SEOUL: For years, Heo Nam-jun was a familiar face in supporting roles. Now, he finds himself at the centre of one of South Korea’s streaming hits.
The South Korean actor recently wrapped My Royal Nemesis (2026), a fantasy romantic comedy that climbed to No. 2 on Netflix’s weekly non-English TV chart during the June 8 to 14 tracking period.
Heo, 33, stars as Cha Se-gye, a chaebol heir whose cool exterior begins to crack after he meets a Joseon-era woman, played by South Korean actress Lim Ji-yeon, who has inexplicably time-slipped into modern-day Seoul.
Speaking with reporters on June 18 ahead of the series’ weekend finale, Heo revealed that he initially struggled with the role of Cha and continued to wrestle with it throughout filming, as the character’s blunt, assertive personality is far from his own.
“At first, that was actually something I worried about a lot. The reason is that I’m not really the type of person who says things like, ‘Hey, this is the fact, so this is obviously the right answer,’ or speaks in that kind of assertive, matter-of-fact way,” he said in an interview in Seoul.
“I don’t really have that fundamentally cold, prickly side that the character has at all. But I do think I share some traits with him, like being playful, a bit cheeky and using a witty way of speaking. Those are qualities I have as well.”
Heo said he frequently sought reassurance from the show’s director and writer as he worked to embody Cha’s matter-of-fact way of speaking - a trait he feared might clash with the conventions of a romantic leading man.
“I kept asking, ‘Is it really okay for a romance drama’s male lead to talk like this? Will I come across as charming? Is it okay if I deliver lines in this style?’”
As filming progressed, however, Heo said he came to trust the creative team’s vision. He realised the character’s dialogue had been carefully crafted and that the directness he initially questioned ultimately became part of Cha’s appeal.
“They had calculated all of that when they wrote it,” he said. “I trusted them and went with it. In the end, I think it made the character even more attractive.”
This unassuming approach aligned with Heo’s long-standing industry inspirations. The actor consistently points to veteran performer and fellow cast member Kim Moo-yul - with whom he shared the screen during the second and third seasons of Netflix’s Sweet Home (2020 to 2024) - as his definitive professional benchmark.
“I’ve given the same answer ever since I was a rookie (that Kim is my role model), and that hasn’t changed with time,” Heo said.
What commands respect, he explained, is Kim’s relentless work ethic, which remains fiercely intact despite an already established career. Witnessing Kim’s baseline generosity on the gruelling set of Sweet Home left a memorable impression.
“He embodies my standard for what a genuinely good person should be,” Heo said, adding that Kim, 44, is the blueprint for who he aspires to become, both as an artiste and an individual.
“He is grounded, devoted to his family and exceptional at his craft.”
Before anchoring a global hit with My Royal Nemesis, Heo spent years building equity across diverse genres, logging screen time in the mystery thriller Missing: The Other Side (2020 to 2023), the JTBC period drama Snowdrop (2021 to 2022), the aforementioned Sweet Home franchise and Your Honor (2024).
More often than not, he was cast as a villain or an emotionally distant, cold-hearted figure - memorable but rarely central to the story. While several of those properties enjoyed significant popularity, Heo’s relatively brief stretches of screen time kept him largely categorised as a hidden industry asset.
Now experiencing the full weight of mainstream visibility, Heo expresses gratitude for the traction My Royal Nemesis has generated, yet his focus remains strictly forward-looking.
“I’ve derived a lot of fulfillment from this project, and I am aware of the momentum it has injected into my career trajectory,” he said.
“At the same time, I think I need to compartmentalise that success as a beautiful milestone and keep my eyes trained on the horizon. At my core, I am a working actor, and my baseline priority going forward will be the execution of the next performance.”
That next performance will arrive via the highly anticipated 2027 period romance Whale Star. Set against the sweeping backdrop of colonial-era Seoul and the Korean independence movement, the series casts Heo as Song Hae-su, a resolute freedom fighter. The role promises a thematic departure from his contemporary rom-com turn.
“Compared to Cha Se-gye, this character operates with a sense of gravity and emotional maturity,” Heo said. “He is self-contained and measured, whereas Se-gye behaved like a runaway train, charging forward without inhibition.”
Despite the temperament gap, Heo identifies a compelling psychological connective tissue between the two figures. “Like Se-gye, Hae-su is motivated by deep psychological scars. And that vulnerability makes the character pop.”
Meanwhile, the actor’s rising profile has also brought standard Hollywood-style scrutiny, including a recent wave of digital dating rumours with model-actress Hong I-seol, which Heo greeted with more amusement than anxiety.
“My initial reaction to the speculation was just pure amusement,” he said. “I had never even crossed paths with the individual in question, so my immediate thought was simply, ‘Where is the connective tissue here?’”
However, as the narrative gained velocity, Heo began to view the episode as an organic, if surreal, metric of his newfound industry status.
“I never anticipated it generating that level of traction,” he reflected. “But as the articles multiplied, it hit me: ‘I suppose I’ve finally succeeded.’ (Maybe) that’s why such dating rumors are coming out.” - The Korea Herald/ANN
