So Ji-sub on 'Agent Kim Reactivated' Hit: "It Opened the Second Page of My Acting Career"

"Breaking past 20% in ratings, in a time like this, felt unreal," said So Ji-sub. "I was happy, but I also kept thinking, 'Is the world playing a trick on me?' Even now that the drama is over, I'm still a little dazed."

For So Ji-sub, who marks his 30th year in the industry this year, the success of SBS Friday-Saturday drama "Agent Kim Reactivated" was a moment of genuine joy. The show follows an ordinary father, Kim Bujang (played by So Ji-sub), as he fights to get his only daughter back. Across the run, So Ji-sub moved between tender scenes of fatherly love and demanding action work, carrying the drama to a peak rating of 23.1%.

Before the show aired, the target set by So Ji-sub and the production team was a modest 10%. "Agent Kim Reactivated" cleared that in two episodes. Episode 1 opened at 9.5%. Episode 2 jumped to 15.7%. The numbers kept climbing from there, eventually crossing 20%. Asked whether he can feel the show's popularity in daily life, So Ji-sub laughed. "These days people call me 'Kim Bujang' more than they call me by my real name."

"Honestly, not many people used to recognize me," he said. "But after the drama started airing, even at places I go all the time, people suddenly started noticing me. They'd say, 'Oh, it's Kim Bujang,' or throw in something on the house. That's when it really hit me that a lot of people are watching our show."

On the back of the drama's success, So Ji-sub is already being mentioned as a top contender for the Grand Prize at this year's SBS Drama Awards. He waved that off. "I honestly have no interest in awards," he said, and turned the credit toward the crew. He returned to the subject of the staff several times during the interview, and explained that the gold gifts he recently gave them, which drew public attention, came from the same place.

"I've been working on set for a long time now, and one thing I've learned is that no drama gets finished because one person did well. A project comes together because of everyone on set. I started giving gifts to say thank you to those people. It turns out most of them like gold the best," he said with a laugh.

The role was a new challenge because it asked him to play a father. In the drama, he plays the father of a high school daughter, Kim Min-ji (played by Seo Su-min). So Ji-sub married broadcaster Cho Eun-jung in 2020 but does not have children, and he admitted he thought hard about how to make the father-daughter dynamic feel natural.

"Playing the father of a teenage daughter was a first for me. I figured the first step was to get close to Seo Su-min, so I made an effort to approach her, and I even gave her a signed DAY6 album," he said. "She helped me a lot. When she treated me like a real dad, the acting came out naturally on my side, too. In the end, I feel like this project widened my range as an actor, and I'm happy about that."

Action was the other pillar of "Agent Kim Reactivated," alongside the father-daughter story. So Ji-sub said he took the role at the right moment. "After shooting the Netflix project 'Mercy for None,' I started wanting to do more action," he said. "That's when the offer for 'Agent Kim Reactivated' came in." Filming ran into a stretch of severe cold, which made the action scenes tough, but his enthusiasm for the genre has not faded.

"I work out consistently to keep my stamina up. I don't like the feeling of my body getting stiff, so I split my workouts into morning and afternoon, twice a day," he said. "So action scenes still aren't a big issue for me. I'd like my next project to be an action piece too, though 'Agent Kim Reactivated' did so well that there'll definitely be some pressure."

Interest in a second season has grown with the drama's success. SBS has said a second season is under discussion, and So Ji-sub made clear he wants in if the chance comes.

"From what I understand, the talks are only just starting, but if a second season happens, I want to do it," he said. "The biggest task is that it has to tell a different story from season 1. We can't lose the daughter again," he added, laughing.

The name "Kim Bujang" itself may matter as much to So Ji-sub as the ratings. He has left behind signature titles like "I'm Sorry, I Love You" and "The Master's Sun," but in recent years he had not landed a defining character that stuck with the public. "Agent Kim Reactivated" cleared away that lingering frustration. He called the drama "the project that opened the second page of my acting career."

"This project gave me a new title, I think. From now on, people are probably going to call me 'Kim Bujang' more often than Cha Mu-hyeok from 'I'm Sorry, I Love You," he said. "If 'I'm Sorry, I Love You' was the project that opened the first page of my acting career, I'd say 'Agent Kim Reactivated' opened the second page."