Ripped South Korean Actress Lee Si-young Knocks Everyone’s Heart Out in Netflix’s ‘Sweet Home’

Meet Lee Si-young, the badass South Korean actress from the hit Netflix series “Sweet Home.”

The 38-year-old plays the role of retired firefighter Seo Yi-kyung, according to Forbes. Seo is also one of the residents of Green Home, an apartment building where humans turn into monsters.

“I am a retired firefighter in the series so I tend to protect people from danger,” the actress told Forbes. “When you have to confront monsters, it has to be me. Everyone encounters the monsters and so do I.”

“Sweet Home” was originally released in 2017 as a webtoon, a type of digital comic which first emerged in South Korea. Writer Kim Carnby and illustrator Hwang Young-chan published the last chapter of the webtoon on July 2, 2020.

This is not the first time Lee has appeared in an onscreen project based on a webtoon. She previously played a webtoon designer in the 2013 thriller “Killer Toon.”

“I have liked comics since I was a kid and the movie Killer Toon was the first movie I did based on comics,” Lee shared. “I didn’t have any reason to ponder and I was honored to be part of it.”

Seo Yi-kyung fights monsters in the Netflix show. But Lee does her own fight scenes and considers this another opportunity to express herself.

“I recently found out that I like using my body,” Lee said. “I am drawn to the fact that I can deliver emotion in action scenes.”

Lee once took up boxing lessons for a previous role. Although the project was never released due to unspecified reasons, Lee continued to pursue her new skill. She even had dreams of representing South Korea at the 2014 Asian Games.

“Boxing became another dream of mine,” she shared. “It became a significant part of my life so I had no regret of things I had to give up. Acting had aspects that boxing didn’t and boxing had aspects that acting didn’t. They were complementary. Winning a boxing match didn’t matter. Because I knew better than anyone how hard I tried. What people think about me was not important. My challenge was completed and that was all that mattered.”

According to Wikitree via AllKpop, Lee had to work out regularly and maintain a strict diet to bulk up for her role. To accentuate her muscles, the actress also needed to shed more weight and have around 8-9% of total body fat.

“No one told me how much body fat to lose, but my trainer said I have to have about 8 to 9% body fat for my muscles to show, so I started working out with that goal. I had to bulk up, and I ate a lot to the point I couldn’t eat anymore. Then I adjusted my diet for the filming.”

“The director wanted a strong woman, and I did my best,” Lee said.

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