Warning: Spoilers for Doona! ahead. Bae Su-ji (better known as Bae Suzy, or eponymously) is the perfect person to play Doo-na, the enigmatic former K-pop star at the center of Netflix’s latest series, Doona! After all, she’s a former idol herself, who rose to superstardom in 2010 as a member of the JYP Entertainment girl group Miss A and then began her career as an actress just one year after her debut.
At the start of the new romance drama—directed by Crash Landing on You’s Lee Jung-hyo and based on Min Song-ah’s webtoon The Girl Downstairs—Doo-na has just left the popular group Dream Sweet, under mysterious circumstances. As she’s navigating her now-aimless days and the residual trauma from her departure in the industry, she meets Won-jun (played by Yang Se-jong), an ordinary college student with whom she falls into an intense love affair. Suzy gives a dazzling performance in the nine-episode show, informed by her own experience as an entertainer which gave her deep empathy for the character. “She’s“someone I want to reach out and give a hug.”
