Five Fun Facts About Kim Nam Gil

Kim Nam Gil will soon star in "Shark," a new drama about love and revenge. He has been called an "actor's actor" because he is so admired by other actors. Here are five fun facts about this talented performer that you may not know.

He is not afraid to take chances on a role. He knew that a risky role choice early in his career might delay his becoming a star but he took it anyway. In 2006, Kim decided to play a Song Jae Min, a homosexual character in the indie film, "No Regret." The film got great reviews but didn't do much for his popularity. He kept playing minor roles until 2009 when he was cast as a supporting character in the saeguk, "Queen Seon Duk."

The drama became one of the highest rated dramas of that year and as the tragic charismatic Bidam, he was the drama's breakout star. He was so popular that the drama's script was rewritten to expand his role and build up his romance with the queen, even though that romance was not historically accurate. After that role, he was box office gold.

He's a film producer. After he was discharged from the army last year he produced "Ensemble," a documentary about classical musicians who get together to perform in the street.

His idea behind producing the film was to help audiences relate more easily to classical musicians.

"Once you see 'Ensemble', you will be drawn to the seven young genius classical artists who are called together in one world," he said of his film.

His interest in classical music may come from the fact that he plays the flute.

He's an author. He published the book "Way Back to the Road," about two years of his life. He illustrated it with his own photographs.

He learned to skydive for a role although he ultimately chickened out. A stuntman did the scene.

"I did receive skydiving training," he said. "But even though I was enthusiastic about skydiving and believed that I could do it, I eventually said, 'wait a minute!' before they pushed me out of the plane."

He also tap-dances, water-skis and does taekwondo.

Although he was convincing as the player Shim Gun Wook in "Bad Guy," he's not really a bad guy. When co-star Son Ye Jin recently met him for a script reading of "Shark," she expected that he would live up to his "Bad Guy" reputation but she thought he was actually quite "cute."

Although he would like to get married, he thinks women ought to think twice about marrying an actor, no matter how cute he is.

"Being married to an actor is a lonely life," he said.