Drink-driving actress Kim Sae-ron drops out of comeback play
South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron’s return to acting after a two-year hiatus has been put on further hold after she withdrew from an upcoming play.
The 23-year-old was announced on April 17 as one of the cast members of the play Dongchimi, set to run from May 3 to 12.
However, the public reaction in South Korea to Kim’s latest acting role was mostly negative due to her 2022 drink-driving incident.
The play’s production team then announced on April 18 that she was stepping back from her role due to “health reasons”, according to The Korea Times. She was to play one of the three children of an elderly couple in the family drama.
Kim was a child actress who made her debut in the movie A Brand New Life (2009), and gained further prominence after starring in the action thriller The Man From Nowhere (2010) with South Korean actor Won Bin.
Her career was derailed by a drink-driving incident in Seoul in May 2022 when she crashed her car into several guardrails, street lamp posts and an electrical transformer box, which resulted in a power outage affecting more than 50 stores in the vicinity.
The actress reportedly refused to take a field sobriety test, and instead insisted on submitting her blood for testing at a police station, reported The Korea Herald.
She was later fined 20 million won (S$19,700) for drink-driving.
While on her hiatus from show business, she caused controversy in March 2023 when she posted photos of herself working in a cafe, but was later revealed to have never worked there.
She was also in the news in March after posting on social media a photo with South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun, the star of hit K-drama Queen Of Tears (2024), sparking speculation that they were dating. It was later denied by the actor’s agency.
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