Lee Byung-hun wins top Hallyu actor award, says AI in acting 'makes me tense'

Actor Lee Byung-hun accepted the Foreign Minister's Award at the 8th Newsis Hallyu Expo (K-EXPO 2026), held at The Grand Lotte Seoul's Crystal Ballroom in Jung-gu on August 28, in a ceremony that recognized him as the foremost representative actor of the Korean Wave.

The award, one of several presented annually at an expo that has run since 2019 to promote the sustainability of Hallyu and the competitiveness of Korea's cultural industries, placed him in a category that has come to require a genuinely global career, and few Korean actors have built one as consistently as Lee.

What he said at the podium

In his acceptance remarks, Lee reflected on what has kept him working as an actor for decades. "People are still what I'm most curious about, most interested in," he said. "I've been living as an actor for a very long time now, and I still can't say I fully understand people. Human emotion and psychology are so complex and subtle and unknowable, and maybe that's exactly why I keep finding this interesting and keep acting."

He then turned, somewhat unexpectedly, to artificial intelligence. "I've heard that AI is now doing acting too, and I suddenly feel tense," he said. "But I'm not blindly afraid. I intend to accept what needs to be accepted, and within what I myself am able to do, I'll keep working hard at acting. I think that's why this award is being given to me, and I receive it with gratitude."

The candor was notable. Lee is not an actor who typically uses award speeches to engage with industry anxieties, which made the comment land as something more than a passing remark.

A career that grew with Hallyu

Lee Byung-hun's connection to the Korean Wave goes back to its earliest phase. His 2001 drama Beautiful Days became a significant hit in Japan, establishing him as one of the first-generation Hallyu stars at a time when the term itself was still new. By the late 2000s he had moved into Hollywood, appearing in several major blockbusters.

The more recent chapter of his career has been shaped largely by Netflix's Squid Game. Lee appeared across the series' three seasons (2021, 2024, and 2025), and in Seasons 2 and 3 effectively shared the lead with Lee Jung-jae as the two actors anchored what became a near-global phenomenon.

The other significant milestone came through his collaboration with director Park Chan-wook on the 2025 film I Can't Help It. Lee became the first Korean actor to receive a Golden Globe nomination in the best actor in a motion picture category, he did not win, but the shortlist alongside him included Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, and George Clooney, a piece of context that speaks clearly to how the North American film industry now positions him.

About the expo

The Newsis Hallyu Expo is organized by Newsis, a private Korean wire service, and backed by a range of government and cultural bodies including the Ministries of Economy and Finance, Foreign Affairs, and Culture, as well as the Seoul Metropolitan Council, the Korea Creative Content Agency, and the Seoul Tourism Foundation. A separate awards track covers corporate participants. This year's edition was the eighth.