Kim Shin-rok's haunting performance leaves 'Hellbound 2' creators speechless

A 20-year veteran who debuted in theater in 2004, constantly honing her craft as she commits to 'my acting, under my own name.'

By KTimes

In the newly released Netflix series "Hellbound" Season 2, actor Kim Shin-rok, 43, reprises her role as the resurrected character Park Jung-ja, delivering a chilling portrayal of a soul who has experienced hell. When asked, "What is hell like?" she responds with hollow eyes, "That’s... something words cannot explain."

In Season 1 of "Hellbound" (2021), Kim left a strong impression as a devoted mother fiercely protecting her children. In the second season, her character has undergone a transformation, reflecting the torment of four years in confinement.

Audiences have praised her intense performance, describing it as a "masterclass in acting" and "possessed acting," and "otherworldly."

In a recent interview at a cafe in Seoul, Kim said, "I portrayed Park Jung-ja as fragmented and broken, making her voice inconsistent to convey the aftermath of her experiences in hell."

"Hellbound" is a thriller that depicts a phenomenon in which people are notified of their death by ghostly apparitions, only to be brutally killed by monsters. Kim’s character is one such person, returning to life after being killed in this supernatural event. Her ethereal, floating portrayal was immediately recognized during the first shoot.

“After the first scene, the crew said nothing. Later, I heard that my tone had everyone buzzing behind the monitor, and director Yeon Sang-ho decided to trust my approach, saying, ‘Kim Shin-rok is at her peak these days, so let’s go with it.’ I’m grateful for their trust in me,” she said.

Her synergy with veteran actresses like Moon Geun-young, Kim Hyun-joo, and Moon So-ri has been credited with deepening the series’ intensity.

Kim, who debuted on stage in 2004, gained wider recognition with "Hellbound" Season 1 and has since pursued diverse roles across film and drama.

In last month’s opening film of the Busan International Film Festival, "Uprising," she played the role of a militia fighter named Beom-dong — a character that was originally written as male.

Director Kim Sang-man, impressed by her performance in "Hellbound," changed the character's gender to cast her.

'I don't look back'

After initially studying geography in college, Kim discovered acting through a theater club in her freshman year.

By her senior year, while friends prepared for exams and jobs, she found herself struggling with illness that kept her from campus and led her back to her southwestern hometown of Gwangju City.

Reflecting on that time, Kim noted it might have been depression, but her young sibling helped her find a turning point.

"One day, while watching 'Animal Farm' with my younger brother, I asked him, ‘Are you happy living like this?’ He answered, ‘If I had died yesterday, I wouldn’t have seen 'Animal Farm' today,’" she said. "It was a revelation for me, and after that, I recovered and returned to Seoul."

After graduating from college, Kim joined a theater troupe in Daehangno but admits, “I was so bad at acting that I felt like a burden.”

Determined to improve, she continued studying acting in graduate school and at the Korea National University of Arts’ School of Drama. Later, with support from a grant from the Korea Arts Council, she spent two years traveling to various theater troupes abroad, learning and refining her skills.

In 2013, wanting to study acting methods more deeply, she withdrew her housing deposit and attended a practical acting school in New York run by a theater company for a year.

Through this dedication, she has made a name for herself in the theater world, committing to what she calls “my acting, under my own name.”

“I don’t look back; the present is always my favorite,” she said. She has no boundaries for her future ambitions. “I grew as an actor alongside the rise of OTT platforms and want to explore diverse roles across various genres and mediums.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.