December 21, 2023 • 23 mins
Zach didn't like him...but we did!
At first glance, he seemed like a new love interest for Lane. But, in fact, he is her Uncle!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Am all In.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You, I Am all In with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hey Everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast, Want
of Production, iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart Podcast. One on
one interview with mister Chase Kim. He was in one
episode of the show. He played Lane's uncle Joe in
just like Gwen and Gavin. He was born in Los
Angeles and raised in other countries as well. He initially
(00:45):
chose to pursue a career in business and graduated from
University of California, San Diego with a BA in History
and political Science in nineteen ninety seven. However, after spending
more than six years at his job in San Francisco,
New York, Dallas, in Chicago, Chase decided to switch careers
and became an actor and Steady debuted in two thousand
(01:05):
and three in an uncredited guest star role as a
Korean handler in the series The West Wing, and went
on to be cast in dozens of other roles since then.
His roles included Criminal Minds, Magnum p I, Hawaii Five O,
Ritzolian Isles, and Bosh, Let's bring Him in Here. He
is Chase Kim Chase. How you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'm great. How are you, Scott?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Good? Good good, Nice to meet you and thanks thanks
for coming on. First off, how'd you get your role
on Gilmore Girls?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Well, it was pretty much the very standard auditioning process.
This was pretty early in my career, so I started
acting kind of a little bit later in my life.
I think I was in my late twenties at the time,
and this was pretty much one of my kind of.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
First TV roles and I just audition.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I had to pre read with probably fifty other guys,
guys that kind of looked like me, and then I
got the call back and went to the bungalow over
there at Warner Brothers. And the funny story about that
audition is that I was getting ready to go in
and Mara Casey, who is who was one of the
(02:17):
casting directors on the show, came out before I read
and pulled me aside and said, Hey, everybody really loved
what you did on the in the first call, but
you need to talk faster. And I said, okay, I'd
never gotten a note like that before, and she just said, no,
(02:38):
you just have to fly through the words like no pausing,
You just have to talk faster, and I remember thinking, man,
that's a really odd note to give to an actor
that's about to go into an audition, But I tried
my best to kind of speed through it and and
I got the call that had gotten the role, So
that was pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Was that one of your first gigs that you booked.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I want to say that was probably like my second
or third TV gig that I'd booked, but it was
definitely like the biggest one that it was the first
one that had a name for sure, right, because all
the other ones were like just like a description of
a character, like cop Number one or something like that,
and this was the first character that had an actual name.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And had Were you familiar with the show? How had
you been aware of the show?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I definitely was aware. I was.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I don't I wouldn't call myself a fan of the
show going in, but I knew the show and I
knew that it was kind of a big deal at
the time, and I had pretty big viewership, so I
was definitely excited for the part.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
How did your family react when you told them that
you booked, Because I know you came from the business
world and into acting late A little later in life,
I did the same thing. Actually, yeah, And how did
your parents react to that or your siblings or siblings?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
You know, it's funny because in the Lane Scare Lane
her Keiko's character on the show being Korean and all that,
and my family is definitely very stereotypically Korean, and my
mom is like very stoic, and even at that point,
she probably wasn't all that supportive of me being an actor.
She was probably just like ah, But when she started
(04:17):
to see me more and more actually on TV than
she started to kind of accept it. But to this day,
like Korean moms are not very easy with the compliments,
so it's like maybe like a knowing nod and a
wry smile or something like that, but nothing outwardly like
she was proud of me or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know. Staying on that subject, how did you feel
that Koreans were depicted in Gilmore Girls? Did you were
you ever at all offended by stereotypes or did you
think it was a pretty accurate depiction. No.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I thought it was definitely a very accurate depiction. I
thought the relationship between the mom and the daughter I
thought was depicted very accurately in a sense that there
was obviously the underlying life and everything, but she was
very hard on the daughter, and the daughter didn't really
understand the mom very well. And I think that kind
of cultural gap for the first generation Korean Americans definitely exists.
