Actress Jang Shin Young has opened up about how she unexpectedly entered the entertainment world thanks to her looks — and the hilarious story behind her very first paycheck.
On the August 8 episode of KBS 2TV’s variety show Stars’ Top Recipe at Fun-Staurant, Jang Shin Young appeared as a “Fun-Chef,” cooking nostalgic dishes with her mother using freshwater shrimp called saebangi.
As they cooked, the two began reminiscing about the past. Jang Shin Young’s mother recalled, “When we had a grape orchard, people in the neighborhood used to say we should send Shin Young to the Miss Korea pageant when she grew up.”
Even in the countryside, Jang Shin Young’s beauty stood out. In her third year of middle school, encouraged by her teacher, she decided to take the entrance exam for an arts high school — and surprisingly passed. “I thought I would definitely fail, but I got in. When I told my mom, who was farming at the time, she said, ‘You must be out of your mind,’” she shared, making the studio laugh.
Her teacher later suggested she enter the 2001 National Chunhyang Contest, where she ended up winning a prize. “After that, I went to Seoul, met a lot of people, filmed commercials, and luckily kept getting drama and TV work,” she recalled.
Her mother shared how emotional it was to see her daughter on TV for the first time. “When I saw Shin Young on TV, I thought, ‘Is that really my daughter?’ and I started crying,” she said.
She also remembered Jang Shin Young coming home from a small acting role with her first paycheck of 30,000 won — only to miss her bus stop and need to be picked up.
Laughing, Jang Shin Young joked, “I should have quit back then,” making everyone in the studio burst out laughing.
Despite her natural beauty, the actress admitted she never imagined becoming an actress because she was shy. “I often thought, ‘I want to run away, I want to quit,’ but somehow I kept being pulled into it, and I ended up here,” she said.
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