“Start-Up” Actor Kim Seon Ho Opens Up How Acting Helped Him Overcome Childhood Trauma

Kim Seon Ho’s past made it difficult to grow up but acting saved him.

TvN‘s Start-Up actor Kim Seon Ho has joined together with Kenzo Parfums for a photoshoot with W Korea Magazine! The images give off a gorgeously fresh vibe.

In the following interview, Kim Seon Ho began by keeping with the theme and discussing scents. As his popularity skyrocketed with Start-Up, fans began to look for him in other series and shared scenes they liked amongst themselves. One popular scene was from MBC‘s 2018 series You Drive Me Crazy, where he tells a girl, “I can’t get your scent off of my body.

He revealed, however, that the director almost cut the line out for being too cheesy.

I said, ‘I’ll try it sweetly once, but if it’s weird, please edit it out later.’ The camera director also said that we should emphasize that line. They were a really easygoing people. After seeing my acting, they said, ‘That’s good!’

—Kim Seon Ho

Going back to his rising popularity with Start-Up, he shared that when the series was airing, his friends texted him compliments and congratulations on the performance. He confessed that he wasn’t really used to getting a lot of attention and praise. He continued, “After ‘Start-Up,’ I filmed my first-ever commercial. Although it was an ad that we settled on before the series, I received another ad offer soon after. After that, I got more and more. That’s when I knew, ‘This is how you know you’ve gotten a positive response.’

In 2019, Kim Seon Ho revealed the traumatic story of how he witnessed his mother being attacked by a mugger when he was little. He never thought that he would be able to do work involving the public due to this event.

However, recently he revealed how he overcame that. He began to follow his friend in joining an acting academy. A teacher comforted him then by saying, “Rather than an acting problem, it seems like you have a different problem.” He was then able to overcome his trauma because of acting. He struggled with communicating with others and forming friendships due to fear, but acting taught him how to behave in a social setting.

Just having a script in my hand made me nervous, as if that alone made me amount to something. I never thought of wanting to succeed or become rich. When I first started acting, my parents told me that since they were so poor, they were unable to dream, but that I should live my life while dreaming.

—Kim Seon Ho

He continued by sharing that when people ask his parents about him, they say that he has a dream every day without rest.

Each person has their own scent, but the problem is whether there are people who recognize that scent. I feel that many new people have been able to discover the scent of Kim Seon Ho. I realized that in addition to playing your role well, there are other ways to do your part. If you’re a lead character, you need to be able to create an atmosphere where everyone on set is able to love and cherish one another. I felt that through Nam Joo Hyuk and Suzy.

—Kim Seon Ho

Source: W Korea