Actor Park Jeong-min uses screen 'break' to conquer fear of the live stage with 'Life of Pi'

Home > Entertainment > Music & Performance

Actor Park Jeong-min uses screen 'break' to conquer fear of the live stage with 'Life of Pi'

Published: 19 Dec. 2025, 14:08

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Park Jeong-min as Pi in the ongoing play ″Life of Pi″ at the GS Arts Center in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, through March 2.[S&CO]

In late 2024, actor Park Jeong-min announced he would be taking a yearlong “break.”

Yet the 38-year-old has spent what is arguably the most publicly visible year of his career — just not on movie or television sets.

He has worked a nine-to-six job as CEO of his indie publishing house, hosting book talks, giving interviews and running a booth at the Seoul International Book Fair in June, where he drew one of the longest queues of the event. In October, he appeared as K-pop star Hwasa’s nostalgic ex-boyfriend in a music video, and last month joined her for a live performance that went on to become one of the year’s most viral clips.

Now, Park has returned to the live stage for the first time in eight years, starring as Pi in the touring play “Life of Pi,” confronting — and gradually overcoming — a long-admitted fear of live performances.

“I wasn’t just scared,” Park told reporters on Thursday in Gangnam District, southern Seoul. “I honestly thought this was something I wasn’t very good at.”

Actor Park Jeong-min [SEM COMPANY]

It was his agency that strongly recommended “Life of Pi.” Park said he hesitated at first, but everything changed after watching a video clip of the London production.

“I was sold,” he said. If something like this could be recreated in Korea, he wanted to be part of it.

The production, which opened Dec. 2, adapts Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, featuring life-size animal puppets operated in full view of the audience. The story follows a 16-year-old boy named Pi from India, who survives a shipwreck and is stranded at sea with a Bengal tiger. The play premiered in Sheffield, Britain, in 2019 before transferring to the West End and Broadway.

Park Jeong-min as Pi in the ongoing play ″Life of Pi″ at the GS Arts Center in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, through March 2.[S&CO]

The Seoul production marks the first time the show is being staged in another language, with an entirely Korean cast and puppetry team. Park — known for his film work in “Bleak Night” (2011), “Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet” (2016) and “Deliver Us from Evil” (2020) — alternates in the spiritually curious, tenacious lead with musical theater actor Park Kang-hyun.

"The real me is nothing like Pi," Park said, describing himself as far less emotionally expressive than the character. Still, inhabiting the role pushed him into unfamiliar emotional territory.

“Playing Pi forced me to lean into emotions I don’t usually access,” he said. “It made me understand them on a deeper level.”

Park Jeong-min as Pi in the ongoing play ″Life of Pi″ at the GS Arts Center in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, through March 2.[S&CO]

The character’s spiritual journey was also foreign to Park. He described himself as someone who had long been indifferent to religion, but said the play reshaped his view of faith.

“Religion was never really part of my life — it was an area I felt completely detached from,” Park said. “But through rehearsing and performing this work, I’ve come to understand why religion exists: People want to live well, and to do that, they need something to believe in. For some, that belief becomes religion.”

The role is as physically demanding as it is emotionally taxing. Pi remains on stage for nearly the entire performance, carrying the narrative for over two hours.

“I have a mountain of energy jellies in my dressing room,” Park said. “But I really rely heavily on the cast, and on my alternate, Park Kang-hyun. We’re like family — sometimes just exchanging a look onstage gives me courage," though a live audience still makes him nervous.

“Sometimes I can see the audience’s faces,” he said. “When I lock eyes with someone whose expression I can’t quite read, it suddenly pulls me out of the moment. I have to pull myself back in — and I think that’s proof I’m still a beginner. The fact that small things can shake my focus is scary.”

Park Jeong-min as Pi in the ongoing play ″Life of Pi″ at the GS Arts Center in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, through March 2.[S&CO]

Park does not believe his acting technique has dramatically improved since his last time onstage eight years ago. What has changed, he said, is his mindset.

“I don’t think my skills suddenly skyrocketed,” he said. “But time changes how you carry yourself. After eight or nine more years as an actor — going through frustration, resolve and disappointment — it all hardens into something like calluses. Being onstage now feels more bearable, and even more enjoyable, than it once did.”

Park Jeong-min as Pi in the ongoing play ″Life of Pi″ at the GS Arts Center in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, through March 2.[S&CO]

He carried the same steady nonchalance as he reflected on his past year.

“On my days off, I still go to work. On performance days, I perform. If there’s something to prepare, I prepare,” he said. “I’m grateful for the public interest, of course — but honestly, I’m just very busy working.”

And with a hint of humor, he added, "Just knowing there’s a show tonight is dreadful.”

“Life of Pi” runs through March 2 at the GS Arts Center.

BY LEE JIAN [lee,[email protected]]