-Actor Daniel Dae Kim is no stranger to breaking barriers. From his groundbreaking role on Lost, to his Tony-nominated turn in Yellow Face, Kim continues to affirm his title as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. With his new show, Butterfly, he steps into the spotlight as the leading man of a high-stakes international spy thriller.
-During the interview he is asked Daniel Dae Kim was asked “What’s your approach to ethnic-specific casting?” He responded “Very often, when we’re cast, if the role calls for a Korean American, they will not see a Japanese American or a Chinese American or any other Asian nationality, but there are very often times when the role itself has not been thought through — it doesn’t require any kind of specificity in the story or in the specifics of the character,” he explained. “Because, very often, it’s not even written by an Asian person, so they don’t know the difference in what they’re asking for, and yet casting is being very specific.”
-DDK went on to add “I think there are times when nationality-specific casting is important,” Kim then acknowledged. “For instance, when there’s an authentic language requirement in the world, or it’s based on someone who’s a real person that has cultural significance to that particular country, and in those cases, I really feel like we need to be specific. But oftentimes, we’re being cast as roles specifically when the characters themselves are fictitious and they don’t even exist in real life.”
-“Anytime there’s a role that focuses, to me, on the American experience of being Asian, that’s something that, no matter whether you’re Korean, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, that’s something we all share in common,” he continued. “We all know what it feels like to be othered; that’s a common experience. And so, to me, the nationality isn’t as important. I’d like to see us take the next step in the way we think about ethnic-specific casting, and I believe it started from a good place, because originally it was like: ‘Well, you know, we can’t just consider them all as one,’ that’s true!” Kim concluded. “It’s why Reina Hardesty is cast as my daughter in ‘Butterfly, She’s not Korean American, she’s Japanese American, and she’s mixed race Japanese American. That was a deliberate choice on my part, because the significant part of her character was the idea of feeling alienated and alone in America — you don’t have to be Korean American to feel that way.”
