[Sportschosun Reporter Lee Ji-hyun] Actress Choi Kang-hee opened up about why she had no choice but to step away from acting for five years. She confessed that there was even a moment when the cue was called on set but she could not act. After a long hiatus, she returned to the stage and said she had found the joy of acting again.
The July 3 episode of Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)'s *Omniscient Interfering View* featured Choi Kang-hee, who returned to acting after a five-year hiatus.
Choi Kang-hee recently resumed her acting career with the play *Closer*. It marked her return to acting after about five years, following the 2021 drama *Hello, Me!*.
That day, Choi Kang-hee candidly revealed why she had stepped away from acting for a while. "I didn't think I was good at acting. I wasn't happy, and I was always tense and felt pressured," she confessed.
She especially recalled a time when she could not act as she intended on set. Choi Kang-hee said, "There were one or two times when the cue was given, but I couldn't act," adding, "The director said, 'Ms. Kang-hee, we're rolling. You haven't started acting, have you?' But I really couldn't do it."
"I thought that simply thinking about something would make it show in my expression, but it didn't. At the time, I pretended not to notice and moved on, but it happened again," she confessed.
It was a moment that left a considerable shock even for Choi Kang-hee, who had worked as an actress for many years. She explained why she decided to give up acting, saying, "As several other things piled up on top of that, I began to think, 'I'm not happy.'"
After staying away from acting for about five years, Choi Kang-hee chose the play *Closer*, rather than a drama or film, as her comeback project.
Although it was her first play, Choi Kang-hee described meeting this production as "fate." She said, "I had received offers during that time, but none of them was a good fit. Then, just as an offer for a play came in, so I think it was fate."
Above all, she said that as she began rehearsing for the play, she once again felt the joy of acting instead of the burden that had weighed her down in the past.
"I started becoming happy as I rehearsed every day," Choi Kang-hee said. "Now all that's left for me is to do what I love. I'm so happy," she added with a bright smile.
olzllovely@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
