Actor-singer Park Ji-hoon says his love affair with the camera started when he was a kid ― and he’s always had a performer’s spirit to match.
Sitting down in Seoul’s Samcheong-dong on the 27th to mark the release of his new film “The King's Warden,” Park recalled what pulled him into child acting in the first place. “I don’t remember the exact project, but I used to watch TV and say, ‘I want to be there. I want to be like that,’” he shared. “So I enrolled at the then-famous MTM acting academy. I was so young that a lot of it is a blur, but after graduating there, I started working as a child actor.”
Looking back on those early years, he added, “I had a blast. Some kids are intimidated by the camera at first, but I always felt at home in front of it ― which was a blessing. All through middle school, I was obsessed with acting in the best way.”
After wrapping up his child-actor chapter around middle school, Park took roughly five years away from the screen. “I went to an arts high school for acting and spent a lot of time on stage,” he said. “Then I fell for popping. I loved dancing and performing, so becoming a singer felt like a way to do both. That’s how I ended up as a trainee.”
Park later became the center on the audition show “Produce 101,” where his now-viral “Save” pose turned heads. “When I look back, I do wonder, ‘Why did I do that?’” he laughed. “I guess I’ve always had that instinct to play to the camera in the moment.”
He also noted a personality shift over the years. “My MBTI used to be ENFP, but at some point it changed to INFP,” he said. “From early Wanna One days into my mid-20s, I loved meeting new people and hated being alone ― I leaned on others a lot. But once I started solo activities, I learned the value and joy of solitude. Little by little, my personality changed.”
After a run as both a child actor and an idol, Park has been staking his claim as an adult lead with the hit series “Weak Hero Class 1” and now “The King's Warden,” out Feb. 4. In the film, he takes on the tragic young monarch Danjong, earning praise for a soulful gaze and quietly devastating performance that signal a new level of maturity.
(SBS Entertainment News | Kim Ji-hye)