Park Ji Hyun opened up about her dad’s battle with stomach cancer.
On the May 27th episode of tvN’s You Quiz on the Block, the actress appeared as a guest and shared the personal story behind one of her most emotional roles.
Park Ji Hyun recently won Best Drama at the Baeksang Arts Awards for You and Everything Else, in which she played a terminally ill cancer patient. She said she often turned to her dad, who is a doctor, for advice while preparing for the role.
“My dad is a doctor, so I asked him for advice in that sense,” she said. “Around the time ‘Reborn Rich’ was released, he was diagnosed with cancer.”
Park recalled that the diagnosis was difficult for her family, especially her mom. “The ratings for ‘Reborn Rich’ were climbing, and then I got a call,” she said. “They said he had food poisoning and pus was found near his stomach. It was so large that while he was hospitalized at a university hospital, they ran more tests and found out it was cancer. From then on, his condition kept getting worse.”
She continued, “At the time, I thought, ‘They’re giving me one thing and trying to take one thing away.’”
Park said her dad came to mind often while filming You and Everything Else. “When I received the script, my dad was actually doing much better,” she said. “He told me, ‘If it weren’t for my work and my family, I would have wanted to die.’ The moment I heard that, I understood what Sang Yeon must have felt. I asked him for advice on how patients endure that kind of pain.”
Park also reflected on how hard the experience was for her mom. “Watching Dad fight the illness, Mom had the hardest time,” she said. “She had a really hard time watching that project. She had already seen her husband go through that, and then she had to see her daughter portray it, too. My mom worried a lot about my health.”
Still, Park said she hopes her work gave her dad something to be proud of during a difficult time. “While my dad was sick, I was able to show him achievements in my acting, so I think he may have felt even prouder,” she said. “He likes every post that fans upload. Seeing that made me think the only thing I can do is keep working and show him a good side of myself.”
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