Actor Kim Ji Hoon made a name for himself with romantic comedies but recently stepped into the spotlight for his villain roles in Flower of Evil, Money Heist: Korea — Joint Economic Area, and Death’s Game. However, the famous K-Drama villain almost had an entirely different career.
Actor Kim Ji Hoon in “Death’s Game.” | @jiraishin99/Instagram | @jiraishin99/Instagram
Kim Ji Hoon told the host of Don’t Forget Your Breakfast he’d been an SM Entertainment trainee at the same time as the members of Super Junior.
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The actor trained hard enough to make it into the lineup of a five-member boy group, at least until everything fell through for the trainees.
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When Jang Sung Kyu asked the actor why the group didn’t work out, Kim Ji Hoon was brutally honest. He said, “I wasn’t a good singer.”
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Even though “everyone did lip-syncing” back then, Kim Ji Hoon imagined how embarrassing it was to find excuses not to sing live. That’s when he knew being a K-Pop idol wasn’t for him.
I was relying on that when I said I wanted to be a singer. But when imagining a scenario where I have to make an excuse that I can’t sing…when someone asks me to sing… It wasn’t pretty. It’s absurd.
I realized that I shouldn’t be a singer. I made a decision to leave and looked into other fields.
— Kim Ji Hoon
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Since Kim Ji Hoon is now praised for playing the most convincing K-Drama villains, ending his idol career worked in his favor.
