Sunwoo Yong-nyeo's life was very different from acting long before she became a well-known face on screen. Dance, school, and even diplomatic goals shaped her early years. All of these things eventually led to her unlikely entry into the entertainment industry, which became the defining moment of her career.
Sunwoo recently talked about her life before her debut on Han Seok-jun's YouTube channel "Knowledge Inside. "She was very open about her childhood. She talked about her background and how she didn't want to be famous by saying, "I was originally very introverted. I didn't want to take the talent audition. I went to an arts college because of my older sister."
She didn't want to be an actress at first. She went to an arts high school and studied ballet, but a moment of self-discovery changed her mind. Sunwoo said, "When I saw the dancers' legs, I thought I looked like duck legs. That's when I first realized, 'I'm not a dancer,'" as reported by Naver.
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She stayed active even after she stopped doing ballet. She fixed up the second floor of her family's house and opened a small dance school when she was in her second year of high school.
Before talking about that time, Sunwoo talked about how determined she was to keep working. She said that she studied Korean dance with Kim Baek-bong and Kim Moon-sook and taught kids from diplomat families. She said, "You have children, I'm a dancing teacher," in what she called "broken English," according to MK.
Being around diplomatic families inspired her to pursue yet another goal. Sunwoo talked about how her surroundings affected her thoughts as she made this change. She said, "Seeing how diplomats live made me want to become a diplomat, too," she said, adding with a laugh, "I didn't study, so there was no way I could pass," referring to her attempt at the Foreign Service Exam, MK reported.
Acting came into her life almost by accident. Her sister told her to sign up for the theater and film department at Sorabol Institute of the Arts, and she did so without taking an entrance exam. She thought back to how uncomfortable she was and said, "I was suffocated when all these long-haired men talked about theater. Theater was so embarrassing and difficult."
She got her big break after a professor told her to go to a talent audition. Sunwoo said"I told him I wouldn't even dance, and I showed up without makeup, just with my resume. I left thinking I'd failed, but I later heard I'd placed first,"MK said.
Sunwoo downplayed her success by saying, "I just got here by luck." But the determination behind those early choices helped her become one of Korea's most respected actresses.
