We Are All Trying Here

Main

• Koo Kyo-hwan as Hwang Dong-man^[1]

Among the eight members of the film club, he alone has not debuted and has been preparing for his directorial debut for 20 years. The other members he started with are later successful film directors and producers. But Dong-man is still in the same place. Then, he meets an overwhelmed producer, Byeon Eun-ah, who helps him rediscover his self-worth.

• Go Youn-jung as Byeon Eun-ah^[1]
  • Han Si-a as young Eun-ah

The production director of Choi Film. Nicknamed "Dokki (Axe)" for her brutal script critiques, Eun-ah seems unshakably composed in every situation. Underneath, she battles her own trauma and often suffers from emotional overload.

• Oh Jung-se as Park Gyeong-se^[1]

A successful director of Gobak Film with at least five films released worldwide, he is also a member of the "Group of Eight", a well-known film industry gathering. Though technically an adult, he remains unfinished, still growing into himself. His success looks complete, yet he strives relentlessly to validate his worth, pushing upward or bracing against a fall. He maintains a childlike antagonism toward Dong-man while harboring a deep inferiority complex toward him.

• Kang Mal-geum as Ko Hye-jin^[1]

Gyeong-se's wife, who is the CEO of the Gobak Film. She began her career as a journalist but quit the film industry after growing to hate digging into other people's tragedies. The "Group of Eight" drains her—not just Dong-man, whose reputation for trouble precedes him—but her own husband, too, a man ruled by his inferiority complex.

• Park Hae-joon as Hwang Jin-man^[1]

Dong-man's older brother, who is a talented writer. He won a literary contest with a poem out of nowhere. After an unexpected win in a poetry contest, he quit his job. Unsure if he could live as a writer, he entered graduate school to become a professor and write poetry for the rest of his life—but nothing went as planned. Now he just tries to manage his unstable life, getting through each day with the help of alcohol.

• Bae Jong-ok as Oh Jeong-hee^[2]

A top actress. When acting, she forgets everything, enters another world, becomes someone else, and escapes her dark past.

• Han Sun-hwa as Jang Mi-ran^[3]

A top movie star, she is Jeong-hee's stepdaughter after her remarriage and the female lead in Gyeong-se's fifth film. Her status ranks just below Jeong-hee's, and she has trouble keeping the right social distance. On camera, she and Jeong-hee play the most devoted mother and daughter. Off camera, they turn icy toward each other.

• Choi Won-young as Choi Dong-hyun^[4]

CEO of the film production company Choi Film. He believes people exist in a hierarchy and wants to cut out anyone he sees as incompetent.

Supporting

• Jeon Bae-soo as Park Young-soo^[1]
• Shim Hee-seop as Lee Jun-hwan^[1]
• Park Ye-ni as Choi Hyo-jin^[5]
• Bae Myung-jin as Lee Gi-ri^[1]
• Jo Min-kook as Woo Seung-tae^[1]
• Yeon Woon-kyung as a singer and Eun-a's grandmother^[1]
• Kim So-yul as Sae-bom^[6]

Development

Cha Young-hoon [ko], who helmed When the Camellia Blooms (2019), and Welcome to Samdal-ri (2023–2024), was attached to direct. The script is written by Park Hae-young, who previously wrote My Mister (2018), and the production is handled by Studio Phoenix, SLL, and Studio Flow.^[7]

Casting

In April 2025, Koo Kyo-hwan, Go Youn-jung, Kang Mal-geum, Oh Jung-se were reportedly cast to lead the series.^[8][9] Han Sun-hwa was cast in September 2025, and Park Hae-joon was reportedly considering it.^[10][11]

JTBC confirmed Koo Kyo-hwan, Go Youn-jung, Oh Jung-se, Kang Mal-geum, Park Hae-joon, Bae Jong-ok, Han Sun-hwa, and Choi Won-young as the principal cast of the series through its official website.^[1]

Filming

Principal photography began in October 2025.^[10]