People have been left seriously blown away by Daniel Dae Kim’s articulate, off-the-cuff remarks about “ethnic-specific casting” in a recent interview for “American Masters.”
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For reference, 57-year-old Kim was born in South Korea, but moved to the United States when he was one year old, and grew up in Pennsylvania. He is arguably best known for his performance as Jin-Soo Kwon in the ABC series “Lost,” with his character speaking in Korean for most of the show.
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Kim also starred as Chin Ho Kelly in “Hawaii Five-0,” and had recurring roles in “Angel,” “Star Trek: Enterprise,” “ER,” and “24.” On the big screen, you might recognize Daniel from “Hellboy,” “Joy Ride,” the “Divergent” series, and “Always Be My Maybe,” to name a few.
Back in 2024, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for his performance in the play “Yellow Face.” In addition, he runs his own production company, which was involved in the production of his latest series, “Butterfly.”
In short, Kim has enjoyed huge success in the acting world, and this makes his recent comments all the more insightful.
In the interview, the star was simply asked: “What’s your approach to ethnic-specific casting?” and he did not hesitate as he articulately called out the “overcorrection” that Asian American actors are facing in Hollywood.
“Wow, I’m really glad you asked that question because it’s something I’ve thought a lot about, and obviously I’ve lived through a lot,” Kim began. “Right now, there’s a focus on nationality-specific casting when it comes to Asian Americans that I feel is an overcorrection.”
“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.”
“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.”
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“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. “But we need to be a little bit more sophisticated now about how we can open opportunities to actors.”
“It’s why Reina Hardesty is cast as my daughter in ‘Butterfly,’” he then gave as an example. “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.”
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This interview clip was shared on a popular Reddit forum, where it quickly earned thousands of upvotes as people praised Kim for how well thought-out his answer was, especially as it was so spontaneous.
One popular comment reads: “Gosh that was SO well thought out and explained,” to which someone else replied: “And just off the cuff like that?? I still fumble my words during routine small talk…”
“He said this so perfectly, and it needed to be said,” another agreed. “Casting calls are such a barrier for POC actors, and I feel like even the pro-‘representation’ crowd doesn’t quite consider the details of what it means. But he really said it better than I ever could, somehow without being contentious. God I love this man so much.”
“Such an articulate and thoughtful response. Glad I watched the whole video,” one more added.
While somebody else concluded: “this is literally the most nuanced answers someone can give about the casting processes and the choices Hollywood made/makes. I’m just blown away by how well he articulated it.”
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