Interview with Wooda, the author of <Interview with the Crazy Rich>

Q. What is the most memorable moment from your debut to your current activities?

A. Usually, it's when the readers catch the little details I've hidden. It's always thrilling.
    This is why I hide them...
    Then, if I hide something too well and nobody notices, I feel embarrassed thinking 'I went too far' and quickly try to fix it.
    But the most intensely memorable moment was when I uploaded episode 10 of season 2 for 'Is It Okay'.
    It was an episode where all the conflict and emotions built up over time exploded all at once.
    I worked on it thinking that I was finally showing this episode to the readers,
    and it felt like my own emotions were raging just like the characters in the story.
    Perhaps the readers felt the same way, as comments kept pouring in endlessly on that episode.
    Is this what it feels like for an author and a reader to resonate with each other across time and space?
    It's not that I haven't had this kind of experience since, but maybe because it was my debut work, that particular experience remains exceptionally vivid in my memory.

△An intense episode of an intense work! Fireworks go off. 🎇

Q. I'm curious about your studio!! Please introduce it to us~!

A. If there are no items, there is nothing to organize. This is the organizing method I've settled on.
    Actually, I used to be a maximalist with little(?) material desire.
    But now, I seem to have become a minimalist by anyone's standards.
    I mainly use an all-in-one iMac and occasionally work on an iPad. It used to be even emptier before. 
    Right now, I have gifts from my nieces and nephews stuck everywhere, and I think these kinds of gifts will keep increasing.
    Sob... my cute, lovable darlings...

△A studio overflowing with ❤️ 🥰

[About <Interview with the Crazy Rich>]

Q. It's a romantic comedy dealing with a romance with a chaebol, yet it's a bizarre work where nothing goes as expected.
    How long did it take to plan the work?

A. The day I first sent the synopsis of 'Crazy Rich' to my PD was September 17, 2018.
    The prologue was uploaded on December 26, 2019.
    Simply calculating it, you could say it took about a year, but
    because I took long season breaks between each season, I consider it to have taken quite a long time.

    The reason why nothing goes as expected despite being a chaebol rom-com is
    probably because I attached my own interpretation to every cliché.
    I wasn't a reader who liked romance, nor an author who drew romance.
    Because there was a certain part frequently repeated in the romance genre that I didn't like.
    However, if something keeps repeating and eventually becomes a cliché,
    there must definitely be a good reason for it. To ignore that and just mock the clichés
    felt disrespectful to the genre and the readers.
    I don't like the clichés. But that doesn't mean I want to ridicule them.
    Because the romance genre is the most mainstream genre in the world, yet simultaneously the one that receives the most criticism and disdain.
    So, I decided to unravel the clichés according to my own logic, in a way that I could accept.

    The chaebol male lead became a cold misanthrope because he was born into an international marriage and faced discrimination.
    The chaebol male lead's assistant interferes with the protagonists' love because it's more beneficial to her own career.
    The reason the workaholic obsessive character has never dated in her life is because she never realized what she had been doing all along was 'dating'.

Q. I was so glad to meet characters who weren't an alpha male and a Candy-type heroine.
    Actually, I felt she was extraordinary from Ji Eun's robust first appearance.
    Ji Eun doesn't just have a strong body; she has a strong mind, even receiving regular psychological counseling.
    Is there a specific point you focused on most when conceptualizing the character Ji Eun?

A. I agonized deeply when creating the protagonist for my next work, which would be released after a long hiatus following my debut 'Is It Okay'.
   As a protagonist, how could she naturally gain the favor of the characters in the story,
    and leave a good impression on many readers regardless of age and gender?
    It's a question I still don't quite know the answer to, and it's the ultimate goal of character making.
    It's too massive and heavy a task. So from the start, I completely scrapped the idea of making a 'good protagonist'.

