Actors Who Cannot Be Called By Name?
Which celebrities do not get called by their real names?
Recently, a thread titled ‘Celebrities Who Can’t Be Called By Their Real Names’ was posted on an online community and drew netizens’ attention.
The author listed actors Lee Min Ho, Ji Chang Wook, Lee Joong Sung, Oh Seung Yoon, and Kim Sung Eun as ‘celebrities who can’t be called by their real names’. These actors have inherited a strong image from their roles in their respective works, and are therefore called by their characters names rather than their own.
For example, Lee Min Ho rose to stardom through his role as Gu Joon Pyo in Boys Over Flowers. While the drama made him a star, Lee Min Ho had difficulty shedding his role for a time, because the public had come to identify him as “Gu Joon Pyo” rather than “Lee Min Ho”. He was able to eventually escape this image through other dramas such as Personal Taste and City Hunter, becoming the actor “Lee Min Ho”.
Similarly, Ji Chang Wook came to be known better as “Donghae”, the character he played in popular drama Smile Donghae. Afterward, Ji took pains to escape this image by choosing to appear in historical drama, Warrior Baek Dong Su.
In the case of child stars, powerful roles seem to linger over for far longer than they do for adult actors. Oh Seung-yoon and Kim Sung-eun are prime examples. Oh Seung-yoon appeared as “Masuri” for two years in Magic Kid Masuri; even though she is now an adult, the public thinks first of “Masuri” when she now appears on TV. The title in front of her name refuses to change from “Masuri”.
For Kim Sung-eun, this phenomenon became a source of stress. Kim appeared as the tomboy character “Midal” in hit sitcom Soon Pung Hospital. But even after the show’s conclusion, she was continually referred to as “Midal” by other people rather than her given name, from which she suffers intense stress. For Kim Sung-eun, “Midal” became a past to forget.
Finally, Lee Joong Sung, an actor specializing in reenactment scenes, is well-known for his appearances in Surprise. By nature of the reenactment actor’s job, he has never had a character of his own to play. A web search for his name returns the phrase “Oh, that guy from Surprise?” as a related keyword.
Netizens who have read the original post have responded with diverse reactions, ranging from “I suppose he’s right”, “This is a really fun idea”, “I hope they all come to be called by their real names now”, “All my favorite actors are listed here”, and “These are all actors who defined an era”.
Jungbae @ hellokpop (translation)