(05:11):
So I thought it was done very accurately. And I
found the wedding episode to be very humorous because it's
very accurate, like they go to the ceremony and they
all basically just eat and they want to go home.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I was particularly moved when Lane was back in the
house after living with the band, back with her mom
and they had that and Lane stood up for herself
in a very vocal way on the staircase, and then
the mother said, Lane, come down here right now, and
(05:46):
they shared some ceremonial drink. And is that part of
your culture?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, I think the drinking.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
There's a heavy drinking culture in Korean and the Korean culture, I.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Mean that particular ceremony is that is did that, Sarah?
Because we speculated on what that really meant because that
just happened a couple episodes ago. Okay, so was A
what what were they drinking? And B was that a
rite of passage? Was that a ritual that that families,
(06:21):
Korean families do once their children they feel their children
have become grown ups.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, well, I don't think there's like an official thing,
but what they were drinking is probably more than ninety
nine percent sure. It was probably so ju, which is
like a rice wine, okay, and it's kind of like vodka.
A lot of times in this day and age day,
places that don't have a full liquor license will use
sod you to make like.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Cocktails and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
And then but there is definitely a time when it
becomes acceptable to like drink around your parents.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
And it's like when.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
You're young, it's kind of not looked upon favorably, but
like when you become an adult, I think you definitely
are able to kind of show that side of yourself.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
No very moving scene. That's one of my that's my
favorite Lane and Missus Kim scenes. And there are a
lot to choose from. Yeah, so Stars Hall, it was
all dressed up for the Winter Carnival for your day?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yes, absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
How did that feel when you walked onto the set?
It's pretty impressive, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I mean the way they go all out obviously, like
you know, there was snow on the ground, and it
actually was pretty. It was I want to say, it
was like right around this time of year when we shot,
and it was at night, and I remember being unseasonably
cold for California and so being out there and you
can see your breath, and so it really felt real.
Because I know I've talked to people that have been
(07:51):
on the show when it was supposed to be winter
and you're in coats and it's like eighty degrees out.
I'm sure you had to do it as well, where
it's like it doesn't feel real because it's so high outside.
But on the night the Knights that I shot, it
felt totally real.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So we were we were discussing the scene. We were
discussing the scene with you and Zach at the bottle toss. Yeah,
he says that line, welcome to the s h yes,
bio technic itch Yeah, okay, we'll just say that I
can't say the word okay, And we know that that
(08:31):
is a callback to the series ec Did you know
right away what that reference was?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I did, I mean, but it was funny because that
scene itself played out kind of funny because you know,
I'm supposed to be playing it like I don't know
what I'm doing and I don't want to be embarrassed,
and I just go out there and I'm like softly
tossing at the balls and he here he comes, just
like firing the balls at the bottles, and the balls
were flying all over the place on the day, and
(08:57):
it was like, and I think there was a little
bit of when Sally Strether's character is like, oh, you're
gonna hit the girls, you know, at the dime toss
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
There was a little bit of that because he was
firing him pretty hard and.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, he looked like he's got a good army.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
They were bouncing all over the place, so it was
kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, and uh and coincidentally, he had a role on
The OC for three episodes and was that booked around
the same time you appeared on Gilmore.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
I booked the OC after that, so I want to
say it was like the next maybe towards the beginning
of the next year. I booked the OC, but I
was actually supposed to be in the wedding episode of Gilmore,
but there was a scheduling conflict with the OC and
I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Do it right.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, which which whose wedding? Which wedding?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Uh for a Lane's wedding.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Oh Lane's wedding gotchah.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So I was supposed to.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Be one of the career Yeah, the Korean family members
coming back to the wedding, And I doubt I had
a whole bunch to do at that episod, But I
certainly wanted to do it because, like I said, it
was still pretty early on in my career and you're
trying to eat as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
What was it like working with Keiko?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And it was great.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
You know, she is such a such a just a
kind nice person in general. And subsequently we've become friendly
through other friends. I became really good friends with Sean Gunn,
who obviously plays Kirk and and so we'd meet at
his house for gatherings and stuff, and we you know,
became very friendly afterwards. But she was so nice to
(10:38):
work with, and like I said, I was still very green,
so I was like, you know, just trying to not
get anything wrong. When I was on set, I was
just kind of like, all right, I just want to
make sure I don't mess up.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I don't want to, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
So it was definitely you know, I would treat it
a lot differently, you know, if I was on a
show like that today.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Right, So Zach called you the Korean Brad Pitt, which
is like, yeah, I would say that's a compliment.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
There's two little references.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I think there's a reference to George Clooney and there's
a reference to Brad Pitt.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Wow. So you basically covered all the bases there for
Oceans the Oceans films exactly. What's your favorite memory from
being on the set?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You know?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
I mean the absolute favor is just getting that call
from my agent that I had booked it, obviously, but
then being on the set I do remember because Starzola
was like set up for the carnival. I just remember
walking out of my trailer after getting dressed and just
like feeling the kind of grandness of it all right.
