At the 30th Busan International Film Festival, Son Ye-jin gave fans a rare glimpse into her personal life with husband and fellow actor Hyun Bin, revealing that the couple intentionally keeps work talk to a minimum—even while both remain prominent figures in the film industry.
During her appearance at the festival’s Actors House event, held on the afternoon of the 18th at Sohyang Theater Shinhan Card Hall (Dongseo University, Busan), Son sat down with Baek Eun-ha, head of the Actor Research Institute, to reflect on her career, recent work, and life off-screen.
Son Ye-jin opened this year’s festival with her return to cinema in No Other Choice, directed by Park Chan-wook—a significant comeback marking her first film appearance in seven years. Her last movie, The Negotiation (2018), also happened to be the project that brought her together on screen with now-husband Hyun Bin.
With that connection in mind, one fan at the event asked whether the couple discusses work at home. Son smiled and responded candidly:
“It’s really strange how we hardly ever talk about work,” she said. “We don’t ask each other where we’ve been. We don’t ask if today’s filming was tough. We understand through expressions.”
Though the couple maintains this unspoken understanding, Son admitted there was one exception for her latest film:
“Uniquely, I did show him the scenario for this movie. I never usually share scripts with him, but when the director gave me the script—back when it was still titled Axe—I gave it to him to read.”
Still, she emphasized that work-related discussions remain rare between them:
“My husband hardly ever talks about work. Sometimes I ask him to help me run lines, and if he does it weirdly, I get mad,” she laughed. “But we really don’t talk much about work in general.”
Son Ye-jin and Hyun Bin, who married in 2022, welcomed their first child—a son—later that year. While both continue to take on selective film projects, their relationship seems to be grounded in a quiet mutual understanding that transcends scripts and screenplays.
As Son Ye-jin returns to the spotlight with No Other Choice, her candid reflections off-screen serve as a reminder that even among two of Korea’s biggest stars, life at home can be refreshingly ordinary.
