Moon Chae-won contemplates absence from 2023 SBS Drama Awards amidst co-star's scandal; Agency issues clarification

Actress Moon Chae-won, renowned for her role in Friday-Saturday drama ‘Payback’, is reported to be considering skipping the upcoming 2023 SBS Drama Awards scheduled for December 29th.

After a hiatus of approximately two years and three months since her last project, Wednesday-Thursday drama ‘The Flower of Evil’, which concluded in September 2020, Moon Chae-won made a powerful return with ‘Payback’. The drama garnered significant acclaim, achieving the highest viewer rating of 11.4% based on Nielsen Korea's national standards. This marked the third-highest rating among SBS dramas this year, trailing only ‘Taxi Driver 2’ and ‘Dr. Romantic 3’. In ‘Payback’, Moon Chae-won portrayed the character of Park Joon-kyung, a justice officer and army major.

The annual ‘SBS Drama Awards’ serves as a platform to acknowledge and honour the efforts of actors and production staff throughout the year. Notably, popular figures such as Lee Je-hoon, Pyo Ye-jin, Ahn Hyo-seop, Song Kang, Park Sung-woong, and Kim Tae-ri are currently in discussions about attending. However, Lee Sun-kyun, the lead actor of ‘Payback’, has faced controversy since October due to his alleged involvement in a drug scandal. Speculation is rife that this scandal might be the key factor influencing Moon Chae-won's decision to abstain from the award ceremony.

While other co-stars of Lee Sun-kyun have yet to confirm their participation, Moon Chae-won's agency, IOK Company, responded to the reports, confirming, “It is true that she received an offer to participate in the 2023 SBS Drama Awards. However, we did not decide whether or not she will be attending, and we arranged to discuss [the matter] later. We have not received contact [from SBS] since”. Interestingly, they mentioned not having received any further communication from SBS on the matter. A source from SBS was quoted by Soompi, stating, "The attendance of all actors, including Moon Chae-won, is continuously being checked and discussed, so no decision has been made yet”.