Child actress Kim Yoo Jung recently landed her first leading role in a drama. She will play Seo Ji Dan in "Secret Door," a historical drama that is based on the real life story of "Prince Sado." The drama co-stars Lee Je Hoon as Prince Sado and Han Suk Kyu as his father and executioner King Yeongjo.
Kim Yoo Jung has been acting for 10 years and has slowly transitioned from child roles to adult ones. She played a teen in "The Suspicious Housekeeper," T.O.P.'s younger sister in the film "Commitment," and a teenage bully in the film "Elegant Lies."
Here are some facts you may not know about her:
1. She was discovered at the age of five in a contest that her older sister joined. By the time she was in fifth grade, she acted in 13 dramas and 15 films.
Since then she has played the younger versions of several popular actresses including Park Ye Jin, Lee Chung Ah, Moon Geun Young, Uee, Song Hye Kyo, and even played the young Han Hyo Joo twice.
2. She won the Best Child Actress award twice, once for playing the young Han Ga In in "Moon Embracing the Sun" and the other award for playing the young Han Ji Hye in "May Queen."
"I only realized that I was an actress later on in my life," said Kim in an interview with KoreaAm. "I realized that, at a certain point, I'd accepted that I was an actress without really knowing how it even started. So I've always thought of it as destiny."
3. But that does not mean it was easy being a child actress. She was just starting out when she appeared in the 2005 film "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance." She played a girl who was kidnapped and at a certain point in the shooting was supposed to say "Mom, I want to go home," but her co-star Choi Min Sik played a character that was so scary, she started to cry instead. She got a talking to by the director and her mom.
4. She picked T.O.P. as her favorite member of Big Bang and her ideal man. Then she got to play his younger sister in 'Commitment." She calls him oppa. During an interview on Connection Movie World, he said that they were friends.
"She actually has a sort of charisma that makes me act cute around her."
5. She was happy for her role in "Elegant Lies," because it gave her a chance to play the teenage bully Hwa Yeon, which was something other than the sweet innocent roles she usually plays.
"I kept playing nice roles like the candy girl. I was always the nice and brave girl. It was like this for "The Moon That Embraces The Sun", "May Queen", and "Golden Rainbow." Since "May Queen", I began to feel slightly frustrated, but Hwa Yeon was really different. I had never played this kind of character."
"Secret Door" will air after the completion of "Temptation."