    It's an unwritten rule that rom-com heroines are the plucky Candy type.
    Ji Eun's character making started from fleshing out that Candy-type human figure.
    In other words, I tried interpreting the rom-com heroine cliché my own way.
    I intentionally inserted sharp keywords that leave room for controversy, where conflicts are ongoing.
    Because that's reality.
    Then, I applied the sugar coating.
    Not with fleeting fantasies, but with hopes, dreams, and memories—things we often forget while battered by reality,
    but are good things that definitively exist within all of us. I sugar-coated her with those.
    I truly put a lot of effort into Ji Eun in various aspects.
    If I were to summarize it in one word, it would be 'respect'. Although she is a character I created, I respect Ji Eun.

△She's a great human figure, Ji Eun.

Q. Seojun, who appears prickly, completely breaks character within just a few panels.
    A chaebol male lead getting swept away by strong winds...
    Even after that, Seojun shows a different side from the chaebol male leads we usually see in stories.
    Just looking at Seojun's ordinary office makes you think he avoided every cliché possible.
    What do you think is the biggest charm of Seojun, who isn't a typical chaebol male lead?

A. His looks are one thing, but... I think it's the fact that he hasn't lost his sincerity.
    Even though he knows how to navigate social life reasonably well,
    if he thinks he sees sincerity in someone else, he can reveal his own sincerity as well.
    I believe Yang Seojun's purity comes from that.
    And this is something that gets increasingly harder to find as you live on.

△Hoping Seojun always stays true to himself.

Q. On the other hand, there is a character who took on all the clichés.
    From her personality to her behavioral patterns and drive, it seems no one can stop Seojeong.
    Except for her appearance, she's a type of character you can easily meet in works containing chaebol, romance, and comedy elements.
    When you were planning the character Seojeong, did you have a specific role you expected from her?

A. At first, I gave Yang Seojeong the role of a comedic supporting character fitting for a gag comic.
    But as I was unraveling clichés my own way, a curiosity arose.
    The 'obsessive chaebol crazy male lead' character that is so popular among female readers...
    If I kept all the settings of this obsessive chaebol crazy male lead exactly the same and only changed the gender to female...
    Would she still be able to appeal to female readers?

    The result of the experiment was a huge success.
    I learned that readers didn't just like the obsessive chaebol crazy 'male lead',
    but they just loved the 'obsessive chaebol crazy character' archetype.
    If you ask why I'm conducting experiments in a paid commercial serialization, I have no words to say.
    You might ask, if I only changed the gender, why didn't her appearance follow the cliché?
    Because following the cliché down to the appearance isn't my taste.
    Even though I care so much about appearance that I start character setup with it,
    I have no interest in typical beauty.
    Hmm... an obsessive chaebol character who is a cold, black-haired beauty... If Yang Seojeong pursues being Number One, I pursue being the Only One.

△Sweet Seojeong with obsessive crazy lead vibes❣️

Q. Personally, I really love the chemistry between 'Eun' and 'Neung'.
    Hovering slightly in the territory of a villain interfering with the love line, 'Neung' is a 'cold on the outside, warm on the inside' character.
    When she just can't leave 'Eun' alone, I find myself smiling warmly without realizing it.
    If 'Neung' was a 'cold on the outside, cold on the inside' character, a much easier development (though perhaps a bit predictable...) would have been possible,
    is there a reason you gave her such three-dimensional and diverse aspects? 

A. Actually, having Yoo Neung be a typical 'cold on the outside, cold on the inside' character would have been harder for me.
    I find writing typical characters extremely difficult.
    The hardest character to draw in 'Crazy Rich' was indeed
    Kang Nam-jun, the typical chaebol male lead from the story-within-a-story 'The Chaebol's Bed is Five Stars'. This is my strength and my weakness.
    It's hard for me to use widely loved elements as they are. So I have to twist them my own way.
    If done well, it gives a fresh feeling, but if done wrong, it becomes convoluted and niche.
    I'm really relieved that the things I tried in 'Crazy Rich' were received as fresh and fun by you all.

    Before serializing 'Crazy Rich', while exchanging feedback with my PD during the story development stage,
    I heard this about Yoo Neung's character. She feels like a second protagonist.
    At the time, I didn't think that at all.
    Assistant characters rarely appear in the latter half, so I just thought the PD felt that way because she appeared too much in the beginning...
    And now, my impression is that the PD had incredible foresight...

