Why Actor Lee Jong Suk Rejects Lead Roles For Historical K-Dramas

Lee Jong Suk debuted as a model in 2005 before becoming a household name through his acting career, which began in 2010.

Lee Jong Suk | @jongsuk0206/Instagram

Over the last decade, Lee Jong Suk has portrayed a composer, a mind-reader, a doctor, an author, and more. He’s tackled genres such as romance, fantasy, the supernatural, and crime, but there’s one genre he rejects lead roles for; historical dramas.

To date, Lee Jong Suk has appeared in only one historical drama, the 2013 film The Face Reader.

Lee Jong Suk in “The Face Reader” | IMDb

At the time, Lee Jong Suk was still a fairly new actor, but he had already been acknowledged for his talent by his peers and fans.

Through working on The Face Reader, Lee Jong Suk realized he “was not the right person for historical works,” a revelation he shared with actor Lee Seo Jin on tvN‘s Three Meals A Day.

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When the veteran actor asked why Lee Jong Suk felt that way, he shared that he thought his performance was breaking up the flow of the senior actors in The Face Reader.

I’ve been avoiding them. Whenever I’d appear in a scene, it felt like my vocal tone and acting would break the flow built by the sunbae-nims co-starring. And I felt so guilty, that I couldn’t…

— Lee Jong Suk

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Lee Seo Jin offered his advice to Lee Jong Suk and shared that there are more opportunities for younger actors to have roles in historical dramas these days.

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While he hasn’t acted in a historical drama since, he has starred in numerous films and dramas, many of which he’s received awards for, including Best Drama and Best Couple at the 2022 MBC Drama Awards along with Girls’ Generation‘s YoonA for Big Mouth.

Check out more on that in the article below!

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