Lee Hee-joon Reveals the Villain Scene That Left His Hands Shaking

Korean actor Lee Hee-joon has built one of the most quietly unsettling careers in the industry — a specialist in characters who are cold, calculating, and morally unhinged. But when he sat down on SBS variety show Whenever There's a Break (틈만 나면) with fellow actor Park Hae-soo, he revealed something fans never expected: even he gets the chills.

The two actors — both known for playing some of Korean drama's most chilling antagonists — appeared together on the March 31 episode of the show as guests. What followed was a rare, candid look at what it really costs to inhabit characters that society's moral compass would consider irredeemable.

The Scene That Made Lee Hee-joon's Hands Tremble

For Lee Hee-joon, the confession that drew the most attention came during a discussion of his recent villain roles. Known internationally for Netflix's A Killer Paradox (2024), Karma (2025), and Badland Hunters (2024), Lee has spent years making audiences deeply uncomfortable — and he's remarkably good at it.

But one scene crossed a line even he was not fully prepared for. In a role where his character tampered with his deceased father's condolence money — a deeply taboo act in Korean culture — Lee admitted that something unexpected happened on set. "My hands trembled without me realizing it," he said on the show. "Even though it was acting, I got chills."

It is a confession that reframes how viewers might look at his most intense performances. Lee is not simply playing these roles from a detached, technical distance — he is feeling them. And in this case, the weight of playing a character capable of betraying even his own father's memory was something his body registered before his mind did.

The show's hosts, Yoo Jae-suk and Yoo Yeon-seok, pointed to roles in Killer's Shopping List and Karma as standout examples of Lee's work. In Karma, he plays Park Jae-yeong, a man who hired someone to kill his own father over cryptocurrency debts — a performance widely considered one of his career-best roles to date.

For Lee, the visceral reaction he experienced was not a sign that he lost control of the performance. Rather, it speaks to the depth of preparation he brings to morally complex characters. He has spoken before about finding the humanity — or the fractured logic — inside every villain he plays, and that process clearly leaves a mark.

Park Hae-soo's Honest Revelation: Loneliness Made Him Physically Ill

If Lee Hee-joon's confession was about the toll of darkness on camera, Park Hae-soo's revelation was about a different kind of weight — the solitude that comes with being a serious actor building a career.

Park, who shot to global fame as Cho Sang-woo in Netflix's Squid Game (2021) — a role that made him one of the most recognized Korean actors worldwide — shared a personal story from before his career took off internationally. While living alone in Ssangmun-dong, a neighborhood in Seoul, he found the isolation unbearable.

"I lived alone for about a year," he recounted. "And I was so lonely that I developed shingles." The condition, triggered by stress and weakened immunity, was severe enough that he decided to end his solo living situation entirely.

It is a surprisingly vulnerable moment from an actor often associated with cold-eyed moral ambiguity on screen. Like Lee Hee-joon, Park has carved out a reputation for characters who keep their emotions locked behind steel resolve. The shingles story strips that image away entirely.

During the variety show segment, Park also revealed that when he and his male roommates shared an apartment, they kept acting books in the refrigerator and spent hours discussing their craft together — a nostalgic peek into the early, hungry years of a career that would eventually take him to global recognition.

Two Rivals-Turned-Partners: Inside The Scarecrow

The appearance on Whenever There's a Break served as a soft promotional moment for a major upcoming project. Lee Hee-joon and Park Hae-soo are set to reunite on screen in The Scarecrow (허수아비), a new ENA crime thriller premiering April 20, 2026.

Directed by the same team behind Taxi Driver, one of Korea's most acclaimed recent crime dramas, The Scarecrow spans three decades — from 1988 to 2019 — following a serial murder case through the intertwined lives of two men with a bitter shared history.

Park Hae-soo plays Kang Tae-joo, a gifted detective with exceptional observational skills who finds himself demoted from Seoul back to his hometown of Gangseong after a career setback. Assigned to a cold case serial murder investigation, he quickly realizes the prosecutor overseeing the case is someone from his past he would rather never see again.

That prosecutor is Cha Si-young, played by Lee Hee-joon — a politically ambitious, coldly calculating figure who spent years bullying Kang Tae-joo during their school years. Now forced into an uneasy alliance, the two must set aside decades of resentment to untangle a mystery that neither could solve alone.

The character dynamic mirrors the real-world contrast between the two actors: Park's Kang is defined by instinct and suppressed emotion, while Lee's Cha operates from a place of calculated control. It is a pairing that promises explosive tension — the kind that only works when both actors genuinely understand what makes their character tick, even when those characters are deeply uncomfortable to inhabit.

What Their Confessions Reveal About Korean Drama Acting

What made the episode resonate with fans was not just the personal revelations — it was the broader window it opened into how serious Korean actors approach their craft.

Lee Hee-joon's involuntary trembling during a morally disturbing scene speaks to the method-adjacent approach many Korean drama actors bring to villain work. Unlike the Western archetype of the "fun villain" who revels in chaos, Korean drama antagonists are often written with tragic interiority — and actors like Lee spend enormous energy locating that interiority before stepping on set.

Park Hae-soo's loneliness story underscores something fans often forget: before the global recognition, before Squid Game, there were years of ordinary struggle. Developing shingles from isolation is not glamorous — but it is real, and it humanizes a performer who has since become one of the most in-demand Korean actors working today.

Looking Ahead: The Scarecrow Premieres April 20

The Scarecrow premieres April 20, 2026, on ENA at 10 PM KST on a Monday-Tuesday schedule. International audiences can expect the drama to reach global streaming platforms given the worldwide profiles of both lead actors.

For Lee Hee-joon, the show marks another step in cementing his status as the go-to actor for Korean drama's most morally complex roles. For Park Hae-soo, it is an opportunity to showcase a grittier, more emotionally raw side of his performance range — very different from the cerebral menace of Cho Sang-woo in Squid Game.

If the chemistry on the variety show was any indication — and the knowing glances, competitive energy, and mutual respect between them were impossible to miss — audiences are in for something genuinely compelling when these two finally face off on screen.