△I guess I like 'Neung'....

Q. Looking at the professional struggles and various situations of Ji Eun, a web novel author in the story, naturally makes us think of you, the author outside the work.
    That you must have held similar worries and gone through similar processes...
    Among various forms of creative works, many incorporate the author's own story.
    That makes it easier to write, but it can also feel uncomfortable because it reveals too much of oneself.
    Were there any specific things you considered when portraying Ji Eun, a web novel author?

A. This is something I've emphasized multiple times in various settings.
    Ji Eun and I don't have much in common other than being in the writing profession.
    Of course, we share similar hardships experienced in the author profession.
    But as an author, I intentionally set her up differently to maintain distance from the character,
    and crucially, because web novels and webtoons are completely different fields, it ended up like that while trying to reflect reality.
    That's how Ji Eun could become the web novel author 'Arthurinne' based on my research interviewing actual web novel authors. 

Q. Seojeong is so cool.
    While Seojun covers realistic, healing, heart-fluttering comedy, Seojeong took all the obsessive chaebol romance fantasy.
    Was this balance difference planned from the beginning? Or did it develop further as the story progressed?

A. I dug through my old KakaoTalk messages just for this question.
   What do I mean by old KakaoTalk messages? Before sending the 'Crazy Rich' synopsis to my PD for the first time,
    it refers to the messages from the idea development stage when I would bounce various ideas off my older sisters.
    I was developing a story where a chaebol male lead and an author female lead got tangled up in this and that.
    Then the idea came up that it would be nice if the chaebol male lead's younger sister was a fan of the author female lead...
    Instead of accepting my sister's idea exactly as it was, I twisted it and twisted it,
    and thus the chaebol male lead's younger sister with the appearance of a blonde gang boss and the soul of an obsessive chaebol fanatic was born.

    Answer to the question: It wasn't like that at first, but she was born through a sudden drift, rebellious psychology, butterfly effects, and so on.

△So Seojeong was born from the hands of close sisters

Q. Do you... like watermelons a lot?
    Since Ji Eun's luxury item and the school lunch at Seojeong's International St. Maria Academy both featured Mudeungsan watermelons, I thought you might really like them. 

A. There's a watermelon maniac in my family, and everyone generally likes watermelons, but I don't really like them.
    I only eat them if it's a really delicious watermelon,
    so I play the role of the 'tasty watermelon certifier' among my family. I have many fruits I do like.
    Recently, I've fallen for kumquats. They're really delicious.
    My lips tingle when I eat them, but anyway, I plan to stock up and eat them again during the kumquat season next year.

△Summer, come quickly...🍉

Q. A well-crafted story never fails no matter what form it takes.
    In that sense, this is a work I definitely want to see adapted into a drama.
    If it gets a live-action adaptation, is there a case where you think, 'I really want this actor to play this particular character!'? 

A. Actually, I used to think the late actress Kim Soo-mi would be great for the role of Hwang Jin-wan.
    I thought she would perfectly capture Hwang Jin-wan's setting where her Jeolla dialect comes out when she gets excited.
    Also, Hwang Jin-wan's stormy and intense character seemed to have great chemistry with actress Kim Soo-mi.
    Moreover, there is a very deep, murky darkness inside Hwang Jin-wan.
    I thought it would be wonderful for these aspects to be expressed through a veteran actress's performance.
    Therefore, I was deeply shocked when I saw the news of her passing.
    Even though this is my interview space, I would like to convey my condolences. May the late actress Kim Soo-mi rest in peace.

Q. The pen names of the two protagonists, 'Arthurinne' and 'ArchangelRaphael'. Were there any other candidates?

A. Surprisingly, both were chosen right away without much thought.
    I wanted a name like Marie Antoinette + something that could bypass so-called 'filtering', and 'Arthurinne' popped out immediately.
    Let's make it sound like a grade-schooler, but not too perky—calm and trying to look cool, yet still undeniably a grade-schooler's name. And 'ArchangelRaphael' popped out right away.
    I debated a bit whether to choose Michael, Gabriel, or Raphael, but anyway, it was decided very quickly.
    Actually, it was Yang Seojeong's nickname 'MagicalLyrical' that was chosen after a long competition.
    Another candidate was 'SheepSentimental'... sheep sentimental. It's a huge relief she ended up with 'MagicalLyrical'!

