heart“, is one of them. After this role, Moon chose roles that gradually increased the age of her characters by participating in films such as “The Tale of Two Sisters“, “My Little Bride“, “Innocent Steps“, and most recently in the drama “Cinderella’s Sister“. By growing on-screen within her various characters, Moon was able to grow naturally as an actress also.
It is the same case with actress Park Shin Hye, who will portray relationship coach Min Young in the upcoming film “Cyrano Agency“.
She stated through her recent interview with OSEN, “There is no need to transform in one fell swoop. I did not try to appear too grown up in this film either. I thought it would be better to change slowly, bit by bit, so as to not pressure the viewers.” For this reason, Park focused on portraying her character as someone who is still youthful but contains a measure of toughness.
There is much anticipation for the future of these intelligent actresses who wisely decided not to rashly hurry into things.
(S: OSEN)
via :: allkpop