And like I said, it was still early on in
(11:52):
my career, so I was excited to be there to
begin with. But then you walk out and there's actually
like a full on carnival scene going on.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Was very cool, you know, I I he just reminded
me of how large that set truly was. Because you're
we're we were used to it. So it didn't. It
didn't intimidate us, and it didn't. We were just kind
of delighted by it, used to it and that's that's
(12:22):
our office, and this is But we had more real estate.
We had the entire back lot at Warner Brothers. We
had three sound stages, we and we kind of we
we had more real estate dedicated to Gimmore Girls and
any other production, even films. Absolutely, we didn't walk around
feeling like we were the kings of the studio by
(12:42):
any stretch of the imagination. But now you make me
realize as kind of a newbie coming into this situation,
seeing this scope and the size of this and the
detail of these sets and all the real estate, it
must have been really impactful. It's been really something for you.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yeah, absolutely, because I think even now as somebody that's
done a lot more work since then, Like, there's no
way any TV show would have that on a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
That would be like a location shoot or.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Something, right, I mean, like, but if you go back
and watch Gilmore Girls, you guys have a lot. Always
had a lot of stuff that seemed like it should
be on location, but it was just that huge set.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Well, yeah, we certainly were able to save while the
producers were able to Warner Bros. Were able to save
a ton of money just having a dedicated space like
that for sure, because going on location and do all
that stuff is you know, you double that budget. Was
there a point in your career, in your business career
(13:45):
that you said, I can't do this anymore? I mean,
obviously it did happen, but would tell us take us
through that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Well, you know, I graduated college of ninety seven when
it was like right on the cusp of the huge boom,
So it was like, you know what kids are going
through these days in terms of trying to find a job.
It was unheard of, Like there was all these job
fairs at college, and you pretty much had three or
four job offers coming out of school. Everybody that I
(14:16):
knew did. And so I took that route and kind
of went the tech tech route and jumped around a
couple of different places. Lived in Dallas for a little bit,
in San Francisco, but by the time I'd made it
back to Los Angeles, which is where I'm from, I
was working for a company in Pasadena and also living
just down the street in Pasadena, and I remember the
(14:41):
five minute commute to work just being the most miserable time,
like just just trekking down the street, going like, man,
what am I doing?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Like this?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I'm just gonna go sit there on this desk for
nine hours and it's going to suck, right, And I remember,
and I think the blessing that ended up happening is
that that job or that company ended up kind of
the investors pulled their funding and so the company just
went belly up, and so I basically had to figure
(15:10):
something out of that point. And that's when I decided,
you know what, I'm going to take this time to
really figure out what I want to do, and landed.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
On given acting a go and and so and here
I am, And so.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
What did you do?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You got into an acting class?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I did you know? I first I moved. I moved
to Spain for a little bit just to clear my head.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I you know, I was single at the time, interesting,
and I took some of the severance money and I
just like moved moved to Barcelona for like six months.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And during that time, I just kind of I didn't
do anything. I really just like read.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Books and listened to music and travel around Europe for
a little bit and came back thinking, you know what,
I'm going to give this a go. And so I
went into an on camera acting class and just started
grinding from there.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Nice. So do you was there an actual moment that
you read call that sparked this desire to change careers
or was it just the sort of the sum total
of the boredom and the lack of passion And yeah,
I think it was going into the office gun.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, I think it was just a cumulative effect, you know.
