Kim Mu Yeol is opening up about the woman who stood by him long before his breakout success.
On the July 1st episode of tvN’s You Quiz on the Block, the actor appeared to talk about his journey from his struggling early years to the recent global attention he has received through the Netflix series Teach You a Lesson.
During the episode, Kim looked back on the difficult reality he faced when he was first chasing his dream of becoming an actor. He shared that during one year of performing in musicals, he earned just 200,000 won, or about $145. He also recalled growing up in a home marked for seizure, moving between small hillside shacks and taking on multiple part-time jobs to get by.
“Looking back, there were so many things I lacked and so many hardships, but I was just happy,” he said. “I watched friends who shared the same dream leave one by one, but I’m proud that I held on until the end. I’m glad I was young enough to love it that much without thinking too much.”
Yoon Seung Ah, who stayed by his side through those long years, also reflected on how difficult things were when they first started out.
“Honestly, we had a rough start,” she said, remembering how people around her would ask, “Why are you dating such a poor man?”
But Yoon said she never saw him that way. “I don’t think I really felt the hardship,” she said. “I thought he looked the brightest and most incredible when he was acting and standing onstage. The way he kept going, even when things were hard, always made me admire him.”
Kim, in turn, credited his wife as the reason he was able to keep going. “My wife is the reason my passion never faded,” he said. “There were so many failures and setbacks in my life as an actor, but she made me so happy that I almost didn’t realize how hard it was.”
One moment that still stays with him is the day Teach You a Lesson reached No. 1 globally. Kim said that after receiving a call from the director, he knew he had to tell his wife in person.
“I met her in the underground parking lot and said, ‘They told me it hit No. 1 globally,’ but I couldn’t get the words out,” he recalled. “I was so overwhelmed, and because I was in front of my wife, I started crying. The two of us just held each other and cried.”
Yoon added it was the first time she had seen him cry like that. “He’s not someone who shows tears easily, but that was the first time he cried,” she said. “I had watched his journey as an actor for such a long time, so it really hit me. I said just one thing: ‘You worked so hard.'”
Now celebrating their 11th wedding anniversary, Kim said he still makes a point of keeping one promise to his wife. “On our child’s birthday, I try to be the first person to congratulate my wife and do something special for her,” he said.
Yoon smiled as she added, “We’ve been together for 17 years, and he’s still just as sweet.”
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