Kim Hye-jun on 'My Dearest Employee,' Killer Rom-Coms and Growing Up on Camera

Actress Kim Hye-jun says the biggest change in her career has come from within. After 12 years of acting, she is finally comfortable in her own skin.

"When I first started out, I think I was scared," she said. "My self-esteem was low, and I had no confidence. But as I kept working quietly, people started to notice me and listen to what I had to say. Little by little, my confidence grew."

Kim spoke with reporters at a cafe in Seoul's Yeoksam neighborhood after wrapping the tvN drama "My Dearest Employee." Now in her 30s, she reflected on how her outlook has shifted since her early years in the industry.

"My Dearest Employee" is an office romance about a new hire named Nam Da-reum, who joins a company just to get closer to her favorite idol. Kim plays Nam, opposite Kang Hoon, who stars as Kang Ha-gi, the CEO of the agency Apello.

The role arrived alongside another very different one. Around the same time, Disney+ released "A Shop for Killers" Season 2, in which Kim plays Jeong Ji-an, a woman who inherits a shopping mall for assassins from her uncle, played by Lee Dong-wook, and finds herself facing off against killers. Two projects, with two very different tones, released nearly back to back.

"I didn't expect them to come out at the same time," Kim said. "At first I was worried. But a lot of people said the contrast was actually fun to watch."

"My Dearest Employee" marked her first romantic comedy, and the pressure was real. Her previous work leaned toward heavier genre pieces, and she worried viewers would find her bright, bubbly Nam Da-reum jarring.

"Thankfully, people saw Da-reum as her own character, separate from my past work, and really embraced her," Kim said. "It gave me the courage to try more."

In the drama, Nam Da-reum joins the agency Apello to be near her favorite idol, Lee Chan, played by Cha Woo-min. Kim, who was a fangirl herself in school, had no trouble tapping into that mindset.

"I did my own share of stanning back in school, so understanding Da-reum wasn't hard at all," she said. "I went to an all-girls middle school and high school, and there wasn't an idol I didn't like. We did talent shows to Girls' Generation and Wonder Girls songs, and I loved SHINee too."

Asked about her current favorite, she laughed. "The cat I have at home."

Unlike Nam Da-reum, who draws her energy from an idol, Kim tends to draw from herself. "I don't really lean on anyone in particular," she said. "I move forward by looking back at my dreams and the road I've already walked." She added, "If you lean too much on someone else, you actually fall apart more easily. You start thinking, 'What if that person disappears?'"

More than a decade in, the way she looks at herself has also changed. Where she used to fixate on what she lacked, she now trusts that her strengths can carry her.

"My ambition now is bigger than when I first dreamed of being an actress," Kim said. "I used to think, 'I can't do this, I can't do that.' Now I have some room to breathe. Even if I'm lacking in one area, I know I can be strong in another. As the years pile up, my ambition and my nerve have grown too."

She no longer worries that a misstep could undo everything.

"I don't think about whether showing a weaker side after more than 10 years will undo what I've built," she said. "I think I can keep pushing myself. If I decide to do something, my job is to do my best to pull it off. I'm building up that sense of responsibility, bit by bit."

The nervous newcomer is gone. In her 30s, Kim Hye-jun is more interested in what she has not tried yet than in playing it safe.