Queen of Tears star’s villain role was so convincing he got hate DMs

Queen of Tears actor Park Sung-hoon is perfectly cast as the leading villain, as evidenced by hate messages he received on social media.

Park is no stranger to playing the big bad in K-dramas. He gained notoriety for his role as Jae-joon in Netflix’s The Glory. From one villain to another, Queen of Tears continued the rollercoaster of fans hating his on-screen character Eun-seong.

While appearing on JoyNews24, he revealed that his role in the K-drama had people genuinely believing he was a bad person. The influx of DMs against his character led him to take a break from social media.

“I got so much hate for the role, enough to last me a lifetime. I couldn’t even check my DMs for a while because of all the angry messages that came through. But I’m not actually like that. I’m glad many people loved the show and had so much affection for the Hae In x Hyun Woo couple. It’s been a great deal of joy seeing the support,” he said.

In Queen of Tears, the character of Eun-seong arrives as someone Hae-in used to know in college. As she and Hyun-woo go through a rough patch in their marriage, Eun-seong sees his chance to steal her away.

The turmoil got worse. What led many to hate the character was his deceitful plan to take over Queens Group. It was revealed he and his mother had been planning on taking down Hae-in’s family for years and robbing them of everything they were worth. But when it comes to the K-drama, fans were more upset at Eun-seong’s insistence on breaking Hae-in and Hyun-woo’s rekindling romance.

Let’s just say that Park plays a good bad guy. In The Glory, he also gained fame for his villain role, which was downright evil and vile until the end. Park, in real life, is the exact opposite of his on-screen characters. He even asked fans during a recent event to hate his characters and not him.

“I’m actually not bothered or hurt by those direct messages (on social media) … Because they root for Hong and Baek, they have such feelings toward (my character). That’s how much they love and put interest in our series so I enjoy reading the comments. Now I think perspectives have changed. Previously, people used to see the character as the actor’s real personality, but now, more people see it separately. So I try to think of it as compliments that I portrayed my character convincingly,” said the actor to South China Morning Post.

Park is set to join the cast of Squid Game Season 2, and you can also keep tabs on Netflix’s 2024 K-drama lineup.