Lee Byung-hun Opens Up About 20s Panic Disorder That Inspired His Most Intense Scene

When Emergency Declaration prepared for release, Lee Byung-hun revealed that one of his most intense performances was rooted in a deeply personal memory.

To portray a character suffering from severe fear while trapped aboard a crisis-stricken flight, Lee revisited his own experience with panic disorder in his twenties a moment he says he can never forget.

“I Truly Thought I Was Going to Die”

In interviews surrounding the film’s release, Lee Byung-hun shared that he once experienced a panic attack on a flight to the United States in 1997.

He recalled struggling to breathe and feeling overwhelming terror, to the point that he asked for the plane to be stopped. An onboard announcement was even made to locate a doctor among the passengers. Though he can now speak about the incident calmly, he admitted that the fear itself remains vivid.

When filming Emergency Declaration, he channeled that same suffocating dread to authentically depict a passenger battling both disaster and internal anxiety.

A Disaster Film With Emotional Weight

Emergency Declaration follows a group of passengers and officials responding to an unprecedented aviation terror crisis. Unlike typical spectacle-driven disaster films, the story focuses equally on human vulnerability.

Lee plays a father determined to protect his child amid chaos. Having portrayed fathers in previous large-scale productions, he explained that personal experience gives him emotional grounding. Still, he noted that portraying a father of a daughter required careful observation and subtle adjustment in tone and expression.

Working Alongside Industry Heavyweights

The film brought together some of Korea’s most respected actors, including Song Kang-ho, Jeon Do-yeon, and Yim Si-wan.

Lee described acting alongside them as gaining tremendous reassurance. In particular, he praised Yim Si-wan’s unsettling portrayal of the film’s antagonist, noting the precision in his expressions and emotional control.

A Return to Theaters After a Long Wait

For Lee Byung-hun, Emergency Declaration marked a meaningful return to cinemas following pandemic-related delays in the film industry. He described the project as a kind of reward after years of uncertainty.

Despite decades of acclaim, Lee admitted that hearing the words “you act well” still brings him genuine joy. While he sometimes worries about meeting audience expectations, he emphasized that his responsibility remains the same: to act with sincerity and leave the rest to viewers.

In Emergency Declaration, that sincerity was shaped by memory transforming a personal moment of fear into one of his most gripping performances.