'Frozen' Role Catapults Voice Actress to Fame
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As the Disney animation "Frozen" has attracted nearly 8 million viewers in Korea since it was released here in the middle of last month, Park Ji-yoon-I, who lent her voice to the lead character in the dubbed version of the film, has risen from obscurity to portal-search prominence.
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The comedy-adventure about a girl's quest to save her kingdom from her sister's icy spell set a box-office record for an animation film and is still seeing viewers at local theaters. The previous record was held by "Kung Fu Panda II", which drew 5.06 million viewers in 2011.
Another unusual trend of its popularity here is that over 40 percent of moviegoers opted to watch the version dubbed into Korean.
"Since I've only been performing behind the scenes as a voice-over actress, it feels great to receive this sudden attention", said Park.
Park had to pass a voice test for the role as well as a singing audition. Although Disney is notorious for its tough casting calls, it gave Park the green light as soon as it heard her sing.
Park said she long dreamed of becoming a musical actress but struggled with her nerves in front of live audiences.
After exploring several different avenues, she developed an interest in voice acting. "I thought this would be perfect for me because it would allow me to act without attracting too much attention from people", she said. This is hardly the case now, of course.
However, Park said she is enjoying all the attention she is receiving after 10 years in the business, and jokingly added that she hopes to make her husband -- another voice actor -- jealous of her growing fame.