And I was a child of the eighties, and I
grew up just kind of I was a latchkey kid,
and I watched a ton of TV, and I was
always fascinated by TV. And I remember people ask me
all the time, like, what, you had nothing in your
history that says that you would become an actor, Like
(16:33):
I didn't do theater growing upup. I didn't do any
of those things, you know. I kind of I was
more of a jock. I played baseball, football like and
but I do remember as a kid, I watched a
ton of TV and I just would get lost in
it and think, man, that would be a really cool
thing to do, right, And then many years later it
kind of caught up with me.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Was your family supportive? What was their reaction?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah, my mom was definitely. You know, my dad when
I was fairly young, and so it was just my
mom at the time, and my mom was always she's
never too high or too low, and she said, well,
do you know if you think this is what you
want to do, And she was always kind of skeptical,
and like I said, until I started to appear on
her TV a little bit more, I think she was
(17:18):
definitely thinking maybe it was a phase or something like that.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
But yeah, she's definitely been very supportive.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Right, right, What positions did you play in baseball?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
I was kind of a utility guy my senior year
in high school. I caught and played outfield and played
a little bit of third base.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Gotcha, Yeah, I know you're a baseball player too, right,
I was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes, so difficult, the difficult profession to earn a living in.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, unless your name is shoey Otani.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
And then.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Tell us what you're working on now.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Well, since the.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Strike ended, it has been lots of audition requests coming in,
which is good, but it's also like I was talking
with my wife before and I said, man, I kind
of was hoping that this would go through the holiday
season so I could have like a peaceful December.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
But as soon as that strike ended, it was like, oh,
can you take for this? Can you take for that?
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Which is all good problems to have, but I did.
I worked on a I did a few days on
a feature film last year about this time, and just
found out that it got into Sundance.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
So that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Oh nice, So you're going to go to Sundance and
support the film.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I doubt it. I didn't have that big a part
in it, but I will support it from afar.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Well, at least you're there. I mean, yeah, that's something
that's that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Yeah, it's a it's a fun little It was a
fun little movie called Thelma and June Squib, who's like
ninety something, was the lead in it. It was a cool,
really fun script written about an elderly person that gets
scammed by one of these internet scammers. But she decides
that she's going to get back what she lost, so
(19:05):
she like becomes like a little bit of a vigilante
and goes after these people.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yes, it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Wow, what's the name of that again, we'll look out
for what.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Is it's a movie called Thelma. Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Okay, we're gonna do a little thing called rapid Fire. Not.
You don't necessarily have to be quick with your answers. Okay,
I don't want to trigger your Gilmore anxiety here? How
(19:38):
do you like your coffee?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
If I'm drinking coffee, it's gonna be probably just black.
I'm not a huge coffee guy, but more of a
diet coke guy.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Are you Team Logan, Team Jess or Team Dean?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
My wife told me if if anybody asked me that,
I got to say team Logan.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
There you go, smart woman. We like Logan a lot
over well, we like them all, but we really like Loagan.
Who's your favorite? The Gilmour girls couple, Luke and LARELEI
or Emily and Richard?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Oh, Luke and Laurel I thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Would you rather work with Michelle or Kirk?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I think I'm gonna have to say Kirk because he's
his buddy. He's we'd have we'd have a blast.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, that's right, there you go. What would you I
see Sean a lot on the convention circuit. I just
saw him, you know, a week ago.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I saw him like three weeks ago at a party,
I think, and he's doing great.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah. What would you order at Luke's Diner?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Oh, I'm just gonna do an omelet.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I'm gonna do a kind of an omelet with Chrispy
ash Brown's on the side.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
You got it, buddy, coming right up. Would you rather
hang out with Paris or Lane? I think we know
the answer to this question.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Lane.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, Paris, she's too much get It's like getting the
bomb sheld then inviter he over, Yes, yeah, Harvard or Yale?
