Actor Park Hyung-sik, who is from the group ZE:A, confessed that he was bullied during his trainee days.
On the broadcast of tvN’s ‘You Quiz on the Block’ on the 2nd, Park Hyung-sik appeared as a guest.
On this day, Park Hyung-sik mentioned that he has been in the entertainment industry for 16 years, saying, “(When I was young) I didn’t have any dreams about this field. I thought it was a completely different world from mine.”
Park Hyung-sik recalled, “My mom called me ‘No Man’. When my mom said, ‘Do this,’ I would say, ‘I don’t want to.’ I was very stubborn. But the only time I was praised was when I went to my grandmother’s house and sang old songs.”
He continued, “In middle school, I participated in the band club as an extracurricular activity and won an award at a competition. At some point, I even received casting business cards,” sharing his casting story.
After three years of being a trainee, Park Hyung-sik debuted as part of ZE:A. He surprised everyone by saying that even though he was the main vocalist, his part was only 5 seconds long. Park Hyung-sik laughed, saying, “The main vocalist doesn’t mean much; you could say Kim Dong-jun did almost everything. Isn’t it called a labor song by Kim Dong-jun? He did it all by himself.”
Park Hyung-sik explained, “Before coming to ZE:A’s company, I briefly stayed at another company that cast me after seeing my band performance. Since other trainees came in through auditions, I guess I looked like a parachute. Because of that, they kept their distance from me. So I thought that’s how trainee life was. Competing with each other, forming cliques, and bullying. Still, I endured with the mindset of ‘I just need to do well on my own.’”
He continued, “Then I moved to ZE:A’s company. I sang without eating in a one-pyeong room. At that time, a member reached out to me, saying, ‘Why are you alone? Let’s eat first.’ The members of ZE:A brought me from the shadows to the light,” he smiled.
Regarding the long period of obscurity after debuting with ZE:A, he said, “I thought there would be a flower path once I debuted, but I realized the reality instead. I thought, ‘This won’t work,’ so I told the company, ‘I’ll do anything, so please let me do something.’ That’s how I ended up appearing on ‘Real Men’.”
After ‘Real Men’, Park Hyung-sik established himself as an actor by appearing in ‘The Heirs’, ‘Why Are You Being Like This, Family?’, ‘Strong Woman Do Bong-soon’, ‘Treasure Island’, and more. He said, “Even though I was told I had ‘no talent’ since I was young, I wanted to do well. I don’t really know how to be clever about things. So, I realized that the only way to do well is to work hard. I have the mindset that I can only work hard without knowing much.”
[Lee Se-bin, Star Today Guest Reporter]
