South Korean star Cha Eun-woo has been stealing hearts on screen with his dashing charm, but how is he like behind the cameras?
The idol-actor, who’s real name is Lee Dong-min, shot to fame as a member of the K-pop boy band Astro. He’s shared bits and pieces of his personality in his variety shows and vlogs and we’ve compiled a list for you curious fans.
He’s an all-rounder
Eun-woo, who turns 27 this Saturday (March 30), has got the looks, brain and brawn.
Though he’s mostly known as the “face genius” because of his handsome looks, he has another nickname too – language genius.
Fans would know that Eun-woo is pretty fluent in English, and he shared that it’s because he studied the language in the Philippines for six months when he was around 11 years old.
On an episode of the variety show Problematic Men, it was revealed that he was placed second in an English competition in middle school, on top of getting good grades, being the captain of the school’s basketball and football teams and even being the student president.
The episode showed his report card which revealed he achieved mostly As, to which Eun-woo said: “At my best, I ranked third in my entire school.”
More recently, he was praised by the director of his 2022 drama Island, where he spoke Italian and Latin for his role as Priest Johan.
“In one scene, Eun-woo has very long lines in Italian and after he completed it, the scriptwriter said he was really good with his lines,” the director recounted at the press conference.
“On the other hand, we had a native Italian speaker on set who told us he didn’t understand what Eun-woo had said. So Eun-woo went back to learning his lines and he did well in the next take.”
He has 2 MBTI types
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Unlike the average person, Eun-woo has two different personality types.
In a 2021 interview with Harper’s Bazaar Korea, Eun-woo was asked if being a celebrity was a good fit for his personality.
“It’s a job, so you have to adapt. I don’t blindly believe in MBTI, but Cha Eun-woo and Lee Dong-min have different MBTIs. Eun-woo is an INFJ, and Dong-min is an ENTJ,” he shared back then.
MBTI stands for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and is a widely used personality assessment tool.
Revealing why, he added: “I think Dong-min’s personality changed little by little while working as an entertainer. Nevertheless, Dong-min is Dong-min. When he is with people he is comfortable with, his true personality comes out.”
According to 16 Personalities, people with the ENTJ personality type are known as “Commanders” with the Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking and Judging traits. They are decisive people who love momentum and accomplishment.
On the other hand, those with the INFJ personality type are known as “Advocates” with the Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling and Judging traits. They tend to approach life with deep thoughtfulness and imagination, and their inner vision, personal values, and principled version of humanism guide them in all things, the personality website wrote.
He’s not the best cook
He may appear perfect, but he’s still human.
In his last cooking vlog to celebrate the Korean New Year in 2023, he shared that he isn’t the best in the kitchen.
“I’m a bad cook so I’m worried,” he laughed after taking a while to crack some eggs and separate the yolk from the whites.
He was attempting to make tteokguk (sliced rice cake soup), a traditional Korean dish typically eaten during the new year.
Despite some near failures – his egg omelette nearly flew out of the pan after one too many tosses – he succeeded in making the dish at the end, so we wouldn’t say he’s that bad.
He’s a thoughtful friend
He’s known for his cold and introverted characters who sit alone in the hit dramas My ID is Gangnam Beauty and True Beauty, but in real life, he’s a thoughtful friend.
Besides his fellow Astro members Yoon San-ha, Jinjin, Rocky, MJ and the late Moonbin, Eun-woo also has another group of friends in the showbiz idol industry.
Known as the 97-liners, the group consists of male stars born in 1997 – BTS’ Jungkook, Seventeen’s Mingyu, DK and The8, Got7’s Yugyeom and BamBam, NCT’s Jaehyun and Stray Kids’ Bang Chan.
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In particular, Eun-woo is often seen meeting up with Jungkook and Mingyu.
In a livestream in December last year before his enlistment, Jungkook revealed that Eun-woo had written him a letter and gifted him a watch that is typically used by soldiers in the military.
Earlier this year, Eun-woo made a tribute to Moonbin by posting a cover of the song Love is Gone by Slander on his YouTube channel on Jan 26, the late Moonbin’s birthday. He also posted a photo of the late member on his Instagram Story.
“Thank you for coming to my dream. Happy birthday, Bin,” he wrote.
His ideal type
In the five-part Viu series A Date with Cha Eun-woo, he did a Q&A session where he had to answer the given questions in 10 seconds.
For one question, he was asked about his ideal type and gave a simple answer: “Someone who is easy to communicate with and speaks to my soul.”
If you’re interested in meeting him in person, Eun-woo will be hitting our shores on April 13 for his solo fan concert Just One 10 Minute [Mystery Elevator], organised by Viu, at The Star Theatre.
Tickets, priced at $128, $208 and $268, are available on the Sistic website.
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