[Captured from MBN broadcast]
[Captured from MBN broadcast]

Actor Kim Se-in has opened up about why she left the entertainment industry, revealing that she now works as a food delivery driver. She said financial hardship drove her to take on nude roles and that life in the industry left her feeling as though each day was hell.

Kim appeared on MBN's Teukjong Sesang on Thursday, where she shared her daily life caring for 15 animals — including seven abandoned dogs, rabbits and chickens.

She is currently making ends meet through food delivery work.

Her late father used to proudly tell people around him, "My daughter is a celebrity," and the two had made a commitment to one day live together in a country house, raising dogs, rabbits and chickens.

"It's a monthly-rent place right now, but I wanted to keep my promise to my father," Kim said, explaining why she began taking in abandoned animals.

"I have to earn every penny I can," she said. "I do the occasional commercial, drama series or film shoot, but to support this big family I have to keep running."

Kim debuted in the 2004 film Dongsangi Mong and quickly drew attention. She went on to receive offers from both film and television, but then abruptly walked away from the industry.

Explaining her departure, Kim said, "I was fed up with it. My agency head kept dragging me to hostess bars and making my life miserable. And in the middle of all that, my mother collapsed. Every day felt like hell. I hated being alive."

[Kim Se-in's social media]
[Kim Se-in's social media]

Kim, who said she grew up comfortably as the daughter of a businessman, recalled how the IMF financial crisis upended her family. "After the IMF crisis hit, the three of us — my mother, father and I — lived in a storage-room-like place with no bathroom. Things got seriously bad around the time I entered high school," she said.

Kim said the difficult home environment pushed her to become an actor the moment she turned 20, and that when the family's finances failed to improve, she ultimately took on nude roles to earn money.

"At the time, tens of millions of won was money I desperately needed, and my family was in such a hard place that I felt I had no choice but to be the one to shoulder it," she said, tears in her eyes. "My father was truly furious. He kept saying, 'How can I be spending money my daughter earned like this,' and he blamed himself so much for his business failing — I felt so sorry for him."

Her father, however, died of a heart attack two years ago. "I never got to show him that I had made it as an actor again," she said, unable to hide her regret.

Her mother, meanwhile, has remained unconscious for 15 years after suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

"Around the time my mother collapsed, I became completely disillusioned with the entertainment industry," Kim said.

"I think my mother's soul is trapped in her body," she said calmly. "She can't move a single finger and has no consciousness."

Kim subsequently moved to Malaysia, where she worked as a travel guide and prepared to settle there, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to return to South Korea.

Despite the hardships, she has not let go of her dream of acting. While juggling delivery work and occasional shoots to make a living, she is preparing for the day she stands in front of a camera again.

"I want to take good care of this big family of mine, be responsible for all of them until the very end, and live well," Kim said. "I want to meet audiences again by throwing myself into a wide range of roles with a stronger mind and a healthier body."


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com