Choi Min-sik Was So Convinced by Kim Go-eun's Exhuma Shaman Role He Asked a Real Shaman to Check

Choi Min-sik had one simple question for a shaman consultant on the set of Exhuma: was Kim Go-eun secretly one of them?

The veteran actor appeared on the YouTube channel Yojeongjaeheong on the 30th for a candid conversation with host Jeong Jae-hyeong, and his story about Kim Go-eun's performance became the standout moment. When the conversation turned to her portrayal of the mudang Hwarim, Choi Min-sik delivered his verdict with a straight face: "I thought she was moonlighting." He meant it as the highest possible compliment.

"People have always said that actors, singers, performers, they're just one step away from being a shaman," he explained. "So I actually went and asked our shaman consultant directly: 'Is Kim Go-eun one of yours?'" The consultant's response, he said, was reassuring: "She told me, 'No, don't worry, she's not.'" He paused, then added, "I was relieved."

The exchange drew genuine laughter, but underneath the joke is a real observation about the quality of Kim Go-eun's work in the film. Her portrayal of the spirit medium was one of Exhuma's most talked-about elements when the film became a massive hit in early 2024, and hearing Choi Min-sik confirm he had that reaction on set gives it a satisfying footnote.

How Choi Min-sik approached Exhuma

Choi Min-sik also explained what drew him to the project in the first place. "I chose Exhuma because of director Jang Jae-hyeon," he said. "I was curious how he worked." He had watched Jang's previous films, Svaha: The Sixth Finger (2019) and The priests (2015), and been impressed by both. "I enjoy films about the spiritual, religion, exorcism, things in that territory," he said.

He also reflected on his own approach to playing characters, describing a spectrum between technical, calculated performance and full emotional immersion. "There are actors who work it out rationally and show you a technically precise performance, and there are actors who try to become the character through emotional absorption," he said. "I move between both. Exhuma was more the former."

On set anecdotes and the Busan dialect problem

The conversation ranged wider from there. Choi Min-sik, who has no management agency and arrived to the YouTube shoot alone, was characteristically relaxed about it. "Not having an agency means no staff. I prefer doing things on my own. Wardrobe, makeup, hair, it's all handled by the film team anyway," he said.

Looking back at the 2012 ensemble crime film Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, he admitted the Busan dialect nearly beat him. "I really struggled with it. Part of the problem was that I took it too lightly at first, I thought, 'Oh, I'll just do the dialect, easy.' I was wrong." The film's catchphrase "Ma!" has followed him ever since, and he acknowledged that when Intern was announced, comments flooded in riffing on it. "I don't entirely understand why people latch onto it," he laughed, "but it's a way of showing affection, so I'm grateful."

On the topic of working almost exclusively with male casts across films like Nameless Gangster and New World, he was self-deprecating: "It's just my fate. I haven't worked with that many actresses." He pushed back, though, on the idea that all-male sets are rough environments. "On paper, a lot of the faces look like people you wouldn't want to run into on the street. But in real life, they're genuinely fun, it's like being in a theater troupe. When we filmed in Busan, we'd finish a scene and immediately ask, 'Where are we eating?' It felt like a school trip."

Choi Min-sik's next film, Intern, co-starring Han So-hee, opens on September 16.