TVXQ!'s U-Know Yunho Opens Up About Past Acting Criticism

TVXQ!'s U-Know Yunho is looking back on the acting criticism that followed him for years. On the July 15 episode of MBC's variety show "Radio Star," the singer opened up about the long road from early backlash to industry recognition.

The 972nd episode, themed around big eaters, featured Kim Sung-ryung, U-Know Yunho, Heo Kyung-hwan, and Poongja as guests.

U-Know Yunho made his acting debut in 2009 with MBC's "Heading to the Ground" (Maengttang-e Hedding). After years of criticism over his acting, he finally won industry recognition last year with the Disney+ series "Low Life" (Pine: Chonttugideul).

He explained how he landed the role. "I got a script reading offer, but I didn't know it was an audition, so I went in unprepared," he said. "The director said I wasn't quite there yet, and I asked for one more chance. He gave me two weeks, and I went straight to Mokpo the next day." He spent those two weeks studying the local dialect and speech patterns in person.

When he met the director again, he passed. "I wanted to see how the senior actors worked, so I memorized all the lines in the script," he said. "The senior actors and the director were surprised when they saw that."

He also addressed the acting criticism from earlier in his career. "There's nowhere lower for me to go with acting," he said, referring to his rough performance in "Heading to the Ground." "I memorized all the lines back then too. I just didn't know how to act."

Reflecting on the scenes that drew backlash, he added, "I had no acting skills, just pure ambition. I needed to find my center, but I had no know-how. I was trying to hit every exclamation point and every period." He continued, "But because of who I was then, I'm who I am now."