While South Korea has an enviable film industry that has been producing critically acclaimed content year after year, there is no denying that the small screen dominates popular entertainment much more widely. The global appreciation for K-Dramas is at par with that for K-Pop, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that in the Korean entertainment industry, the performance of a show can largely determine the fate of its actors.
So, to ensure the success of a drama, its main cast usually goes above and beyond to promote it on every platform possible, including online. But actress Kim Jung Eun pulled an opposite stunt while one of her shows was still airing.
When Kim was cast to play the protagonist in the SBS drama Princess LuLu in 2005, she was already an established name in the industry, having worked in multiple dramas and movies already. Some of her notable projects by then included shows like All About Eve (2000) and Lovers in Paris (2002) and movies such as Marrying the Mafia (2002) and Mr. Butterfly (2003).
SBS started airing Princess LuLu on July 27, 2005, and as the show progressed, audiences started complaining of excessive product placement and unrealistic storylines. But in an unprecedented move, the lead actress joined the crowd criticizing the drama, posting a lengthy entry on her online fan café announcing that she wanted to stop filming. The actress titled the post, “I am sorry,” and explained that she no longer had any confidence in the unconvincing story of her own show.
Due to the flow of the drama, which is becoming increasingly difficult to understand, I cannot force the viewers to accept my insincerity, and I am no longer confident in portraying a character that changes at every episode.
— Kim Jung Eun
Kim also exposed the incompetence of the drama production system, saying, “I had to shoot the episode for Thursday that very afternoon, and it was only Saturday that I could get the script for the next Wednesday’s episode.”
Though the actress’s exposé was well-aligned with the public’s opinion about the drama, it was not received well unanimously. While some agreed with her assessment of the problems with the production, some people found her behavior unprofessional.
Kim had almost walked off the set of Princess LuLu, but the production staff managed to pursue her to continue filming in the end. A few days after her bombshell online post, the actress confirmed that she will be resuming her role as Hee Su.
Such a drastic move would usually have a lasting impact on an actor’s career. So, where did Kim’s career go after this series, and what is she up to these days?
After Princess LuLu, Kim Jung Eun’s career never slowed down. Since then, she has worked in nearly a dozen dramas afterward and appeared on popular variety shows. The actress won multiple prestigious awards with her later projects, including the Most Popular Actress (Film) award at the 44th Baeksang Arts Awards (2008) for Forever the Moment, and the Top Excellence Award, Actress in a Serial Drama at the 2015 MBC Drama Awards for her performance in Make A Woman Cry.
Some of her more recent TV shows include Duel (2017) and My Dangerous Wife (2020). She hosted the MBC show DNA Mate for two consecutive years, in 2021 and 2022.
She is also a part of the upcoming drama Strong Girl Nam Soon, a follow-up of the 2017 hit show Strong Woman Do Bong Soon.
source https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/lead-actress-criticized-k-drama-poor-script/
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