Karma Star Shin Min-Ah Reveals Her Desire To Play Negative Roles, But Never Gets One: ‘Directors Have A Certain Image When They Think of Me…
Popular South Korean actress Shin Min-Ah, in an interview, talked about how she wants to play darker characters, but directors never think of her like that.
Shin Min-Ah, who gained massive popularity after her K-drama, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, is currently starring in a thriller series, Karma, on Netflix. The series aired on April 4, 2025, and has already garnered a lot of viewers, making it trending in different countries. The actress bears a cute look, which often lands her in the K-dramas where she plays a happy-go-lucky character.
However, the No Gain No Love actress wants to play negative characters as well. In a recent conversation, she talked about her role in Karma and explained how, despite wanting to play a darker role, directors often give her the leads of a positive protagonist because of her looks. Scroll down to read more.
In an interview with the Korean media outlet, Herald POP on April 9 (via KBizoom), Shin Min-Ah opened up about what she thought after receiving the script of Karma for the first time. She recalled that, as the storyline had a mystery-thriller theme, the actress had thought she got to play a negative character. Talking about it, she said, “When I got the Karma script, I wondered, Am I the bad one here? I’d love to play a darker character like some of the ones in the show.”
In the same interview that was held in JW Marriott Hotel in Jongro, Seoul, Shin Min-Ah continued to reveal how she has been wanting to play a darker character for ages and thought “Gong Seung Yeon’s Yu Jeong was incredibly compelling.” She further explained that it’s probably the certain look of hers that prevents directors from giving her any negative or villainous roles. She shared, “Directors have a certain image or type of face in mind when they think of me. But if given the chance, I’d love to try a villain.”
The Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha actress then emphasized that even though she didn’t get to play the villain in Karma, she was quite satisfied with the character she was portraying, as it demanded layers of emotion and a lot of turmoil. When asked about her character Lee Ju-Yeon, she said, “I had to begin with deep emotion from the start, knowing the twists and direction of the story. It wasn’t about a current trauma—it was trauma from long ago. That made it tricky.” Her character makes an appearance in the drama a bit late. Despite that, the actress said yes to the project because of the script. She was fascinated by the script as it “read like a mystery novel.”
Karma has a twisted storyline revolving around three characters: a physician who is chased by his nightmares, a man whose world turned upside down, and a debtor who is drowning in loans. Have you started to watch Karma on Netflix? Let us know.
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