Girls’ Generation vocalist and actress Seohyun has opened up about how she has evolved after embarking on her acting career.

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In a recent interview with GQ Korea, the idol-actress shared that acting has given her an outlet to express her emotions more honestly. Seohyun also revealed that she had felt the need to hide her emotions while she was active as an idol.

“When working as a singer, I often had to cover my emotions and maintain a poker face. This is because on stage, I had to be ‘well put together Seohyun,’” confessed the 30-year-old actress, as translated by Soompi.

The star went on to compare this to acting. “Acting is a secondhand creation, based on what I, Seo Ju-hyun (Seohyun’s real name), have experienced. So in each moment I can express my feelings more honestly,” she explained.

“In the past when I felt like crying, I used to swallow the urge to cry,” she later shared. However, the singer and actress added that she has since learnt to embrace such emotions. “Nowadays, if there’s a moment when I want to cry, I don’t hesitate.”

“When I have the thought, ‘I want to cry my eyes out!’ I listen to sad music while crying,” said Seohyun. “Then I think, ‘Ah, I feel refreshed. Crying is not a bad thing’ and I shake it off.”

Netflix’s upcoming movie Love and Leashes, which stars Seohyun and singer-actor Lee Jun-young (formerly of U-KISS and UNB), is set to premiere on February 11. The raunchy romantic-comedy film evolves around a pair of co-workers, Ji-woo and Ji-hoo, the former of whom accidentally discovers her subordinate’s fetish. The pair later enter a contractual S&M relationship after Ji-hoo asks her to become his master.