Popular Actress Reveals She Turned Down SM Entertainment’s Casting Offer

A beloved actress recently confessed that she had received a casting offer from SM Entertainment (SM hereon) but had turned them down.

The actress in question is Park Ju Hyun, best known for her roles in K-Dramas such as Love All Play and Perfect Family.

Park Ju Hyun

On July 19, KST, Park appeared as a guest on MBC‘s variety show, Omniscient Interfering View (also known as Point of Omniscient Interfere) and shared stories about her early career.

The actress revealed that when she was a teenager and still living in her hometown, Busan, she had received a casting offer from SM.

I’m from Busan, and one day while I was visiting Lotte World, I was street-casted.

— Park Ju Hyung

Though it was a golden chance at becoming a K-Pop idol, Park admitted she felt burdened by the casting offer as a kid who loved music and singing. “It was too much pressure,” she confessed.

However, Park didn’t give up on her passion for music. Instead of becoming a trainee, she started a high-school band.

Despite giving up on her chance to be a part of the K-Pop industry, fate eventually brought her back to the same entertainment field, but in a different role. Her breakout role in Netflix‘s Extracurricular was also her first-ever acting job. She was still a college student when the filming began, and streaming services like Netflix were not as popular. But within a few years of her debut, Park has made her mark in the industry with one successful project after another.

Park Ju Hyun in “Love All Play” | Hancinema

It turns out, rejecting SM was only a pivot for her to reach her real potential!