Popular Actor Admits To Facing Financial Trouble Due To A 3-Year Work Hiatus
Actor Kim Ji Hoon reflected on the time when he took a break from his career for about three years and the financial trouble he faced.
Recently, a video was uploaded to Kim Jung Nan’s YouTube channel. Kim Ji Hoon made a guest appearance on the show.
In the video, Kim Ji Hoon visited Kim Jung Nan’s home, where they had a meal together and shared a heartfelt conversation. Recalling the time when they appeared together on “Why Did You Come to My House?”, Kim Jung Nan said, “Back then, Ji Hoon was really a flower boy. Why did you suddenly become a beastly man? Was it after the military?” Kim Ji Hoon responded, “It’s just that as I got older and tasted the bitterness of the world, I matured.”
Kim Jung Nan asked, “What bitterness? The bitterness I don’t know about?” To this, Kim Ji Hoon opened up: “The weekend drama image was too strong. I wanted to do films or other types of dramas and felt I could do well, but no one thought of me that way. So I ended up taking about a three-year break from work because those were the only kinds of offers coming in.”
He continued, “The agency kept saying they’d look for something, try working on a certain project, or talk to people—but I just kept waiting, and the disappointment kept repeating. The last straw was when a drama came up that I felt I had a real shot at. I was told to wait a bit. Then one day, I woke up and saw a Naver news article saying someone else had been cast in that drama. That’s when I completely lost it—I just couldn’t take it anymore.”
Kim Ji Hoon explained, “That three-year period felt so long. I ran out of all the money I had saved, but the biggest problem was having no hope—no idea when or how anything would get better. I felt a lot during that time. My health started to decline. For the first time in my life, I started getting severe headaches—just touching my head would hurt. It got to the point where I wondered if I had a brain tumor. That’s when I realized one thing for sure: the biggest enemy to health is stress.”
Kim Jung Nan empathized, saying, “That phrase ‘the mind controls the body’ really is true. That’s why you didn’t waste your time and studied hard—did this and that.”
Kim Ji Hoon agreed and said, “I made up my mind. Since I wasn’t going to get any roles, I decided to use my time constructively—travel, work out, read books, watch movies. But after six to seven months, with all the rejections piling up, I reached a point where I couldn’t absorb anything. I’d try reading, but the words wouldn’t register. I’d watch a movie, but nothing stuck. There was a time I couldn’t do anything. That’s when I started gaming.”
He added, “It wasn’t intentional, but since I didn’t have to try hard and the game was so addictive, I could forget the world while playing. I played for almost a year and beat the final level. It kind of became like my antidepressant.”
Kim Jung Nan then asked, “When you’re going through such a hard time, doesn’t dating also become difficult?” Kim Ji Hoon laughed and admitted, “I still did it.”
Kim Jung Nan joked, “So you still did everything you needed to,” and added warmly, “Looking back now, I think you followed a perfectly normal path.” Kim Ji Hoon nodded in agreement, saying, “Now that I look back, I think so too.” Kim Jung Nan concluded, “Every actor needs a time like that. That’s why your acting improved.”
Source: (A)
