Butterfly was certainly a vehicle for me, and if it died, it still would have served its purpose, in spades. We never expected it to give me the visibility it has given me. It was just a small thing as a vehicle, and suddenly the whole world knew about it.
When I booked 'Orange,' I thought things were going to change a little bit, and I'd be a little more busy, but obviously I underestimated it. I don't think anyone knew that my character would be taken to so well.
Since my father was a superstar, without me knowing it, I became a child star, as my father's entire fan base liked me, and I can't thank my father enough for this, as it was so effortless.
After 'Skins' I became mildly famous, which was a bit of a disaster.
I've been involved in some movies that I really thought were going to take off that didn't. And then I've thought, 'This movie's not going anywhere,' and it worked. The same thing with television shows.
The music I was making for people not to dance to was the one they were dancing to.
We thought 'Father Ted' was destined to be obscure late-night Channel 4 fodder and then it works and you don't really know why.
I've had projects before where everyone says 'This is going to be the big thing,' and it doesn't really turn out to be. Then there is a little project you do and forget about, and then it comes out, and it's huge.
Everyone hated the title 'The Full Monty' until they saw the film did really well and then loved the title.
I cannot believe I became some kind of hero. I'm just a common Korean woman.
There was no way to predict that 'This is Us' was going to be what it is, that it would really resonate with people.
For me, the biggest successes I've ever had were the ones I never counted on. I never thought my first big record would be a hit. I thought it was an average song.
It is quite surreal when you go to places up the north, like Inner Mongolia, and you are getting mobbed at the airport.
With Ghost, I never really foresaw that it was going to take off the way it did.
Becoming famous is a really shocking thing, especially when you don't have aspirations to it. It got to the point where I would try and avoid making eye contact with anyone. It was freaky, and it just happened overnight. I couldn't handle it.
But the one thing I'll always know is that people don't know what they want until they get it. They didn't know they wanted a song about taking a horse to the old town road in 2019. But they did.
I feel like a hostage to fortune. Not that I am complaining. I wanted to play the role. But in truth I didn't think the show would be such a success. OK, I thought it would fail. Not because it was bad. I was confident it was good, but plenty of good things just sort of wither on the vine.
I never expected my writing to become as popular as it did.
The Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie was an unexpected, unplanned pop culture phenomena. My father went from star-maker to star.
I think the rapid rate at which people started caring and paying attention, because it's just something that I don't think you can really prepare for - there's no textbook on it. Just the amount of interest that people have in me and Alice and the "Twilight" series and the rest of my cast.
Oddly, for a book to do well merely because people like it is surprisingly rare.
Very rarely is there a spike in news-stand sales.
As soon as 'Hide Away' came out, it was like everyone knew who I was, and I started getting all this attention. It was hard to get used to at first. I just remember that I suddenly couldn't walk down the hallways without hearing a classmate or teacher playing it - it was unreal!
The truth is, I hadn't grown up really wanting to be a writer. The whole thing was a weird aberration in some ways, and I didn't feel personally connected to the level of success I had with it - the success of sorts, I guess.
It was something I never expected to - I never expected the book would sell in the first place. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers.
