Kim Hye-Yoon REVEALS 'Short Height' Forced Her To Add '2 Cm' When She Failed 100 Auditions: Wanted To Pass Badly

Kim

Hye-Yoon is set to turn a nine-tailed fox woman (gumiho) in No Tail To Tell. Ahead of the show's release on Netflix, also starring Park Solomon aka Lomon, the actress revealed much about her days before fame and how her physical attributes, especially her height, got in the way of acting opportunities. Kim, the breakout star of 2024, received global stardom following the mammoth success of Lovely Runner with Byeon Woo-Seok. The 29-year-old is now returning with her new K-drama, and fans cannot wait any longer. No Tail To Tell premieres on the OTT on January 16, alongside another show, Can This Love Be Translated?

Kim Hye-Yoon's early days of struggle

Ahead of No Tail To Tell, Kim opened up about her struggles before her debut. She revealed that she was rejected from more than 100 auditions largely because of her short height, during her upcoming appearance on the variety show You Quiz on the Block. The show released a preview clip on January 14 on the official YouTube channel of tvN.

Kim's short height stopped acting opportunities

When host Yoo Jae Suk addressed Kim with things like "cute, adorable" and "hardworking", Kim gushed and recalled how she began auditioning during her first year of high school at the age of 17. Revealing she went through more than 100 auditions, Kim said, "At one point, I was auditioning up to three times a day. I started going in thinking, ‘I’m going to get rejected again today.’""Almost every audition, I was told, ‘You’re too short,’ That gave me a real complex about my height," she added. "I knew the roles didn’t really suit me, but I wanted to pass so badly that I started embellishing things about myself. I’m 158 cm tall, but I wrote down 160 cm. It always got found out, but I went around adding about 2cm."

Confessing that she felt desperate, Kim shared that she appeared in 50 minor roles over seven years. "It felt overwhelming. I kept wondering if I was doing the right thing, and it was also hard to balance acting with my studies."

Pairing up with a taller Byeon Woo Seok in Lovely Runner

Kim finally found fame with Lovely Runner, where she got paired with Byeon Woo-Seok. Interestingly, Byeon's towering personality (190 cm) and tall stature against Kim's short frame became one of the most adorable things about their pairing, which went on to receive humungous fan love.