Park Won Sook: The passion for acting that marriage and pregnancy could not break

Actress Park Won Sook has revealed the turbulent journey of her debut, during which she refused to abandon her dreams of acting despite marrying and becoming pregnant around the age of 20. Her story of carving out a career by passing the MBC open recruitment talent exam—even amidst the constraints of early marriage and living with in-laws—serves as a stark illustration of the social norms faced by female actors at the time.

On the 8th, Park reminisced about her path to becoming an actress in a video released on Song Seung-hwan's YouTube channel, 'Song Seung-hwan's Wonderful Life.' She stated that after enrolling in the Department of Theater and Film at Chung-Ang University and participating in theater troupe activities, she met her first husband and married around the age of 19 or 20. Park, who noted she had never even cooked a meal or washed dishes before marriage, did not abandon her desire for acting despite the sudden onset of married life and the challenges of her new domestic reality.

The decisive turning point came via theater actor Chu Song-woong. As Chu encouraged her, saying, "You should continue theater. Why are you doing that?", Park resolved to return to her true calling on the stage.

However, reality was not easy. The first place Park visited was the MBC talent exam site, but at the time, there was an atmosphere where applying for talent exams was practically restricted for married women. She recalled that when she went to submit her application while pregnant, she was told, "You can't if you are married." In response, she asked back, "Can't I if I'm married?" and challenged the exam, though her first attempt did not go as planned.

Refusing to give up, Park applied again for the 2nd MBC talent recruitment the following year. This time, a new wave of tension arrived as she stood on the verge of final acceptance; she feared that if her marriage were revealed, she might lose her opportunity once again.

At the time, she was wearing both her wedding ring and engagement ring. She confessed that during the exam process, when an executive pointed at the rings and asked, "What is that ring?", she made an excuse by saying, "My mother gave it to me." She also shared her anxiety, saying, "I was afraid they would say I can't do it again because I'm married." It was a choice made to protect her dream within a society where marital status was directly linked to a woman's professional qualifications.

Ultimately, Park passed the 2nd MBC talent recruitment, becoming a colleague of Kim Ja-ok, Han Hye-sook, and Yang Jeong-hwa. Those who joined as the 2nd MBC open recruits in 1970 subsequently grew into actors who defined an era of Korean broadcast acting.

The significance of Park's debut lies not merely in the unique anecdote of passing a talent exam while pregnant. In an era that viewed marriage and childbirth as difficult to reconcile with a woman's social activities, she simultaneously embraced her sudden domestic roles and her professional identity as an actress.

Since then, Park has established herself as a pillar of Korean popular culture, moving across TV dramas, films, and variety shows for decades. In her later career, she has widely covered roles ranging from central figures in family dramas—such as mothers, mothers-in-law, and mothers of the groom—to realistic life acting, earning the title of "National Mother." Her performances alongside the Choi Bool-am and Kim Hye-ja family in the MBC sitcom 'Country Diaries' remain among her most iconic works.

What the young Park faced was more than just a personal obstacle. In a society where marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth limited a woman's professional possibilities, the choice to pursue acting was a significant act of defiance. In that sense, her confession is more than just a veteran actress's reminiscence; it is a record of the lives and labor of female actors during the early days of Korean popular culture.

Park Won Sook, who visited the exam site in her early twenties while pregnant, eventually crossed that threshold. Her decision to pick up the exam paper again at every moment she could have given up remains the clearest window into how her career of over 50 years truly began.