Actress Park Jinhee, the leading role in a number of movies and television dramas, wrote a Masters degree paper for Yonsei University, which is expected to take Korea by storm.

The paper, titled “Studies on Depression and Suicidal Urges among Actors,” provided an insight into the secret lives of actors which many of us are not familiar with.

According to Ms. Park, who interviewed over 260 actors with incomes ranging from 10 million won per episode to less than 1 million won a month, 40% of her interviewees are suffering from depression. 20% of these people have actually invested in products designed to assist them in ending their lives, while another 20% admitted to voicing their suicidal urges. Many respondents admitted to being “sick of being alive. I want to die,” while others stated, “I want to commit suicide and have often thought about going through with it.”

Ms. Park claims that many of these depressed celebrities derive their feelings from the extreme pressure they have to face to stay attractive and be noticed by viewers.

In addition, their “unstable” lifestyle gives them much reason to worry and be depressed. Current employment rates for actors are quite rocky, and many Korean thespians feel that their acting talents do not generate satisfying reactions by both industry insiders and common viewers alike. The extreme amounts of anxiety these actors experience rank their stress index at 53.12 out of 100, ranking them higher on the charts than salaried workers and self-employed men, who have stress indexes of 48.18 and 48.12 respectively.

Considering the alarming amount of Korean entertainers who have ended their own lives recently (including pop singer Yuni and actresses Lee Eunjoo, Chung Dabin, Choi Jinyoung, and Choi Jinsil), many anticipate that this paper will awaken those who believe that entertainers live a life filled with much flamboyance and happiness. The differences between the beautiful picture that fans paint in their minds in regards to the lives of their idols and the not-so-glamorous realities of living as an idol are a source of much anguish and pain for many of these suicidal individuals. Often, these entertainers are forced to live each day with a sort of “mask” painted upon their faces to hide their true selves, for fear that netizens would no longer deem them as likable characters if they expressed themselves freely.


In addition, Ms. Park discovered that many actors thought that constantly being forced to appear youthful and cheerful by society’s dangerously high standards was stressful and self-consuming. The amount of pressure these people face is evidently quite harmful, as more and more celebrity suicides are reported each year – proving that money really cannot buy happiness.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of suicides in Korea has increased by a whopping 60% since actress Choi Jinshil’s own suicide. In response to this alarming information, Park Jinhee writes, “The numbers show that people, who seem to be in the middle of amiability, love and glamour, are some of the most lonesome and troubled.”

Perhaps the release of this paper will force many a reader to realize that even the most cherished (or perhaps, most despised) of superstars are only human, thus decreasing the pressure they receive from fans worldwide. For now, one can only hope that Ms. Park’s research paper will have some sort of impact on the entertainment world.


Source: Bae Jisook@koreatimes.co.kr