LOS ANGELES – Dark crime thriller Mask Girl, the most-watched non-English-language show on Netflix globally the week of Aug 21, is shaping up to be one of the most-talked-about South Korean dramas of 2023.

And it is also a Cinderella story for one of the three actresses who play the title role: Newcomer Lee Han-byeol, 31, who beat more than a thousand women to ace the audition.

Two A-listers, South Korean actress Go Hyun-jung (Sandglass, 1995) and K-pop singer Nana, portray the main character at later stages of her life.

But it is Lee who is getting rave reviews for her performance as Kim Mo-mi, a woman who has always been told she is ugly.

So to fulfil a childhood dream of performing on stage, Mo-mi leads a double life – a shy office worker by day and a flirtatious masked live-streamer by night – until a terrible accident alters her fate.

Speaking to The Straits Times and other media over Zoom, Lee says she told only a handful of close relatives and friends she was going to be on Mask Girl, but did not do so in great detail.

“The whole casting process took quite a long time... I only said I was going to be part of a project,” she says through an interpreter.

While the casting of Nana, 31, and Go, 52, was revealed early on, Netflix did not initially name the third actress playing Mo-mi except to say she was “a new talent yet to be revealed”.

South Korean director Kim Yong-hoon, who also wrote the screenplay based on the webtoon of the same name, says: “We kept a tight lid on Han-byeol’s involvement. I thought it would give the audience a lot of food for thought.”

The 41-year-old film-maker, who directed the neo-noir thriller Beasts Clawing At Straws (2020), says Lee is a natural.

“It was important that the character had her own charm, and she had to be someone who’s really strong inside. When I first met Han-byeol, I saw that in her, and that’s how I came to cast her.

“And even though this is her debut show, she is so good at analysing the script and would give very instinctive performances, which is very bold for a newcomer. She is really a genius at acting,” he raves.

Some fans and critics believe Mask Girl is a commentary on the unforgiving beauty standards women are held to, but Kim says he does not necessarily see the story that way.

“We deal with certain social issues regarding hatred, and I hope that if we use different perspectives to look at this kind of hatred, we can see it in a different light. I was trying to close that gap between people who hate one another,” he says.

For Lee, the story and character felt true to life.

“It might seem provocative, and with lots of dark issues, but instead of trying to enlighten people, we try to show the important choices Mo-mi makes,” she says.

There are similar “inflection points in all of our lives” and, like Mo-mi, many people wrestle with their insecurities and beliefs, she adds.

“So it might seem fantastical, but (the show is) truly a compression of the world right now. And I really like how Mo-mi’s choices and the repercussions are portrayed.”

The repercussions of Lee’s new-found fame have yet to fully sink in, though.

“I didn’t expect there to be so much recognition from a lot of people all around the world,” the actress says.

“I feel a lot of people are interested because on social media, I see memes of Mask Girl and people posting about the characters.

“But in real life, I don’t feel there has been much change for me. I stay at home most of the time, and I try not to Google Mask Girl too much because some of the comments might be hurtful.

“So I haven’t really taken in the recognition and fame.”

Mask Girl is showing on Netlflix.