[Provided by Herald Pop (now Herald Muse)]
[Provided by Herald Pop (now Herald Muse)]

Actor Park So-dam has opened up about her experience undergoing surgery for papillary thyroid cancer.

Park appeared Tuesday on MBC's "Oneureul Beotin Norae — Playlist 109," a music-themed talk show, where she looked back on a period she had long kept private — from her cancer diagnosis through surgery and recovery.

While filming the movie "The Ghost," Park said she suffered unexplained fatigue and depression. Despite the film's heavy action sequences, she could not summon the energy she needed and even apologized to her sunbae on set, feeling she was not pulling her weight.

At the time, she suspected burnout. Having worked without pause through her 20s — at one point taking on two stage productions, two drama series and two films in a single year — she assumed accumulated fatigue was to blame.

The test results told a different story. "There were 13 lumps in my neck, and it had spread to the lymph nodes," Park said.

Recalling the day she received her diagnosis, Park described the illness in detail. "It was thyroid cancer — papillary thyroid cancer. Apparently there are four types of thyroid-related cancer. The professor said, 'It's cancer,' just like in a drama series. My mother was there, and I couldn't look at her. That image is burned into my mind. I went to eat with my father, and when he heard it was cancer, he just walked out. I think he went to cry."

Fortunately, the cancer had not progressed beyond the lymph nodes. "The great relief was that it stopped at the lymph nodes, so I didn't even need chemotherapy," Park said.

When co-host Dindin asked how long recovery took from surgery, Park said, "Six months until my voice fully came back. Early on, I sounded like a child again. In the beginning, my younger sister even washed my hair for me." She added that she had worried constantly, knowing that performing requires sustained use of the voice.

Co-host Lee Jun said the psychological toll must have been immense — the thought of never again being able to do the work she loved. Park recalled a particularly difficult moment during post-production on "The Ghost." "Yuriko screams a lot in that film. I had to do the dubbing. I saw the director and just burst into tears. I kept asking, 'What do we do about the promotion?' telling myself, 'It'll be fine,' and recorded it anyway," she said.

Her physical stamina had also deteriorated sharply. A walk to Seokchon Lake — normally a 15-minute trip from her home — left her breathless and barely able to keep going. She began walking there as part of her recovery and shed countless tears along the way.

"My close friends would say, 'Seokchon Lake must be made of your tears' — I cried that much, every day," she said. "It was the place where I let all my emotions out completely. Coming here heals me a little."

Asked what changed most after the surgery, Park said the illness prompted her to try things she had never done before. "After getting sick, I suddenly thought: what can I do besides act? Let me try something I've never done. I had never traveled abroad alone. So I drove solo across Europe for 34 days, all the way to Iceland to see the northern lights. I drove by myself every day. If somewhere was too beautiful, I'd pull over and take a nap. It was wonderful. I'm a total planner by nature, but when it comes to travel I go on impulse — I'd book at 11 p.m. and leave at 11 the next morning."

Park said the difficult period became a turning point that made her look at herself anew. "It would have been better not to get sick, but I often say, 'I think I came through that illness well,'" she said, adding that she had realized she had been losing sight of herself amid the relentless pace of an actor's life.


min3654@heraldcorp.com