Netizens Are Shocked By 20-Year-Old Actress Kim Yoon Hee's Role As An Elementary School Student

It’s not unheard of for adult actors to portray characters younger than themselves. It’s acting, after all.

A lot of K-Dramas consists of flashback scenes that require an actor to portray young versions of their adult characters too. So, while the majority of the K-Drama may focus on an adult, it may also show them in high school.

Park Seo Joon (left) and Park Seo Joon (right) are both over 30 years old but acted as high schoolers at the beginning of “Itaewon Class.”

Kim Tae Ri, who is 32 years old, even acted as a high schooler for most of the hit tvN K-Drama Twenty Five Twenty One. Interestingly, her character, Na Hee Do, is portrayed by Kim So Hyun when she’s in the present day.

Kim Tae Ri as Na Hee Do in “Twenty Five Twenty One.” | *tvN*

Yet, when it comes to adults portraying anything younger than a high school student, it’s basically unheard of. There’s always a child actor for those iconic childhood flashback scenes!

Nam Dareum (left) played the younger version of Kim Hyun Joong‘s (right) character in “Boys Over Flowers.”

Yet, there’s one adult actor who is gaining attention for portraying an elementary student!

Kim Yoon Hee is an up-and-coming actress.

She has only acted in a few projects since 2021. She is credited for CheezeFilm‘s web dramas A Short Friend and its sequels 187cm vs 185cm and 187cm 151cm Bully, as well as Pepero Was Taken Away on Pepero Day.

Although she is 20 years old, she mainly gets cast in younger roles. However, she can portray not just high school students but even elementary kids.

This would come as no surprise to her Instagram account followers. Whenever she posts photos, she notably has a “baby face!”

She also frequently poses with snacks that remind one of childhood, such as lollipops, banana milk, apples, etc. So, the actress has clearly built her brand on her youthful appearance.

So, followers are used to seeing her portray younger characters by now. Yet, her latest role has netizens shocked worldwide.

Kim Yoo Hee stars in the 10-minute pilot for CheezeFilm’s web drama Bad Boy. It was released on June 18 and has already garnered over 300,000 views at the time of writing.

Kim Yoo Hee stars as a poor elementary school student. She suffers at the hands of her abusive alcoholic father.

So far, viewers are loving the web drama. It is being praised for its storyline and non-cringy portrayal of the subject matter.

Yet, many netizens are conflicted about the casting of the 20-year-old Kim Yoo Hee as the young character, and some are just straight-up disturbed…

Many question why a child actor was not cast for the part. Despite Kim Yoon Hee’s youthful appearance, some feel she is still recognizably an adult.

Netizens are especially concerned about a potential romance between the two kids depicted in the drama. Her character, Yoon Hee, forms a bond with neighbor Jaehyuk, a boy who frequents the same playground. Feeling sympathetic, he becomes protective of her.

On the other hand, some netizens see the benefits of casting an adult for the part. For one thing, it’s not unheard of to cast older actors, but due to the nature and sensitive subject matter involved in the web drama’s story, it might be in the best interest not to involve an actual child.