Veteran actor Noh Joo Hyun tells the story of the time he was struggling to get cast and make a living

Korea’s “national actor” Noh Joo Hyun opened up about the hardship that he went through in life. 

Veteran actor Noh Joo Hyun appeared as a guest in the latest episode of KBS2’s entertainment program “Park Won Sook’s Let’s Live Together” season 3, which was broadcast on August 30th.

Noh Joo Hyun said, “At the time of the Merger and Abolition of the Press in 1980, I declared myself as a freelancer and it appeared in the newspapers, but I wasn’t cast in any broadcast for over a year.”

He continued, “I didn’t know the ecology of broadcasting. Everyone was too busy to make a living, so they couldn’t even afford to help me. Eventually, I ended up in a situation where I couldn’t pay my living expenses, and I was forced to go on a night stage that I hated so much.”

Noh Joo Hyun recalled, “They said they would pay me as much as Na Hoon Ah. I stood on stage for my family, but I was embarrassed. I even sang songs that I wasn’t good at.”

Afterwards, Noh Joo Hyun asked writer Kim Soo Hyun, whom he met by chance, for a drama role, and succeeded in reviving his career by appearing in the 2006 drama “Love and Ambition”.

Policy for Merger and Abolition of the Press is a South Korean press control policy implemented by the National Security Emergency Response Committee in November 1980 during the Chun Doo Hwan administration.

Although it was said that newspapers, broadcasters, and telecommunication companies were organized in the name of improving the structure of media companies and introducing a public broadcasting system, the real intention was to dismiss journalists who resisted the regime and make the media conform to the system.

Source: wikitree