Actor Kim Sae-ron / Courtesy of Goldmedalist

Actor Kim Sae-ron has stepped down from the upcoming play, "Dongchimi," pulling back her plans for a return to acting after putting a hold on her career for two years following a drunk driving charge.

The play's production company, Globe Theater, shared that Kim has dropped her role in the play, set to run from May 3 to 12, due to "health reasons."

The news came a day after the company announced the cast of the play, which included the actor in question, stirring up public controversy.

"Dongchimi," which premiered in 2009, follows the story of two dedicated parents and their three children. Kim was supposed to play the youngest daughter, who is lovable but reckless.

The public reacted badly, reminding Kim that her charge for driving under the influence in May 2022 hadn't been forgotten. She allegedly hit several street lights and guardrails with her car, before crashing into an electrical transformer box on the sidewalk and causing a brief power outage around the street.

Her blood alcohol level was above 0.2 percent at the time, much higher than the threshold for license revocation in Korea at 0.08 percent. She was fined 20 million won ($15,000).

She attempted to join the trend of stars using theater as a stepping stone back into entertainment after controversies, but her efforts did not go as planned.

Actor Kim Seon-ho, for instance, returned from a brief hiatus with the play "Touching the Void" in 2022 after facing accusations that he coerced his ex-girlfriend into having an abortion.

Actor Jung Suk-won recently picked up his acting career earlier this month with the play "Would You Like to Marry Me?" (translated title), after getting a suspended jail term in 2018 for abusing illegal drugs.

Cultural critic Jung Duk-hyun said the actors are taking an alternative route to ease their way back into the industry and engage with the public.

"Works like TV series, as part of pop culture, connect with the broader public, whereas theatrical works are more selective in terms of the audience, who voluntarily chose (to watch the play)," he told The Korea Times, Thursday.

"For the public, (the celebrities') swift return might cause them discomfort. So there always has been a 'detour.' Meaning, they chose to start from the least-exposed platform and gradually touch base with the mainstream."

However, in Kim's case, the critic pointed out that finding the appropriate timing for celebrities' return doesn't depend on their own will, but on the public.

"Making decisions to pick up their career is not something that they choose. It depends on whether the public agrees with it or not," he said, also noting theatrical works don't necessarily mean a green light to the celebrities' way into the media industry.

"If the public takes (theatrical plays) as their return to entertainment, it can be considered as one. But if they don't accept it, it's meaningless."

Kim, who debuted as a child actor in 2009, garnered the spotlight after landing a supporting role in the 2010 hit action film, "The Man from Nowhere." She played the lead in various genre films and dramas, including the 2016 period romance series "Mirror of the Witch" and the 2018 action film "The Villagers."

After the drunk driving incident, she withdrew herself from a forthcoming project, the thriller series "Trolley," and was edited out from most of the scenes from the Netflix series "Bloodhounds," which had already been filmed beforehand.