K-rom-com 'queen' Chae Soo-bin wants to break out of her comfort zone

With her youthful charm and knack for portraying endearing female leads, Chae Soo-bin has cemented her status as a global K-rom-com staple following standout turns in romantic hits like "Love in the Moonlight," "Where Stars Land" and "The Fabulous."

Continuing her streak in the genre, Chae once again returns to familiar territory in Netflix Korea’s latest romantic comedy, "Take Charge of My Heart." She plays Bo-bae, an aspiring screenwriter whose newfound electrical powers unexpectedly intertwine her fate with that of billionaire heir Baek Ho-rang (Kim Young-kwang).

Yet returning to the genre was not a decision she made without reservations.

"I want to keep acting for a very long time," Chae said during a press conference on Oct. 4. "I'm grateful that I get to work in romance, but I worried that if I became too closely associated with the genre, I might end up limiting myself and having fewer opportunities to explore other kinds of roles."

Those concerns were particularly pronounced just before filming began. But working on "Take Charge of My Heart" gradually helped her rediscover the joy of acting — and reconsider her approach to building a long-term career.

"I think I was most conflicted right before we started filming," Chae said during a separate press interview in Seoul on Thursday.

"But as we worked on the series, there were moments when I felt genuinely comforted by the experience. I found myself thinking, 'Acting really is so much fun.' It also became an opportunity for me to change the way I thought about my career."

Chae recalled a conversation with Kim in a waiting room during promotional filming, when the two were catching up and discussing their careers. Knowing she had been struggling with concerns about repeatedly appearing in romantic comedies, Kim offered a different way of looking at the situation.

"He told me that if I continued building on the things I already do well, step by step, opportunities to explore other genres and different paths would naturally open up," she said.

"That made me realize I might have been too caught up in the pressure to change. Instead of constantly feeling that I needed to do something different, I thought I should focus on the opportunities in front of me and keep building on what I'm good at."

While Chae has found renewed appreciation for the genre that has helped define her career, she remains eager to broaden her acting horizons.

"I'd especially love to work on a realistic human drama about ordinary people and the things we experience in life — the sense of weariness that comes with everyday routines, or the conflicts we encounter as we go through life," she said.

"I'm also open to venturing into completely different genres, whether that's a thriller or something else entirely."