From 'Single's Inferno 4' to Leading Lady: Kim Min-seol on Her Acting Return

"Acting has always been my number one priority. 'Single's Inferno 4' and my time as a sportscaster were experiences that led back to acting."

South Korean actress Kim Min-seol recently sat down at a cafe in Seoul's Yeoksam neighborhood to talk about wrapping MBC daily drama "The First Man" (Cheot Beonjjae Namja). She has been on Netflix's dating reality series "Single's Inferno 4" and worked as a sportscaster, but she said acting was always the goal. "Even while I was doing 'Single's Inferno,' I never planned to stop acting," she said. "I just gave my all to that moment, in the spirit of the show."

Born in 2000, Kim graduated from the acting department at Seoul Institute of the Arts and made her debut in 2022 in KBS2's "Café Minamdang." She built up credits with roles in EBS1's "The World You Fell Into" (Nega Ppajin Segye) and tvN's "See You in My 19th Life," and landed her first leading role in MBC daily drama "The First Man," which aired last year. The show follows two women whose lives are swapped, sending them into a collision of revenge and desire. Kim played Jin Hong-ju, a character driven by ambition.

Kim was open about the roughly two-year gap in her acting career. "Work opportunities shrank during COVID-19, so I started thinking about experiences that could actually help my acting," she said. "It's not that I wanted to quit. Sportscasting was part of the road back to acting, too."

That broadcasting stint fed directly into her work on set. She recalled telling a network during her sportscaster interview, "Actors and announcers do it differently, but both jobs are about delivering something to people. The goal is the same." She added, "I believed any experience would end up helping me as an actor."

Time in front of a camera, speaking directly to viewers, made acting feel more natural. "Actors work off their scene partner, and announcers connect with viewers on the other side of the camera. Either way, you're trying to move people," she said. "Looking back, sportscasting was a big part of my growth as an actor."

Carrying her first lead role also brought pressure. "The biggest thing on my mind was that I had to deliver a strong performance," she said. "Whenever I felt I was falling short, I'd go to the senior actors on set first and ask for advice. That helped me manage the pressure."

Kim landed Jin Hong-ju after three rounds of auditions. The pressure grew with each callback, but she focused on giving the director what he wanted. "He told me, 'I'd like you to play her a little meaner,'" she said. "So I worked on how to make her more spiteful, but also more believable as a villain."

The atmosphere on set became one of her biggest sources of growth. "I spent nine months with the senior cast. It's a long project, so I braced myself before shooting even started. But once we were filming, the seniors made sure I never felt overwhelmed," she said. She also thanked them for their generosity, adding, "They praised me constantly, and when I was lacking somewhere, they were the first to point it out and help."

She gave herself a 90 out of 100 for her first lead performance. "There's still a lot I need to work on, but viewers left comments like 'I want to see Hong-ju in another show' and 'Send Hong-ju to hell,'" she said with a laugh. "It made me feel proud that people actually took her seriously as a villain." As for the missing 10 points, Kim said she is saving them. "It means there's more to fill in with the next project," she said. "I want to be an actor who keeps growing."