Lee Chae-min Admits He Almost Couldn't Handle His Most Feared Role

Lee Chae-min is on the cover of Harper's Bazaar Korea's May 2026 issue, and in the interview that came with it, he said something that most actors at his level rarely admit out loud: there was a role that genuinely scared him, and he carried real doubt about whether he could pull it off all the way through production.

The honesty landed. The interview, published alongside a two-version cover shoot for the magazine's May edition, quickly attracted attention not just for the images — which are striking — but for what Lee Chae-min had to say about the kind of actor he is trying to become.

The Cover That Started the Conversation

The Harper's Bazaar Korea May shoot is built around a concept titled "Still Sight" — a phrase that captures something essential about the way Lee Chae-min comes across on camera. The issue features two cover versions, each presenting a different version of the same person.

The white-look cover reads as clean and luminous: bright, open, almost transparent in its feeling. The black-look cover shifts register entirely — deeper, more interior, with what the magazine described as "a gaze that draws you in." The two images placed side by side function almost as a visual argument for what the interview discusses directly: that Lee Chae-min has more than one mode, and that he is deliberate about which one he brings to each project.

Lee Chae-min has built his reputation on exactly that kind of range. His filmography spans romantic leads, coming-of-age dramas, historical series, and villain roles — a spread that reflects conscious choices rather than typecast momentum. He explained his approach in the interview with unusual clarity: "My roles split into two types. Some I'm immediately drawn to — the feeling is right, and I know I want to do it. Others, I'm not sure I can do them, but I want to challenge myself and see something new in myself." The result, he said, is a filmography that has become more varied than he might have planned for when he started.

The Role That Scared Him Most

When asked which project had required the most from him — which one he had to truly push through — Lee Chae-min named Tyrant's Chef (폭군의 셰프) without hesitation. The drama, which aired in 2025, became one of the year's more discussed Korean series, and Lee Chae-min's performance as the commanding, emotionally volatile lead drew significant attention.

That attention was not easily earned. "The one I really gritted my teeth through was Tyrant's Chef," he said. "I was very grateful for the opportunity, but honestly, my first thought was: can I actually do this?" The keyword, he explained, was "tyrant" — a character defined by emotional extremity, authority, and a kind of explosive inner life. It was almost the opposite of how Lee Chae-min describes his own temperament.

"I'm not someone who naturally expresses emotions in a big way," he said. "So taking on a tyrant role — someone whose feelings are always at the surface, always in motion — that felt like a real burden at first." In the early weeks of production, he recalled feeling like he was hanging on rather than commanding the material. "I was just trying to get through it," he said, choosing words that suggest struggle rather than control.

What carried him through, he credited directly to the people around him. Cast members, crew, the production team — the collective presence of a group of people working toward the same result gave him something to lean against when his own confidence faltered. The role came together, and what had felt like an obstacle became one of the defining performances of his career so far.

What Drives Him to Keep Choosing Hard Roles

The natural follow-up question is why — given the real anxiety Tyrant's Chef produced — Lee Chae-min keeps gravitating toward projects that make him uncertain. His answer pointed to something internal: competitive spirit, directed not at other actors but at himself.

"It's what keeps me from becoming lazy," he said. The framing was modest — he did not describe it as a philosophy or a strategy, but as a practical engine. The discomfort of not being sure he can do something is, in his experience, more useful than the comfort of being certain he can. It is, by his own description, what has made his career as varied as it has become.

There is something worth noting about how Lee Chae-min talks about ambition. He is careful to distinguish between challenge for its own sake and challenge that produces genuine growth. Not every uncomfortable role is worth the discomfort, in his framing — it is specifically the ones where he might discover something new about himself that he finds worth pursuing. That distinction explains why his filmography reads the way it does: not like someone who takes risks randomly, but like someone who is trying to find out what he is capable of, one project at a time.

Fan Reaction and What Comes Next

The Harper's Bazaar cover images and interview excerpts spread quickly through Korean entertainment media and fan communities following the May issue's release. Responses focused both on the images — many fans circulated the dual-cover format, pointing to the contrast between the two versions — and on the interview content. The candor Lee Chae-min brought to discussing fear, uncertainty, and working through difficulty struck a chord. In an industry where promotional interviews often read as practiced and polished, his tone felt different: more direct, more willing to sit with the complicated parts.

Comments from fans and observers noted that it said something meaningful about Lee Chae-min's character that his most-cited difficult role had also become one of his best-received performances. The story of someone who doubted themselves all the way through and still produced work worth watching is, ultimately, a story that resonates beyond entertainment.

For now, Lee Chae-min heads into the middle of 2026 with a growing profile, a cover shoot that has already made rounds, and — based on everything he said in the interview — an appetite for the next project that makes him nervous. His track record suggests he will find one. And based on what happened with Tyrant's Chef, it suggests he will figure it out anyway.