Ahn Hyo Seop is opening up about his early struggles.
On April 26th, the actor appeared on the YouTube show “Fairy Jaehyung,” where he shared candid stories from his rookie days.
Ahn recalled how he passed an audition for JYP Entertainment while still living in Canada, but quickly realized the idol path wasn’t for him. “I love music so much, but when I started practicing it like a job over and over, I thought I might end up hating it,” he said, explaining the moment he knew it wasn’t the right fit.
He added with a laugh, “I also got cut because I wasn’t very good. Honestly, I would’ve cut me too.” While he felt he could improve his singing, he admitted dancing was a major challenge. “Singing, I thought I could figure out. But dancing? That was not easy.”
Host Jung Jae Hyung brought up the time Ahn filmed four projects in a single year, including Happy Home, and asked why he was in such high demand. Ahn answered bluntly, “First of all, I was cheap. That’s for sure,” he said with a smile. “If I remember correctly, my first appearance fee was 500,000 won per episode (about 340 USD). But honestly, I was grateful for it.”
He also laughed about his tiny role in Happy Home, where he reportedly had just one line — “Yes” — across three episodes. He shared, “And I even got scolded for that one ‘yes.’ That’s when I first realized how much thought can go into even a single word.”
Things slowly began to change after he appeared in My Father is Strange. “That’s when people started to recognize me, and I began landing bigger roles and doing miniseries,” he said, adding that he later joined Still 17.
Despite the momentum, Ahn admitted there was a point when he almost walked away from acting altogether. “I seriously thought about quitting,” he said, citing the intense physical demands at the time. “It was the hottest summer in over a hundred years, and I was playing a rowing athlete. I felt like I was at my limit.”
Still, the struggle paid off. “Ironically, that project did really well,” he said. “And after that, I was cast in my first leading role.”
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