Henry Shares How He Returned To Trainee Life To Restart His Career After Leaving SM Entertainment

Nov 18, 2020

On the November 18 episode of MBC’s “Radio Star,” Park Mi Sun, Bada, Henry, and Jaejae appeared as guests. Park Ji Hoon was also on the show as a special MC.

During the episode, Henry talked about restarting his career after leaving SM Entertainment. He had been at SM for 10 years before leaving in April 2018 upon the expiration of his exclusive contract. He then set up his own studio to manage his activities in China. In November 2018, he signed with Monster Entertainment Group, a newly-established agency and part of a global management team that includes the Chinese film production company Filmko Entertainment Group and its U.S. partners.

Henry shared that his brother Clinton, who had previously worked in a telecommunications company, came to Korea to help Henry and ended up establishing his current agency.

Henry said, “When I first left SM, I was full of confidence. I believed that I could do anything. My initial plan was to do it all myself. If I got a call to appear on a show somewhere, I’d just go. But my brother said that if I did it like that, it’d be a disaster. I realized that now I didn’t have an agency’s strength backing me up, I had to do it all on my own strength.

He continued, “I felt a big sense of responsibility. So I decided to return to being a trainee. This was my brother’s suggestion. He asked me what instruments I played the most. I said I played violin. I thought I didn’t need to keep learning violin because I already play it, but he said, ‘If this is the instrument you play the most, you should practice it the most.’ I also learned guitar, vocals, opera, and dance.”

He added, “But the studio has no dance practice room. So I’ve been practicing by renting practice rooms at different studios. I’ve even been to the practice room that Kang Daniel uses. The first time, I asked and got his permission, but the second time, I went without telling him.”