Kim Jung-eun reveals she fell asleep mid-kiss during Lovers in Paris filming

Kim Jung-eun appeared on MBC's Radio Star on June 17 for the "Shortform Lovers" special at 10:30 PM. She had one confession ready: the most iconic kiss scene in Korean TV history almost put her to sleep.

The scene. Park Shin-yang's character screaming "That man is mine, that man is my lover, why can't you say it!" before kissing her in Lovers in Paris. Romantic on screen. Off-screen, Kim Jung-eun kept nodding off. "We don't film it just once. We film it multiple times from various angles," she explained. By the final takes, she was out cold—lips still puckered—and couldn't hear the director call cut. Park Shin-yang would tap her cheek to wake her up.

Lovers in Paris opened at 15% viewership. It climbed to 20%, then 30%, then 40%, and eventually peaked at 57.6%. The drama sparked a nationwide craze around the phrase "애기야 가자!" ("Let's go, baby!"). Kim Jung-eun played Kang Tae-young, a mistake-prone character rescued by a prince on a white horse.

The ratings surge didn't feel real while it was happening. The filming schedule was too brutal: she couldn't go home, couldn't meet people, couldn't sleep. When she finally saw the numbers climbing in the newspaper, her reaction was straightforward. "It was scary."

She pushed back gently on how the drama's popularity gets remembered. The "애기야 가자!" line belongs to Park Shin-yang's character, not hers. "I had no dialogue," she said. "I was acting the character's reaction at that time." She felt "a bit wronged" about it—comedians' imitations of the drama apparently centered on that line.

She also recalled being surrounded by middle school students while walking with Park Shin-yang and co-star Park Dong-gun. The three of them got completely mobbed. Students pulled her hair. She said she was thrilled.

For the drama Sunflower, she shaved her head. The role was originally meant for another actress, but the director noticed Kim Jung-eun. When he told her the character required a shaved head, she answered immediately: "I could shave my hair anytime."

Other topics: her character Hwang Geum-ju from Strong Girl Nam-soon, her recent short-form drama work, and naming comedian Kim Guk-jin as "number one in my heart."

(The episode also featured Lee Han-wi, Solbi, and Kinky.)