Lee was 16 when she joined Girl’s Day, and enjoyed success with the group as their songs “Twinkle, Twinkle” and “Expect” sold millions of copies, and the 2014 hit “Darling” topped Korean music charts.
“I started out as a singer, an artist, around the time I was 16,” she says. “Most of the singers who were around the same age took a long time to get to the point where they could debut. They spent a long time as trainees.
“I was lucky to get an early start. But it’s true that I tried to practise more in singing and dancing, and then acting after my debut. I put a lot of thought into that process.”
Lee went on to join the cast of variety show Real Men in 2014 before starring in Reply 1988 in 2015 – which became South Korea’s highest-rated cable drama series at the time. She has shown her versatility in subsequent roles in family dramas, fantasies and unscripted series.
“When I look back on my past roles, I think I’m drawn to warm-hearted stories,” she says. “I tend to gravitate towards stories that have a message, that relay positive energy, just like my characters do. I’ve been fortunate that they’ve been received well.
“But it’s been 14 years since I officially debuted,” she adds. “Now I’m really interested in exploring a different side of myself. I want to challenge myself with different kinds of roles.”
Victory sees Lee’s first starring role in a feature film. Her character, Pil-sun, is a high-school troublemaker who wears baggy clothes, has messy hair and frequently sulks, pouts and storms off to her bedroom or down an alley to smoke.
“Those are the growing pains of puberty,” Lee says of Pil-sun. “She’s trying to figure herself out. I think she’s actually healthy because she has a dream. I find her really adorable.”
What about all the trouble Pil-sun gets into? “I think she’s a very loyal person,” Lee says. “The reason she gets into fights in the first place is not for herself, but because she’s trying to help a friend or family member.
“When I think of my personal memories of my father, I feel like I was in conflict with him much more than with my mother. There are always moments as a daughter when you don’t understand your father. What’s interesting to me now, when we screen Victory, is how men really understand the father’s perspective.”
Victory is set on Geoje, an island off South Korea’s south coast, in 1999, before the internet and social media dominated students’ lives.
“That meant that trends in fashion or music actually took a long time to get to Geoje,” Lee says. “I think that fuels Pil-sun’s desire to get up to date, to start a career in Seoul.”
Pil-sun’s background has parallels with Lee’s own. Both grew up in rural areas.
“It was very rural and pretty far away from Seoul,” Lee says about the remote village in which she was raised.
“When I think about that time, I have so many great childhood memories. Like just running around with friends, playing in the mud, going to your neighbours’ houses. It would be like, ‘Do you want to have dinner together?’
“I’m so nostalgic for that, for living ‘normally’. But if I had to pick a place to live, I’d pick Seoul. I’m so used to it now.”
Lee began training for Victory five months before shooting for the movie started, and during the three-month-long shoot the production company rented a studio so she and her fellow dancers could hone their choreography.
Such a punishing schedule reminded her of how intensely she used to train with Girl’s Day for their stage routines, she says.
“At one point I was like, ‘Wait, how many songs do I need to figure out?’ It was 11. It was really like preparing for a concert tour – pretty intense. So basically, from November to June I was training every day as a dancer.”
Lee says thinking about a sequence in which Pil-sun and her best friend Mi-na (played by Park Se-wan) recruit students for their cheerleading team still makes her shudder.
“I was really nervous. We filmed over two days, dancing in classrooms and hallways. There were so many elements we had to catch, and we needed a really upbeat response from the students. I’d be raising my arms, begging for applause. ‘Can you please give a bit more?’
“Cheerleading is physically exhausting. It’s like a sport, very athletic. We used to talk to each other about how tired we were. And it’s so synchronised, so getting our moves right was really difficult.”
Park Se-wan adds: “It took me eight hours a day for three months to rehearse that scene. It looks fun on the outside, but inside we were really tired. Hyeri and I had to rely on each other a lot.”
During a poignant scene in the film, Pil-sun’s father (played by Hyun Bong-sik) tells his daughter what she meant to him when she was a younger child. Pil-sun tries to hold back tears as the camera slowly zooms in on her face.
“I’d have to check with [director] Park Beom-su, but I think we got that scene in one or two takes,” Lee says. “That’s because the dad’s words rang so true to me. I had a good rapport with the actor, and he was so truthful and honest you couldn’t help but be moved.”
Park Beom-su, Park Se-wan and producer Lee Anna accompanied Lee Hye-ri onstage as she accepted her award in New York.
“I’m honoured and grateful to receive the rising star award,” Lee said before the ceremony. “I feel like I am accepting it as a representative for the entire cast and crew.
“An actor once told me, ‘You know, Korean culture was already fantastic. It’s just that people around the world are only discovering it now.’ I’m seeing that myself as I tour. So I feel even more responsible to work harder and do better.”