DIA's Kwon Chaewon Is Done Being 'In Between': Her Push to Make It as an Actress

Kwon Chaewon has had a lot of near-misses since leaving DIA, and on the latest episode of KBS Joy's Mueot-i-deun Mureobosa (Episode 376, aired on the 3rd), she laid them all out.

The former girl group member told hosts Seo Janghoon and Lee Sugeun that she has been seriously pursuing acting for about a year and a half, but that the path there was anything but straight. After DIA's activities wrapped, she entered a global survival audition program and was eliminated. She then received an offer to debut as part of a virtual idol project, but the agency behind it dissolved before anything came together. The string of setbacks, she admitted, left her feeling chronically unsettled.

"I've always felt like I was in an ambiguous position," she said. "As an actress, I don't want to be ambiguous anymore."

The honesty landed. Mueot-i-deun Mureobosa is a long-running variety format where guests bring real personal dilemmas to the hosts for advice, and Kwon Chaewon used her time there to be unusually candid about the difficulty of reinventing yourself after a group career. She also mentioned attempting a musical theater audition as recently as August, a detail that suggests she's been pushing at several doors simultaneously.

Seo Janghoon, a former professional basketball player turned TV personality, responded by drawing on his own athletic background. He pointed out that practicing alone has limits: if you don't fully understand what you're working on, isolated repetition can reinforce bad habits rather than fix them. He urged her to increase both the frequency and the depth of her formal lessons, and to reach a level of preparation where she walks into any audition room feeling genuinely ready rather than just hoping.

"There are so many aspiring actors in this country who are grinding as hard as they can," he said. "When your practice is lacking, every moment feels anxious. Do the work, and eventually your acting will shine."

Lee Sugeun added his own note of solidarity, sharing that he was rejected from comedy auditions multiple times because evaluators felt his character was too undefined. It's the same word Kwon Chaewon used about herself, and the parallel was not lost on anyone in the room.

Kwon Chaewon debuted with DIA in 2016. She is currently taking acting lessons one to two times a week and practices independently on weekdays. At this point in her career, the question is less whether she wants to be an actress and more whether she's willing to close off the other options entirely. Based on what she said on air, the answer seems to be yes.