Son Ye-jin's Teenage Face in Scandal Is Pure CG, Modeled on The Classic

Son Ye-jin confirmed on September 21 that every scene depicting her character's teenage years in Netflix's Scandal was constructed through computer-generated de-aging, with no younger actress involved. The technique drew on her actual appearance from the 2002 film The Classic, making the result close enough that she said she found it genuinely strange to watch.

The disclosure came during a promotional video posted to the Netflix Korea YouTube channel, where Son Ye-jin appeared alongside co-stars Ji Chang-wook and Nana. Host Yoo Byung-jae had raised the topic after receiving a tip from the production team: both Jo Won (played by Ji Chang-wook) and Jo Yoon (played by Son Ye-jin) appear as teenagers in the series, and all of those scenes were CG.

"Our young faces were all made with CG," Son Ye-jin said. Yoo Byung-jae expressed surprise, noting that the effect was seamless enough that he had mistaken it for a high-end filter app. Nana, also present, said she had not known either.

Ji Chang-wook explained the process in more concrete terms: the team applied de-aging to the adult actors' footage rather than casting younger performers, shaping the result around what the actors actually looked like in their youth. Son Ye-jin added that the visual reference for her character's teenage look was her appearance in The Classic, a film she made in her early 20s. "They approximated that look and worked from there," she said. "So when I watched it back, I thought it really did look like my 20s, it was strange to see."

De-aging through facial compositing has become more common in Korean prestige productions over the past few years, though most shows using the technique have kept the details quiet. Scandal being open about the process is a mild departure from that norm, likely because the result held up well enough that the cast was comfortable discussing it.

About the show

Scandal premiered on Netflix on September 18, directed by Jeong Ji-woo. The series adapts Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, transposing its world of aristocratic seduction into Joseon-era Korea. The same novel was previously adapted as the 2003 Korean film Untold Scandal, directed by E J-yong.

The drama follows Jo Yoon, a woman of exceptional ability constrained by the rigid social order of her time, and Jo Won, the most notorious seducer in Joseon, whose wager draws in a third figure, Hee-yeon, played by Nana. Director Jeong has described the central tension as the gap between what each character shows the world and what they conceal from it.

The show reached number one on Netflix Korea within a day of its release and entered the global top ten for TV shows, appearing in ranked charts across 26 countries and regions, according to FlixPatrol data from September 19.

For Son Ye-jin, Scandal marks a return to the historical drama genre for the first time in 24 years. The costume design was handled by the modern hanbok brand Chai Kim, with designer Kim Young-jin noting that Jo Yoon's wardrobe deepens in shade of green as her character's desires intensify across the series.