Kim Hyun-joo on her rookie rage: "I intentionally took a break for a few years"

From a single magazine shot to two years without a manager

Kim Hyun-joo sat down with Lee Mu-saeng and Jin Sun-gyu on the October 11 episode of YouTube channel Yojung Jaehyung, titled 뭔 50년 소리를 왤케 많이 해ㅠ;. The three actors previously worked together on tvN's 100 Days of Lies.

Kim traced her start to a single magazine modeling shoot. "That was my first music video," she said. "I was doing magazine modeling at the time, and I appeared in one shot and was cast right away. And then it just continued from there." She spent roughly two years after debut without a manager—no company for a stretch, then joining one after a music video shoot, but still handling simple schedules alone because she was so new.

"화가 많았다" — and she doesn't deny it

When the conversation turned to her rookie-era mindset, Kim didn't hold back. She had been filling in for senior labelmates on variety shows, and the resentment built. "The company didn't develop me well and I had a lot of anger. I don't deny it," she said directly.

That frustration eventually pushed her toward a deliberate pause. "I felt like I wasn't there. It felt like I was losing myself," she explained. She intentionally stepped away from variety for several years and worked privately toward an acting career. (She also noted, with a certain dry confidence, that whoever cast her from that one magazine shot had "good judgment.")

She's clear about where she stands now. "I have no anger at all now."