K-drama actor Kim Sung Cheol finds himself in the middle of an online controversy. The ‘Hellbound’ actor recently participated in an online poll that raised several eyebrows. The poll pitted popular idols Kwon Eunbi and Kang Hyewon against each other. While it appears like it’s not a big deal, the intention behind the poll is problematic. The account responsible for hosting the poll has a history of posting inappropriate content about female Korean stars and objectifying them. Their polls objectify women and judge them on superficiality and not their skills.
Sung Cheol’s participation in the said poll angered several users who started criticising him online. Soon, the backlash gained momentum, and online portals started flooding with criticism. Fans started expressing their disappointment and questioned his behaviour.
One fan wrote online, “This guy didn’t really rise to fame as a lead actor and if you look at Hell, his acting is just superficial. I wonder when he ever did well, but he just drifts away on his own.” Another said, “Honestly, I don’t know the actor very well, so I thought it was someone else—but it turned out to be the actor who replaced Yoo Ah-in in Hell 2. I turned it off at the beginning because he was bad at acting but really.”
Following this, a spokesperson from Kim Sung Cheol’s agency, Story J Company, issued a statement. “He recognizes the wrong caused by this careless action. However, it’s not true that he followed or consumed content from the account, as suggested online. After realizing the account was controversial, he cancelled his vote.” The representative added, “It seems the issue affected other artists, and we feel deeply sorry for that. We have already apologized to their agencies. This incident was caused by carelessness, and we will be more careful with social media activities in the future to avoid repeating the same mistake.”
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Kim Sung Cheol made his K-drama debut with ‘Prison Playbook’ (2017). Following this, he starred in several popular shows. These include ‘The Battle of Jangsari’ (2019), ‘Do You Like Brahms’ (2020), and ‘Our Beloved Summer’ (2021) among others.