Park Chan-wookSouth Korean director Park Chan-wook makes his first foray into Hollywood and the English language with his upcoming title Stoker, and speaking exclusively to HeyUGuys ahead of the films release, he discusses his admiration for his lead star Mia Wasikowska.

Wasikowska, who is just 23 years of age and has appeared in titles such as Jane Eyre and Lawless, plays India, a troubled adolescent who develops feelings towards her beguiling uncle Charles (Matthew Goode), in spite of her own mothers (Nicole Kidman) interest in her deceased father’s brother.

Park, who reached worldwide acclaim with the outstanding Oldboy, returns in a similarly visceral fashion, and although he has own technique stamped all across Stoker, he remains hugely impressed and pleasantly surprised with his Australian leading lady.

“I was really surprised by Mia’s work,” he said. “I’ve worked with some great actors before, but it was the first time coming across an actor so young yet so mature. She is the kind of actor who would hold back a lot of emotions and be very straight, but what it does to you as an audience member is it makes you want to come closer and take a closer look at what she is doing, and that as an actor is very empowering.

“She’s in an advantageous position and once you’ve gone closer and taken a closer look you realise how very nuanced and subtle her performance is, as she expresses everything is really great detail.”

The film – which opens in cinemas on March 1 – not only marks Park’s first English language title, but it’s also the first time he has taken on someone else’s screenplay (Wentworth Miller, in this case) and given the brilliance of the film at hand, we remain fully of the belief that whatever this talented director attempts to achieve, he may very well do so.

You can read our five star review here.