South Korean singer-actress IU – real name Lee Ji-eun – has opened up about her role as a single mother in the new film, Broker.

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Notably, the film recently made its premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it had received a 12-minute standing ovation from the audience. During a press conference for the film at the festival, IU discussed the difficulties she experienced playing the role of a mother for the first time.

“It was challenging to portray So-young because she was a mother with such a dark and depressing past,” she admitted, per Korea JoongAng Daily. “To be very honest, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I had to play a mother, which I had no personal experience of, and a single mother at that.”

“I tried hard to understand it but at the end of the day, it was an area that I could never perfectly know,” confessed the 29-year-old actress. “Once the cameras were rolling, I expressed my feelings to the baby just as they came to me at that moment. I didn’t pressure myself to feel more maternal love.”

Despite the challenges, IU also revealed that, prior to receiving the casting call for ‘Broker’, she had already been thinking about taking on the role of a maternal character. “I really wanted to try the role of a mother,” she said. ”

I didn’t have any particular mother figure in mind – just someone who had turned such a huge cornerstone in life like giving birth and someone who protects another human being,” she said. “But the character So-young was a special kind of mother.”

Broker stars Parasite’s Song Kang-ho, IU, Bae Doo-na (The Silent Sea, Sense8), Gang Dong-won (Peninsula) and Lee Joo-young (Itaewon Class). It follows Sang-hyun (played by Song), who sets up a baby box where parents are able to anonymously leave their babies for him find new parents for.

Self-described as a “broker” of goodwill, Sang-hyun works with Dong-soo (Gang) in this line of work, during which they cross paths with So-young (IU), who leaves her own baby in the baby box. Bae and Lee portray the lead detectives in the cast against the broker, who are determined to uncover the operation. Watch the trailer here.