‘I’m Not the Pope, I Don’t Have Any Message’: Oscar Winner Youn Yuh-jung Reflects on Six Decades of Unconventional Stardom

The celebrated Korean actor Youn Yuh-jung, recipient of the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF)’s prestigious Screen Icon Award, delivered a candid and wide-ranging “In Conversation” event, opening up about her remarkable six-decade career. The 78-year-old Oscar winner shared frank insights into her accidental entry into the industry, the profound influence of director Kim Ki-young, and the sacrifices that led to her current position of creative freedom.

Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung speaking at the Singapore International Film Festival.

The Accidental Start and The Guilt of No Training

Youn revealed that her illustrious acting career was, surprisingly, entirely accidental. Her path began after she failed a crucial university entrance exam in the 1960s. Needing income while attending a less prestigious college, she took a part-time job at a television station. This led to an unexpected audition. “I didn’t plan to be actress,” Youn recalled. “I went to the station for a tour, and they asked me to audition. I said no… But I did it, and I got accepted as talent.”

Lacking the formal training common in the system-driven Korean entertainment industry today, Youn admitted she often felt guilty. “I didn’t have any theatrical background or film school experience,” she acknowledged. This guilt became the fierce engine for her relentless work ethic. “Every role I get, I studied my lines. I memorized thoroughly. I practiced so many ways because I realized I didn’t have gifted talent… Nobody thinks I’m putting that much hard work. They think I’m just doing naturally or something. No, I work so hard,” she explained.

The Influence of a Visionary Director

Youn’s career breakthrough arrived in her early 20s with the 1971 film Woman of Fire, directed by Kim Ki-young. The role, where she played a controversial country girl who transforms into a femme fatale, was a radical departure from the conventional melodramas of the era. Youn recalled that in 1970s Korean cinema, actresses were expected to fit narrow beauty standards: “I’m not pretty by Korean standards… So most of them [films] at the time, there’s the melodrama—the poor girl falls with a rich boy… same old story. But this script was very different.”

A still from the 1971 film “Woman of Fire,” the breakthrough role for Youn Yuh-jung.

Despite winning Best Actress at the Blue Dragon Awards and Best New Actress at the Grand Bell Awards for her debut, Youn faced harsh criticism. She recounted one critic who dismissed her career potential due to her voice, only to later apologize before his passing, saying: “You are the first one I made the wrong criticism.”

She credited Kim Ki-young as a major professional influence, recalling how the director insisted on meeting her regularly before filming, not for plotting, but for observation. He told her, “‘Miss Youn, when I met you during the meeting, I told you about something, and you had very weird smile and very strange smile. I want that smile.’ That’s why he was watching me. He was observing me.” Kim’s lasting advice shaped her career choices: “He said, ‘The main role is not important. Don’t do it, because you have a big responsibility… safe way is just being a supporting actress. That is very safe way, and then you get the money too.’”

The Minari Sacrifice

Youn’s path to the Oscar-winning film Minari was equally circuitous. Director Lee Isaac Chung sent the script through a friend, but Youn stopped reading at page 40 due to the difficulty of the English. She agreed to the role only after confirming the script was based on Chung’s real-life story: “You cannot be genuine more than his real life story. You don’t need any writer. So this must be genuine.”

The production required significant personal sacrifice. After negotiating for business class tickets from Seoul to Tulsa, Oklahoma, she ended up paying for the seat herself. She also personally hired and paid for a professional translator friend to fly with her to improve the Korean dialogue, explaining, “I sacrificed my time and my money… I want to make it nice one properly. Because the translation is very important.” Despite the financial hardship, the collaboration forged a lasting friendship with Chung.

Youn Yuh-jung and director Lee Isaac Chung developed a close friendship while filming “Minari.”

The Luxury of Choice and Grounded Wisdom

After winning the Oscar, SAG Award, and BAFTA—becoming the first Korean actor to win all three—Youn remains profoundly grounded. “When you become famous, people lift you up with no reasons, and then they tear you down with no reasons,” she said. “Out of kindness, out of malice. So I experienced enough. I’m myself.”

The actor, now 78, works under what she calls a “luxury” philosophy. This freedom was hard-won after years of working intensively as a single mother to pay for her two sons’ boarding school tuition in the U.S. “After they graduated everything, I promised myself, okay, I’ll be free. I’m going to work whatever I want. If I like the director, I will do it, or if the writer has good writing, then I will do it.”

Youn Yuh-jung became the first Korean actor to win an Oscar, BAFTA, and SAG Award.

She noted the negative evolution of the Korean industry into a system she views as a “factory,” though she accepts that opportunities for senior actors are now limited due to production cuts. When pressed for advice for young Asian actors, Youn demurred with characteristic frankness: “Usually when you’re young, we don’t listen to elderly persons… In Korea, they usually say, ‘Is there any message for the younger generation?’ So I usually say, I’m not the Pope, I don’t have any message.” She also firmly stated her refusal to write a memoir, having promised a reporter they could only write her life story “after I passed away.”