Veteran actress Yoon Mi-ra recalls 'sponsor' offers in Korean entertainment

Veteran actress Yoon Mi-ra has opened up about what she says were once widespread “sponsor” offers in Korea’s entertainment industry, recalling that she repeatedly received proposals from men offering financial support — and that two men once even showed up outside her home.

Yoon shared the stories in a video uploaded Thursday to her YouTube channel, titled “I went out for sashimi and ended up falling for someone.”

In Korea, the term “sponsor” has sometimes been used in the entertainment industry to describe arrangements in which wealthy or influential individuals provide money, expensive gifts or other support to celebrities in exchange for an intimate relationship.

Yoon recalled receiving such an offer at a time when mobile phones were not yet common and families relied on landlines at home.

“Back then, there were no cellphones, and we had a white telephone at home,” Yoon said. “One day, my mother answered the phone, and someone said there was a person who wanted to ‘support’ me. My mother said, ‘Is my daughter a gisaeng?’ and hung up.”

A gisaeng was a professional female entertainer in premodern Korea who was trained in areas such as music, dance and poetry and often entertained men of the elite class.

Yoon said the proposals could include expensive gifts.

“They would say they would buy me a car or sponsor me, but that meant becoming someone’s mistress,” she said. “So many people ruined their lives that way. I received those kinds of offers several times, too.”

The actress also recalled a frightening encounter from her 20s.

“I came home after filming, and there were two men dressed in black standing in front of the house next to a black car,” she said.

Yoon said her mother immediately told her to come inside, but the men followed them to the door.

“They even knocked on the door,” she said. “My mother absolutely refused to open it. Eventually, they gave up and left. Things like that happened all the time.”

Her recollections offer a glimpse into what she describes as a darker side of Korea’s entertainment industry in an earlier era, when actresses could face unsolicited approaches from individuals promising money or material support in return for personal relationships.

This article from Xportsnews was adapted by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.