Yoo Ji Tae plays a popular reporter and Ji Chang Wook's rival in the drama "The Healer." The actor also appears as a South Korean tenor in the film "The Tenor Lirico Spinto." Yoo is not only an actor but he's also an acclaimed director who has said that nothing in life can compare to the excitement of making films.
How much do you know about this multi-faceted entertainer? Here are some facts.
1. He does what it takes to perfect a role, including studying opera. For his role as the South Korean tenor Bae Jae Chul, he not only studied English and Japanese but he studied opera singing for four hours a day. The real life tenor he played lost his voice due to thyroid cancer.
And while he admits that much of the time it was lip synching during the film, he did learn how to let his voice out and embody the attitude and breathing patterns of an opera singer.
"The location of the tonsils is also very important," he said in a tenasia.co.kr interview. "Sometimes you see the veins throbbing in a person's neck when they are singing. That's not real. So I tried to sing an octave lower than the song so my tonsils didn't move and my veins didn't throb."
2. He directed the film "Mai Ratima" about a Korean man in his 30s and his mail order bride from Thailand. The film was based on an idea he had in college 15 years earlier. In the acclaimed film he wanted to show the reality of being poor and multicultural in Korea.
3. His mom raised him as a single parent and he's proud of her.
"My mother, who worked as a nurse for a long time, wants to run a hospital for the elderly someday. I want to financially help her realize her dream, and then establish an orphanage," said Yoo in a KBS Global interview.
4. Besides these philanthropic goals he has contributed to many other charitable events. He has helped to build schools, deliver free lunches to the underprivileged, helped promote the adoption of abandoned dogs and campaigned against domestic violence.
5. He is married to actress Kim Hyo Jin, who played Moon Geun Young's rival in "Mary Stayed Out All Night." The couple met when they were both models in 2003. They began dating in 2006, married in 2011 and had their first child in 2014.
"We try to share whatever ideas we have," he said of his wife in a tenasia.co.kr interview. "That leads to communication and my wife is my partner for life. I can trust her and she trusts me. I am happy and grateful about that."
