Idol-Turned-Actress Spills On Leaving Her Group
October 11, 2026 · Koreaboo
An idol-turned-actress revealed the reason why she decided to leave her group to focus on acting and the relationship she has with her ex-members now.
Recently, an interview following the finale of tvN 's hit drama Four Hands, Two Sonatas was conducted with female lead Jang Gyuri .
Jang Gyuri debuted in 2018 as a member of fromis_9 and left the group in 2022 to pursue acting. She said acting had been a dream she held since high school. Although she had the option to continue both singing and acting, she explained that managing both simultaneously did not suit her personality.
" I've always wanted to act. It's something I thought about since high school, " she said. " I could have done both singing and acting, but I'm not good at multitasking. "
Before leaving the group, she tried to juggle both activities and felt the difficulty firsthand. " Before I left, I was doing fan meetings, preparing and promoting albums, and filming Cheer Up all at the same time, " she recalled. " That's when I really felt it. "
Jang Gyuri said, " It was very hard to adjust schedules. There were many times when the members had to practice without me. I wondered if I was causing trouble everywhere. That's when I thought it would be better to focus on just one thing. "
Even after leaving, she has maintained good relations with the members of fromis_9. Regarding her current relationship with the members, she replied briefly, " We just get along well overall. We also keep in touch individually. "
The biggest change she felt after leaving the group and working solo was having to take responsibility for everything on her own. She said, " When I was in the group, we could complement each other's weaknesses. I'm quite shy, so when I appeared on variety shows, I tended to stay quietly in the background since many of my friends are so good. "
As an actress, she said, " The biggest difference now is that wherever I go, I have to take full responsibility on my own. " Her eyes sparkled as she added, " In a way, that only makes me want to do better. "
