Hey seoul crushers!
So get this – Jung Hae In might be one of the hottest Korean actors around these days, but his journey into acting? Totally out of left field. Nobody saw it coming, not even Jung himself!
The dude recently popped up on this KBS show called AM Plaza with his buddy Hwang Jung Min to hype up their new flick, I, the Executioner. They got to chatting about how they both got into the acting game.
Now, a lot of folks know Jung first dipped his toes into acting with a school musical. But there was this one crazy incident that really got him thinking about acting as a legit career path. Picture this: Jung’s just a regular student, fresh out of his college entrance exam, when he gets street-cast at a movie theater. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
Jung admits he wasn’t really into acting back then. In his own words, “They asked if I wanted to try acting and handed me a business card. At the time, I wasn’t interested in acting and bragged about it to my mom. But later, things completely changed. I never thought about becoming an actor during school, and I assumed I would live an ordinary life like my peers. It feels like destiny”
So he buckles down, preps for a month to get into the Theater and Film Department at Pyeongtak University, and ends up graduating with an acting major. But here’s the kicker – when he first stepped into that department, he realized he was way behind the curve compared to his classmates.
Jung spills the tea, saying “I don’t know what kind of courage I had, but I realized there were people who had been preparing for this for a long time. I realized that unless I worked twice as hard, school life would be tough”.
And get this – his sudden career switch was such a shock to his parents, they gave him the silent treatment for weeks! His dad was especially not having it.
Jung recalls, “They didn’t say anything for weeks. My mom was more open to discussing it, but my dad was very adamant”.
But you know what? Looks like that decision to switch gears worked out pretty darn well for Jung. That casting agent he met all those years ago? Talk about having an eye for talent!
