An excessive fear of being stared at would keep most who suffer this phobia indoors, away from any triggers, even more so when you’re attractive enough to be the youngest male model to walk in Seoul Fashion Week. But Lee Jong-suk has forced himself to face the limelight year after year, even if it means visibly fighting his scopophobia by clutching his co-actor on stage or profusely wiping away excessive sweat.
Because that’s how much he loves acting.
Photo from HanCinema
Birthday: September 14, 1989
Instagram: @jongsuk0206
The call of acting was in fact what prompted him to leave SM Entertainment, where he initially trained for three months to become an idol. He left when the agency didn’t fulfill its promise to debut him as an actor.
And so when that opportunity finally came in 2010, he set out to prove his acting chops. Shortly after making his official debut in Prosecutor Princess (2010) and drawing attention in Secret Garden (2011), he delivered a breakthrough performance in School 2013 (2012) in a role that won him a best new actor award.
After that, he was clearly a bonafide leading man, starring in one hit k-drama series after another opposite some of South Korea’s top actresses: I Can Hear Your Voice (2013) with Lee Bo-young, Pinocchio (2014) with Park Shin-hye, W: Two Worlds Apart (2016) with Han Hyo-joo, and While You Were Sleeping (2017) with Bae Suzy. An acting award followed his performances in each of these roles.
Throughout all this, he managed to graduate from Konkuk University in 2016 with a degree in Professional Motion Pictures and Art. Clearly, acting is his life.
Lee Jong-suk thoroughly prepared to make his comeback after finishing his mandatory military service. He appeared in the action film Decibel, where he played a navy captain in the midst of a terrorist attack. In the tvN drama Big Mouse, he took on the role of a third-rate lawyer mistaken to be a genius swindler.
