Lee Hwi-hyang on nearly quitting acting — and the dementia role that changed her mind

45 years, one lead role

Lee Hwi-hyang debuted in 1981. Across 24 dramas and 7 films, she never once held top billing on a movie — until 가족여행 (Family Trip), a warm family drama about an entire family piling into an old bongo truck and hitting the road. On the September 13 episode of KBS1's 인생이 영화, she and first-time film director Kim Jung-tae explained how that casting came together.

Kim Jung-tae, making the leap from actor to director, said: "I hate clichés. I thought a glamorous actress wouldn't play a role with dementia, but she readily accepted it." Lee plays 순임 할매 (Grandmother Soon-im), an elderly woman with dementia. She wore diapers for the role. Kim found out later: "She didn't live as a character in the film — she was Grandmother Soon-im then."

The villain trap that almost ended her career

The typecasting problem traces back to 천국의 계단 (Stairway to Heaven). Lee said the drama's success worked against her: "After doing '천국의 계단', I did it well, so people recognized it, and after that, villain roles kept coming to me." For five to six years, the offers didn't change.

She got blunt about where that left her. "I played strong roles, roles with social status. For the past 5-6 years, doing the same role repeatedly, I wasn't happy." The shame compounded. "I felt ashamed standing before viewers," she said. She reached a point where she decided she should quit acting if only those roles kept arriving.

Then Kim's script landed. "That last moment — Director Kim Jung-tae gave me the script. It was so fresh." She went in so fully that she told herself: "I thought it would be fine to quit acting after this film."

(She also copped to being extremely accurate at slapping scenes — "Even with my eyes closed, I hit" — and said she feels very sorry to the actors on the receiving end.)

Why she avoided film for four decades

Lee also addressed the long gap between her debut and this lead role. In the 1980s, Chungmuro came calling repeatedly. She turned every offer down. The culture at the time prioritized consuming women's sexuality in a provocative and wasteful way over actual acting depth. She could not accept it.

Kim Jung-tae was candid about the production's constraints. Budget issues meant there was no time to enjoy the process. The actors and staff — people who didn't need to work on a small film like this — helped because of their personal relationship with him. The weight of directing, he said, was a completely different dimension from his years as an actor who only had to focus on performing.