Q. Were there any scenes you thought, 'I absolutely have to draw this scene' while conceptualizing the story? Or if there are any lines like that, please tell us~! 

A. It's Yang Seojun's line in episode 14. "H... Here! Take my credit card!"
    Like the classic newspaper headline "Stop right there, OO!", I wrote this line with the expectation that a chaebol rom-com definitely needs a line like this...

    And Yang Seojeong's line in episode 45. "When are you going to meet your deadline?"
    I wrote this line out of a sense of duty that an obsessive chaebol crazy character who is a hardcore fan of an author must say something like this...

△Seojeong... your love is too spicy...🥶

[Outro]

Q. Even if it's not your immediate next work, if you were given infinite time and capital, is there a genre or story you absolutely want to draw?

A. I'm interested in new things, things I haven't done before.
    If I were to get that kind of luxury, I'd want to challenge myself with a mystery story, which I find the hardest.
    I wouldn't even know where to begin, but it's always been a dream of mine.
    In reality, time is finite, so it will get pushed down the priority list for various reasons, but I still want to try a mystery someday, even if it's just a short story.
    And for a slightly different reason than the mystery genre...
    there is a story I want to write when I no longer have to worry about making a living at all.
    I don't know in what form I will present it to you all,
    but if that day ever comes for me, I sincerely hope I still have the courage to tell that story.

Q. Reading fans' enthusiastic "stan" comments is also quite fun. Among the many comments, is there one that is firmly stuck in your memory?

A. There is a comment that brought me laughter and even an epiphany when I was having a really hard time.
    Because that epiphany was immediately reflected in the story of 'Crazy Rich',
    I think it's a bit too early to talk about it in this interview.
    The trigger was that single comment, but all the comments I've seen have made me the author I am.
    This is something I told readers a long time ago, but
    in the past, I found it amazing when shop owners remembered me when I visited.
    How do they remember all their customers? But once I became an author, I understood.
    I do remember. Of course... when the nickname stays the same... and preferably if the profile picture stays the same too... Embarrassingly after stating it so firmly, there are a few conditions attached...

Q. I am looking forward to the release of physical volumes. If physical books come out, merchandise should naturally follow. (I don't know what the relevant officials are doing...)
    If 'Crazy Rich' merchandise does come out, I absolutely!!!! want the money gun that Ji Eun gifted Seojun for his birthday.
    If merchandise were to be made, what would you like to have, Author?

A. If we make merchandise, I think something practical or packed with information would be good.
    For example, an afterword booklet gathering the afterwords from every episode, or Hwatu cards...
    I never once thought about the money gun you mentioned, but that's really great.
    I'm not someone who is super into merchandise, so if possible, I want to avoid common merch.
    Of course, if the opportunity to produce merchandise arises, I imagine we'll plan it by reflecting the opinions and demands of the readers.

△The money gun and that message card must be given as a set. (Serious)

Q. Is there any hidden story like, 'It'll be even more fun if you know this?' 

A. There is one thing that comes to mind first... my mouth is itching to say it, but I'll hold it in to reveal it in the final afterword.

Q. Thank you so much for your hard work answering this long interview.
    It wasn't in our prepared questions, but is there anything you absolutely want to say left regarding <Interview with the Crazy Rich>?

A. 'Interview with the Crazy Rich', which was on hiatus due to my health issues, will resume serialization starting April 30th on a cycle of 4 weeks of serialization and 1 week of break.
    I will carefully unfold the stories I have harbored for a long time so that I have no regrets.
    Please look favorably upon the final Season 4, all the way up to the highly anticipated final episode.

△We'll also have good memories with you, Author... 🥰

Q. Lastly, if you have anything you want to say to the readers who love <Interview with the Crazy Rich>, please feel free to say it.

A. There are many stories I couldn't quite unpack in this interview. I will unpack those stories in the final afterword of 'Crazy Rich'.