Or drop out and live in a poolhouse.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
I think the Koreane Mey's gonna have to go with
Ivy League and let's go with Yale.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Good choice. Would you rather attend a dar event with
Emily or a town meeting with Taylor?
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I always found the town meetings to be kind of
fun and quirking, So I'm gonna go with the town meeting.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Alrighty uh Gilmore Girls. Character that you would want as
a roommate, I.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Don't know about this one. I'm gonna have maybe you
know what, not the actor, the character, Yeah, the character,
m hm. I bet no, I'm gonna go with logan
like that guy's loaded, he's got money.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
There you go, no one in style now yeah, going
on the private jet. Something in your life you are.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
All in on. I am all always all in on
Dodger Baseball.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I'm a huge Then you're then you're in heaven right now.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling pretty good right now.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Uh, Chase Kim, pleasure to talk to you, get to
know you a little bit. We enjoyed your work on
the episode, and best of luck to you, and look
out for Thelma the Sundance Film Festival debut. Uh and
hopefully if they get a deal, which sounds like they might,
in your local theaters. Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
All the best, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Pleasure, hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram
(23:03):
at I Am All In podcast and email us at
Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com
I Am all In.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You, I Am all In with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hey Everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast, Want
of Production, iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart Podcast. One on
one interview with mister Chase Kim. He was in one
episode of the show. He played Lane's uncle Joe in
just like Gwen and Gavin. He was born in Los
Angeles and raised in other countries as well. He initially
(00:45):
chose to pursue a career in business and graduated from
University of California, San Diego with a BA in History
and political Science in nineteen ninety seven. However, after spending
more than six years at his job in San Francisco,
New York, Dallas, in Chicago, Chase decided to switch careers
and became an actor and Steady debuted in two thousand
(01:05):
and three in an uncredited guest star role as a
Korean handler in the series The West Wing, and went
on to be cast in dozens of other roles since then.
His roles included Criminal Minds, Magnum p I, Hawaii Five O,
Ritzolian Isles, and Bosh, Let's bring Him in Here. He
is Chase Kim Chase. How you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'm great. How are you, Scott?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Good? Good good, Nice to meet you and thanks thanks
for coming on. First off, how'd you get your role
on Gilmore Girls?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Well, it was pretty much the very standard auditioning process.
This was pretty early in my career, so I started
acting kind of a little bit later in my life.
I think I was in my late twenties at the time,
and this was pretty much one of my kind of.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
First TV roles and I just audition.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I had to pre read with probably fifty other guys,
guys that kind of looked like me, and then I
got the call back and went to the bungalow over
there at Warner Brothers. And the funny story about that
audition is that I was getting ready to go in
and Mara Casey, who is who was one of the
(02:17):
casting directors on the show, came out before I read
and pulled me aside and said, Hey, everybody really loved
what you did on the in the first call, but
you need to talk faster. And I said, okay, I'd
never gotten a note like that before, and she just said, no,
(02:38):
you just have to fly through the words like no pausing,
You just have to talk faster, and I remember thinking, man,
that's a really odd note to give to an actor
that's about to go into an audition, But I tried
my best to kind of speed through it and and
I got the call that had gotten the role, So
that was pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Was that one of your first gigs that you booked.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I want to say that was probably like my second
or third TV gig that I'd booked, but it was
definitely like the biggest one that it was the first
one that had a name for sure, right, because all
the other ones were like just like a description of
a character, like cop Number one or something like that,
and this was the first character that had an actual name.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And had Were you familiar with the show? How had
you been aware of the show?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I definitely was aware. I was.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I don't I wouldn't call myself a fan of the
show going in, but I knew the show and I
knew that it was kind of a big deal at
the time, and I had pretty big viewership, so I
was definitely excited for the part.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
How did your family react when you told them that
you booked, Because I know you came from the business
world and into acting late A little later in life,
I did the same thing. Actually, yeah, And how did
your parents react to that or your siblings or siblings?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
You know, it's funny because in the Lane Scare Lane
her Keiko's character on the show being Korean and all that,
and my family is definitely very stereotypically Korean, and my
mom is like very stoic, and even at that point,
she probably wasn't all that supportive of me being an actor.
