Actor Park Jeong-min / Courtesy of SEM Company
After a viral performance at the Blue Dragon Film Awards — Korea’s equivalent of the Oscars — actor Park Jeong-min’s life took an unexpected turn.
Autograph requests became frequent. Old friends reached out. One message read, “Hey, you finally made it.”
Park, however, was baffled.
“What was I before then? How far do I have to go to have ‘made it’?” Park said during an interview with the Hankook Ilbo Monday. “It’s actually my dad who’s loving the attention. I’m still just bewildered.”
Park’s recent career trajectory, including a starring role in director Ryoo Seung-wan’s spy thriller “Humint,” has cemented his status as a top-tier actor. Yet, when asked about his newfound status as a “heartthrob” capable of making fans swoon, Park tilted his head.
“I’ve never thought about it. I think they’re reading too much into it,” he said, prompting laughter in the room. “I never intended or aimed for that appeal. The world sometimes gives you strange gifts from unexpected places. My way of staying grounded is to think, ‘This, too, shall pass.'”
Actor Park Jeong-min and singer Hwasa perform at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Captured from KBS
Park insists he has never successfully achieved anything he deliberately aimed for. This has led him to adopt a “purposeless” lifestyle.
“I wanted to go to Seoul National University but couldn’t. I failed my first entrance exam for the Korea National University of Arts. Many choices I made to become famous didn’t work out,” Park said. “The moment I set a goal, the emptiness when I fail to reach it is overwhelming. Losing the happiness of the process is even sadder.”
For the past 15 years, his success has been a series of happy accidents. His mindset of “just pulling my weight” led to the spotlight. His much-talked-about stage performance with singer Hwasa was done “without much thought,” yet it drew a massive reaction.
A scene from “Humint” / Courtesy of NEW
In “Humint,” Park steps into uncharted territory — romance. He plays a North Korean official opposite actress Shin Sae-kyeong.
“I almost never thought about ‘acting out romance’ while filming,” Park said. “It was the genre I found most daunting and worried about.”
He recalled a scene where his character sits behind a restaurant with Shin’s character — practically the only scene focusing solely on the two of them.
“That night, the director and even Zo In-sung, who came to visit the set, were strangely tense,” Park said.
Park practiced his lines obsessively for that moment. His first line was a stiff, “How have you been?”
“Instead of packing it with emotion, simply asking ‘How have you been?’ after a difficult reunion hit me harder,” he said. “That decided the tone of the scene.”
When choosing scripts, Park now asks one question: “Is this a story that needs to be told right now?”
“Actors act out what is written,” he said. “In the past, I chose fun and charming roles. Now, I’m drawn to stories that I want to see out in the world, even if they don’t draw massive crowds.”
Actor Park Jeong-min works at his publishing house, Muje, in Mapo District, Seoul, May 28, 2025. Korea Times photo by Park Si-mon
When asked about his future plans, Park offered a surprise confession.
“You probably won’t see me next year,” he said. “I have no filmed projects in stock, and no variety shows lined up. I said I would rest last year but ended up working and showing up everywhere. Now I’m paying the price for that.”
Instead, Park will focus on his publishing house, Muje. The company has grown to three employees. While a recent bestseller gave the company some breathing room, Park remains cautious.
“The publishing market is small and difficult. To say we are doing well would be getting ahead of ourselves,” he said. “Our company motto is simple. The writer dictates our survival. We must love the writer.”
Despite the explosion of popularity, Park refuses to cling to it.
“The moments I didn’t aim for and the choices I didn’t plan brought me here,” Park said. “So today, instead of setting a goal, I just walk at my own pace, thinking, ‘If I just keep doing it, maybe someone will notice again.'”
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.
