To Be an Actor

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: I Will Live as an Actor, To Be an Actor, Baeu-roseo Salgetda, Be the Actor

Japanese: 배우로서 살겠다

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Information

Type: Manhwa

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: 140

Status: Finished

Published: Sep 30, 2022 to Sep 9, 2025

Genre: Drama

Themes: Showbiz, Time Travel

Serialization: KakaoPage

Authors: Gogwang (Story), Dusi (Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.92¹ (scored by 1,442 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #984²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #5495

Members: 4,328

Favorites: 45

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Namu.wiki

7.92

Ranked #984Popularity #5495Members 4,328

ManhwaKakaoPageGogwang (Story), Dusi (Art)

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Volumes: /?

Chapters: /140

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Synopsis

Young-guk Jang, who achieved great success as a supporting actor, received the honorable Best Supporting Actor Award at the Acting Awards for the first time. However, on that day, his mother passed away... Horrified by the death of his mother, whom he neglected for years, Young-guk decided to end his life... Before his death, he longingly recalled the warmth of his mother and the peaceful memories of the past. He regretted turning his back on those memories... At that moment, he suddenly regressed to his childhood...

"I regressed, to that past I missed. This time, I will definitely..."

Once again, the story of a person who wants to live as an actor begins. Will he be able to live a happy life unlike the previous life?

(Source: Kakao Entertainment, translated)

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Background

To Be an Actor has been published digitally in English by Tapas Media since April 30, 2023.

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Characters

Jang, Youngkuk

Main

Reviews

Nov 12, 2023

Huang-Teizan

Recommended

Preliminary (41/140 eps)

8.7/10

In the simplest way I can put it, "Be The Actor" has been the most heartfelt story I have read to date. There have been many times when I’ve cried reading a manga/manwha/manhua but never in successive arcs. This, though it may not be my preference of story, made me tear up so often that I was blaming invisible onion ninjas.

The plot itself is so immersive and well-paced, so my tears are not for naught — Each character is well written and developed throughout their arc, and no character feels disposable and used for plot convenience’s sake. To add to this, the main character ...

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Sep 17, 2025

BAE1443

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

I like To be an Actor so much!! The plots, his character developments (love the way it's handled that I felt a bit frustrated with what happened but I did like the shows/movies he acted with). I have to say, though, that I cannot help but be a bit disappointed how it ended? Like not that there was romance, but I would have loved to see how the last movie they made-- not in Singapore-- garnered attention. It felt lacking on how it was showcased in contrast to how all the other movies/shows provided the readers insights on how others reaction was. I love the ...

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Aug 30, 2024

Keratton

Not Recommended

Preliminary (95/140 eps)

Spoiler

Self indulgent and uninspiring, that's the words I'd use to describe this manhwa.

The author gives off a vibe of being completely clueless about any topic they write about. All of season 1 felt like a waste of time, as outside of cheap plays on emotion, the author could not for the life of theirs write anything even remotely close to a good depiction of acting. Whenever there is any acting being done, it feels like we're reading the aftermath of a scene, rather than the process of creating one.

That's a symptom of another problem, though, which is that the main character is simply too ... perfect. Everything he does is simply flawless and without mistakes, which is the aforementioned self indulgence that this manhwa suffers from. Him being too perfect means there is no room for error and thus, no introspection, or any kind of analysis of what a good scene should look like, how and why the characters should act a certain way, etc. and worst of all, no room for growth, as there is nothing for the main character to grow from.

All the characters have a degree of personality, but it always feels like it acts as a tactic to elevate the main character even higher up. Even if another character gets more screen time, it gives off the feeling that it's very filler like, or if the character gets their own mini arc/backstory, it always comes off as very barren and stripped off any purpose and lacking any detail. Usually in a story, when the focus is switched to another character facing an issue, it serves as a learning lesson for the main character and/or as an introduction of a new key character, but if the main character is perfect, it only ends up as a waste of time as we neither get the payoff of the main character growing as a person, nor do we get a new character introduced into the main cast, as the characters in this manhwa come and go and usually never come back and if they do come back, they do so for a few short scenes at most.

Even recurring characters such as the girl actress who acted with Jang in that one movie at the start, even though she's one of the recurring characters, she barely gets any screen time, and except for one or two times, it is inconsequential to the overarching plot. Obviously, whenever she does something even remotely important for the plot like forgetting her lines during a play, it's to once again show how perfect Jang Youngkuk, the main character is, when he decides to enter the stage and ad lib to cover for her mistake.

On a scale of 1 to 10, this series deserves no more than a 4. The author is wasting their potential away, as there are flashes of good writing in their work, but they are way out of their depth with a story about acting, as they are extremely uninformed in the topic and anything that gets explained in the story shows a very surface level understanding of acting and the industry as a whole.

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Poll: To Be an Actor Chapter 18 Discussion graciana - Nov 5	0 replies	by graciana »» Nov 5, 6:13 PM
Poll: To Be an Actor Chapter 8 Discussion graciana - Nov 5	0 replies	by graciana »» Nov 5, 3:27 PM
Poll: To Be an Actor Chapter 3 Discussion RGreatDanton - Jul 27	0 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 27, 12:32 PM
Poll: To Be an Actor Chapter 1 Discussion RGreatDanton - Jul 24	1 replies	by Aminthesaiyan »» Jul 24, 2:06 PM
Poll: To Be an Actor Chapter 2 Discussion RGreatDanton - Jul 24	0 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 24, 1:03 PM

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