She was probably just like ah, But when she started
(04:17):
to see me more and more actually on TV than
she started to kind of accept it. But to this day,
like Korean moms are not very easy with the compliments,
so it's like maybe like a knowing nod and a
wry smile or something like that, but nothing outwardly like
she was proud of me or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know. Staying on that subject, how did you feel
that Koreans were depicted in Gilmore Girls? Did you were
you ever at all offended by stereotypes or did you
think it was a pretty accurate depiction. No.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I thought it was definitely a very accurate depiction. I
thought the relationship between the mom and the daughter I
thought was depicted very accurately in a sense that there
was obviously the underlying life and everything, but she was
very hard on the daughter, and the daughter didn't really
understand the mom very well. And I think that kind
of cultural gap for the first generation Korean Americans definitely exists.
(05:11):
So I thought it was done very accurately. And I
found the wedding episode to be very humorous because it's
very accurate, like they go to the ceremony and they
all basically just eat and they want to go home.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I was particularly moved when Lane was back in the
house after living with the band, back with her mom
and they had that and Lane stood up for herself
in a very vocal way on the staircase, and then
the mother said, Lane, come down here right now, and
(05:46):
they shared some ceremonial drink. And is that part of
your culture?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, I think the drinking.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
There's a heavy drinking culture in Korean and the Korean culture, I.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Mean that particular ceremony is that is did that, Sarah?
Because we speculated on what that really meant because that
just happened a couple episodes ago. Okay, so was A
what what were they drinking? And B was that a
rite of passage? Was that a ritual that that families,
(06:21):
Korean families do once their children they feel their children
have become grown ups.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, well, I don't think there's like an official thing,
but what they were drinking is probably more than ninety
nine percent sure. It was probably so ju, which is
like a rice wine, okay, and it's kind of like vodka.
A lot of times in this day and age day,
places that don't have a full liquor license will use
sod you to make like.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Cocktails and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
And then but there is definitely a time when it
becomes acceptable to like drink around your parents.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
And it's like when.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
You're young, it's kind of not looked upon favorably, but
like when you become an adult, I think you definitely
are able to kind of show that side of yourself.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
No very moving scene. That's one of my that's my
favorite Lane and Missus Kim scenes. And there are a
lot to choose from. Yeah, so Stars Hall, it was
all dressed up for the Winter Carnival for your day?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yes, absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
How did that feel when you walked onto the set?
It's pretty impressive, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I mean the way they go all out obviously, like
you know, there was snow on the ground, and it
actually was pretty. It was I want to say, it
was like right around this time of year when we shot,
and it was at night, and I remember being unseasonably
cold for California and so being out there and you
can see your breath, and so it really felt real.
Because I know I've talked to people that have been
(07:51):
on the show when it was supposed to be winter
and you're in coats and it's like eighty degrees out.
I'm sure you had to do it as well, where
it's like it doesn't feel real because it's so high outside.
But on the night the Knights that I shot, it
felt totally real.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So we were we were discussing the scene. We were
discussing the scene with you and Zach at the bottle toss. Yeah,
he says that line, welcome to the s h yes,
bio technic itch Yeah, okay, we'll just say that I
can't say the word okay, And we know that that
(08:31):
is a callback to the series ec Did you know
right away what that reference was?
