Last year, while walking around the school, you may have seen a familiar face somewhere on TV but did not really know who it was at first sight. However, in hindsight, it comes to your mind, “Oh, it was that guy.” Minki, the honor student from the TV show, The School 2013, was acted by Choi Chang Yeop. Now Choi has cast off the image of the honor student which has stuck in the public’s mind and he is on the road to fulfilling his dream as an actor.
As a child, Choi Chang Yeop (’08, Media and Mass Communication) had great affection for making things. He tried a lot of new experiments, learning art, music, and computer programs; but it just did not suit him. However, while he was watching TV programs, a thought was always triggered: “What if I make those dramas, too?” And there he finally found what he was looking for. From then on he got accepted to Animation High School, majoring in video production.
It was a great fortune for him to attend a school that is specialized in making movies. Choi managed to participate in many short film festivals and actually won prizes there as well. During this process, he found that his aim of becoming a Product Director (PD) might not be what he really wanted to do, but acting is what he loved. After getting accepted to Korea University (KU), he studied acting and auditioned for many agencies and TV shows. Thinking back on his memories, he said, “I was not really a type of exemplary student like Minki. My school life was actually abnormal as I did not participate much in college life. But I do not regret it because I had my dreams to achieve and acting was the utmost importance during that time.”
Some may think becoming an actor and gaining attention from the media could have been easy for Choi with his past experiences. However, the reality was exceptionally harsh for him as well, with only very limited numbers of positions available. He said, “When I answer to my friends that I am auditioning for something or am in a meeting, they would be like ‘Congratulations!’ thinking that I am already chosen for that role. But, there is nothing that is definitely planned until you are really participating in the shoot.”
The truth about the life of actors is that usually you get the role after 99 times of failing in an audition. They do not really know whether they will have the next role by next month or next year or even worse, they may never get the chance. However, even knowing this harsh circumstance, Choi still strives for living the life of an actor. He talked about his experiences of auditioning. “I just became really bold about failing. I think it is the fate that every actor goes through. At first, I was really excited to have a role and felt really bad not getting do other role but after numerous auditions I learned not to fluctuate quickly between joy and depression. It is not like I became mature or anything, but I learned that this is just the way of life that everyone goes through and you should not be afraid of it.”
His attempt at becoming a PD in CJ E&M which is a branch company of TVN, contrastingly, made him stronger to endure these difficulties of being an actor. After having some trouble with his agency, he came into inner conflict of whether continuing the life of an actor is what he should do. Also, with the lingering nostalgia of his past dream to become a PD, he prepared hard for the CJ E&M open recruitment and got accepted. However, during the internship, which is a preliminary process to obtain the job, he developed an eye problem and had to give up. He stated, “This break was an important time for me to think back about my dream. I understood that I did not have as much passion as others who dreamed of becoming a PD, but really my affection was more towards acting. Thinking back, maybe trying out for PD was more of an attempt to run away from the intense reality that actors face.”
He continued to save some good advice for KU students. For him, being a student in KU was one of the luckiest breaks he could ever get. Even after graduating he is still thankful that he was a student at such a school. The KU school name value not only gave good image to people in the film industry but also to the public; however, he was also aware that this could lead him to being conceited. And this also applies to the students in KU. “I feel that some of my friends preparing for jobs are usually vulnerable to failing. If you look at it, until the age of getting a job, none of us usually have the opportunity to be neglected, especially for KU students. Considering Korean society, going to our school has more meaning than going to any college. Maybe that is one of the reasons why many students in KU are a little more unready to face the harsh reality.”
Choi Chang Yeop is his own man. He had his own life and he had his own visions of what he was going to do with them. Failures should be confronted with courage and should not be faded away by just passing it. Life is not an easy task. Sometimes good things happen faster than others, but sometimes it happens slower as well. Unfortunately, everyone has to go through these ups and downs. Twenty six years may not be that long to give messages about fate or destiny, but his experiences of failing and success surely give a good lesson about being bold when facing difficulties.