Foreign Actors Expose The Dangerous Injuries They Suffered On Korean Sets Because Of Safety Violations
In a segment for The Korea Times, the media outlet interviewed foreign actors who spent their careers in Korean entertainment. The former actors exposed how they were taken advantage of, including the many injuries they suffered from a lack of safety regulations.
Former foreign actor Kelly Frances admitted she visited the emergency room multiple times during her career in Korea. She provided photos of her bruised legs and eye because she was forced to perform scenes without a stunt coordinator who would give safety training.
As an actor, especially a foreign one, Kelly couldn’t refuse to do the scenes. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one who experienced such painful mistreatment from Korea’s lack of safety regulations for foreign actors.
One of the reasons Kenneth Fibbe left the Korean entertainment industry was the lack of health standards on set and even shared an incident where he witnessed two men nearly die. It turns out Kenneth had a dangerous moment of his own when he was forced to jump over fire for a stunt. Because he also wasn’t trained like Kelly, Kenneth was badly burned.
Instead of patching Kenneth up and getting a stunt coordinator to eliminate the danger, they encouraged him to put his health at risk and continue filming. Kenneth recalled their words, “Got to keep going Ken, fighting!”
Because multiple foreign actors have come forward about their haunting experiences of injuries, bullying, and mistreatment, it’s understandable why they’re demanding more protections for foreigners.