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I did, I mean, but it was funny because that
scene itself played out kind of funny because you know,
I'm supposed to be playing it like I don't know
what I'm doing and I don't want to be embarrassed,
and I just go out there and I'm like softly
tossing at the balls and he here he comes, just
like firing the balls at the bottles, and the balls
were flying all over the place on the day, and
(08:57):
it was like, and I think there was a little
bit of when Sally Strether's character is like, oh, you're
gonna hit the girls, you know, at the dime toss
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
There was a little bit of that because he was
firing him pretty hard and.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, he looked like he's got a good army.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
They were bouncing all over the place, so it was
kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, and uh and coincidentally, he had a role on
The OC for three episodes and was that booked around
the same time you appeared on Gilmore.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
I booked the OC after that, so I want to
say it was like the next maybe towards the beginning
of the next year. I booked the OC, but I
was actually supposed to be in the wedding episode of Gilmore,
but there was a scheduling conflict with the OC and
I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Do it right.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, which which whose wedding? Which wedding?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Uh for a Lane's wedding.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Oh Lane's wedding gotchah.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
So I was supposed to.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Be one of the career Yeah, the Korean family members
coming back to the wedding, And I doubt I had
a whole bunch to do at that episod, But I
certainly wanted to do it because, like I said, it
was still pretty early on in my career and you're
trying to eat as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
What was it like working with Keiko?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And it was great.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
You know, she is such a such a just a
kind nice person in general. And subsequently we've become friendly
through other friends. I became really good friends with Sean Gunn,
who obviously plays Kirk and and so we'd meet at
his house for gatherings and stuff, and we you know,
became very friendly afterwards. But she was so nice to
(10:38):
work with, and like I said, I was still very green,
so I was like, you know, just trying to not
get anything wrong. When I was on set, I was
just kind of like, all right, I just want to
make sure I don't mess up.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I don't want to, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
So it was definitely you know, I would treat it
a lot differently, you know, if I was on a
show like that today.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Right, So Zach called you the Korean Brad Pitt, which
is like, yeah, I would say that's a compliment.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
There's two little references.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I think there's a reference to George Clooney and there's
a reference to Brad Pitt.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Wow. So you basically covered all the bases there for
Oceans the Oceans films exactly. What's your favorite memory from
being on the set?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You know?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
I mean the absolute favor is just getting that call
from my agent that I had booked it, obviously, but
then being on the set I do remember because Starzola
was like set up for the carnival. I just remember
walking out of my trailer after getting dressed and just
like feeling the kind of grandness of it all right.
And like I said, it was still early on in
(11:52):
my career, so I was excited to be there to
begin with. But then you walk out and there's actually
like a full on carnival scene going on.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Was very cool, you know, I I he just reminded
me of how large that set truly was. Because you're
we're we were used to it. So it didn't. It
didn't intimidate us, and it didn't. We were just kind
of delighted by it, used to it and that's that's
(12:22):
our office, and this is But we had more real estate.
We had the entire back lot at Warner Brothers. We
had three sound stages, we and we kind of we
we had more real estate dedicated to Gimmore Girls and
any other production, even films. Absolutely, we didn't walk around
feeling like we were the kings of the studio by
(12:42):
any stretch of the imagination. But now you make me
realize as kind of a newbie coming into this situation,
seeing this scope and the size of this and the
detail of these sets and all the real estate, it
must have been really impactful. It's been really something for you.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yeah, absolutely, because I think even now as somebody that's
done a lot more work since then, Like, there's no
way any TV show would have that on a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
That would be like a location shoot or.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Something, right, I mean, like, but if you go back
and watch Gilmore Girls, you guys have a lot. Always
had a lot of stuff that seemed like it should
be on location, but it was just that huge set.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Well, yeah, we certainly were able to save while the
producers were able to Warner Bros. Were able to save
a ton of money just having a dedicated space like
that for sure, because going on location and do all
that stuff is you know, you double that budget. Was
there a point in your career, in your business career
(13:45):
that you said, I can't do this anymore? I mean,
obviously it did happen, but would tell us take us
through that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Well, you know, I graduated college of ninety seven when
it was like right on the cusp of the huge boom,
So it was like, you know what kids are going
through these days in terms of trying to find a job.
