Five Fun Facts About Lee Sang Yoon
Lee Sang Yoon, who plays Prince Gwanghee and Moon Geun Young's love interest in "Goddess of Fire: Jeonji" and who played Kang Woo Jae in the hit series "My Daughter, Seo Young," has been called "the male Kim Tae Hee" for his good lucks. But there's a lot more to this actor than his appearance.
Here are a few facts you may not know about him.
1) On top of being good looking, he's pretty smart. The actor who played a neurosurgeon in the drama "Brain" recently received a degree in physics from Seoul National University. Because he was also busy acting, it took him thirteen years to get his degree.
"Usually people feel bittersweet about graduating but I feel one hundred percent relieved," he said. "It's like a huge burden has been lifted."
He has also been called "the smartest actor in Korea."
And because he is tall, handsome and smart, some have described him as an omchina, which means a mother's ideal son (or potential son-in-law).
2) He did not plan on acting. His former agency director picked him out of a crowd when he was 24 and his first job was in a beer commercial.
3) The hardest part of shooting "Goddess of Fire" is not laughing at his co-star Lee Kwang Soo. Lee plays his brother, the prince, who is always getting him in trouble.
"Gwanghee is not supposed to laugh in some of these situations but Kwang Soo is often hilarious during rehearsal," said Lee. "He has so many of these crazy gestures that it seems like he must spend a lot of time thinking them up. There are times when I watch him in amazement."
No matter how hard he tries not to laugh, it's difficult.
"I have to continually remind myself to not start or else it's hard to stop," said Lee.
4) He dated actress Nam Sang Mi after they met on the set of the 2010 drama "Life Is Beautiful," but they broke up late in 2012.
In "My Daughter Seo Young" his character relentlessly pursued the woman he loved but the actor admitted later that he was not that focused on his real-life relationship. In an interview he surprised reporters with an honest assessment of his relationship skills.
"The closer we got, the more complacent I became," said Lee Sang Yoon. "As time went on, I stopped paying attention to my girlfriend because I was so comfortable in our relationship. That's why I was not as good to her as I was at the beginning."
5) The actor plays basketball, baseball, likes to swim and enjoys listening to music. His interest in music will come in handy, as his next role will be that of a music director in the film "Santa Barbara."
