Netizens are buzzing about the stark difference between how two Korean heartthrobs handled interactions with underage actresses, with past interview clips resurfacing to tell a tale of two very different approaches.
Kim Soo Hyun is facing heat for comments he made during a 2012 press conference in Japan promoting the drama The Moon Embracing the Sun. When asked about his 13-year-old co-star Kim Yoo Jung, the then-24-year-old actor remarked, “I think I viewed Kim Yoo Jung as too much of a child,” before adding that upon meeting her, he found her to have “charisma” and to be “bold, intelligent, and mature—she’s someone I’m curious about.”
The comment that really set keyboards ablaze came next, when he suggested, “I believe I’ll be starring opposite her soon.”
The internet’s reaction has been swift and merciless. “This is creepy,” one wrote, while others didn’t mince words with comments like “Who talks to a 13-year-old like that?” and “Now that I see what kind of man he is, I see it clearly.”
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Meanwhile, Seo Kang Joon is enjoying an unexpected boost to his reputation thanks to a resurfaced clip from KBS’s Entertainment Weekly in 2016. When an interviewer jokingly commented that Seo and his co-star Kim Sae Ron, then 15, looked like a “married couple,” the actor didn’t hesitate to shut it down with a firm “What do you mean married couple? She’s a minor.”
This comparison has gained particular traction amid swirling allegations that Kim Soo Hyun began dating Kim Sae Ron when she was just 15 and he was 27. Netizens have been quick to highlight that Seo Kang Joon, born in 1993 and five years younger than Kim Soo Hyun, demonstrated what many consider to be appropriate boundaries.
Many online commenters have also criticized the Entertainment Weekly interviewer for making such an inappropriate suggestion about a minor actress in the first place.
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