Why All of Us Are Dead star Park Ji-hu was the perfect fit for Netflix zombie apocalypse series
- Teenager Park Ji-hu was intrigued by the show’s plot of ‘K-zombies meeting K-high school students’ and read the script for all 12 episodes in one sitting
- She saw similarities between the personality of her character in the K-drama and her own, and found events in the series reflected her own school life
Actress Park Ji-hu, who won accolades and best actress prizes in South Korea and abroad for her performance in the lead role in the 2018 indie film House of Hummingbird, is back in the global spotlight with her role in Netflix’s zombie apocalypse series All of Us Are Dead.
“I’ve always been a fan of zombie apocalypse films and series and the fact that the series is a Netflix original made me want to take part in the project,” Park says. “The plot of K-zombies meeting K-high school students seemed very intriguing to me.”
The 12-part apocalyptic series follows a group of high school students who fight against zombies for survival after their school becomes the ground zero of the virus outbreak.
The series, which was released on January 28, topped Netflix’s global top 10 charts for TV shows for 11 consecutive days, according to streaming analytics firm Flixpatrol.
Park plays On-jo, one of the survivors at the school, who is an outgoing, down-to-earth student. Amid the outbreak, she uses survival skills she learned from her firefighter dad to make it out alive with a group of students including Soo-hyuk (Lomon), the boy she has a crush on, and her long-time friend Cheong-san (Yoon Chan-young), who secretly has feelings for her.
The actress, who was also in high school during the series’ production, says the character resembled her actual personality in many ways and events in the series reflected her own school life.
“When I first read the script, I read through all 12 episodes in one sitting. I was so immersed that I was tearing up in the emotional scenes even though I was just simply reading the script,” she says.
“I could empathise a lot with the story, saying: ‘I would’ve done the same thing.’ My personality is similar to On-jo’s; we are both easy-going and sometimes clumsy. I would’ve also taken care of friends and survived together without letting anyone sacrifice themselves, and try to confront the zombies.”