It was unheard of, Like there was all these job
fairs at college, and you pretty much had three or
four job offers coming out of school. Everybody that I
(14:16):
knew did. And so I took that route and kind
of went the tech tech route and jumped around a
couple of different places. Lived in Dallas for a little bit,
in San Francisco, but by the time I'd made it
back to Los Angeles, which is where I'm from, I
was working for a company in Pasadena and also living
just down the street in Pasadena, and I remember the
(14:41):
five minute commute to work just being the most miserable time,
like just just trekking down the street, going like, man,
what am I doing?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Like this?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I'm just gonna go sit there on this desk for
nine hours and it's going to suck, right, And I remember,
and I think the blessing that ended up happening is
that that job or that company ended up kind of
the investors pulled their funding and so the company just
went belly up, and so I basically had to figure
(15:10):
something out of that point. And that's when I decided,
you know what, I'm going to take this time to
really figure out what I want to do, and landed.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
On given acting a go and and so and here
I am, And so.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
What did you do?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
You got into an acting class?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I did you know? I first I moved. I moved
to Spain for a little bit just to clear my head.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I you know, I was single at the time, interesting,
and I took some of the severance money and I
just like moved moved to Barcelona for like six months.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And during that time, I just kind of I didn't
do anything. I really just like read.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Books and listened to music and travel around Europe for
a little bit and came back thinking, you know what,
I'm going to give this a go. And so I
went into an on camera acting class and just started
grinding from there.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Nice. So do you was there an actual moment that
you read call that sparked this desire to change careers
or was it just the sort of the sum total
of the boredom and the lack of passion And yeah,
I think it was going into the office gun.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, I think it was just a cumulative effect, you know.
And I was a child of the eighties, and I
grew up just kind of I was a latchkey kid,
and I watched a ton of TV, and I was
always fascinated by TV. And I remember people ask me
all the time, like, what, you had nothing in your
history that says that you would become an actor, Like
(16:33):
I didn't do theater growing upup. I didn't do any
of those things, you know. I kind of I was
more of a jock. I played baseball, football like and
but I do remember as a kid, I watched a
ton of TV and I just would get lost in
it and think, man, that would be a really cool
thing to do, right, And then many years later it
kind of caught up with me.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Was your family supportive? What was their reaction?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah, my mom was definitely. You know, my dad when
I was fairly young, and so it was just my
mom at the time, and my mom was always she's
never too high or too low, and she said, well,
do you know if you think this is what you
want to do, And she was always kind of skeptical,
and like I said, until I started to appear on
her TV a little bit more, I think she was
(17:18):
definitely thinking maybe it was a phase or something like that.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
But yeah, she's definitely been very supportive.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Right, right, What positions did you play in baseball?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
I was kind of a utility guy my senior year
in high school. I caught and played outfield and played
a little bit of third base.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Gotcha, Yeah, I know you're a baseball player too, right,
I was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes, so difficult, the difficult profession to earn a living in.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, unless your name is shoey Otani.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
And then.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Tell us what you're working on now.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Well, since the.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Strike ended, it has been lots of audition requests coming in,
which is good, but it's also like I was talking
with my wife before and I said, man, I kind
of was hoping that this would go through the holiday
season so I could have like a peaceful December.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
But as soon as that strike ended, it was like, oh,
can you take for this? Can you take for that?
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Which is all good problems to have, but I did.
I worked on a I did a few days on
a feature film last year about this time, and just
found out that it got into Sundance.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
So that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Oh nice, So you're going to go to Sundance and
support the film.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I doubt it. I didn't have that big a part
in it, but I will support it from afar.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Well, at least you're there. I mean, yeah, that's something
that's that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Yeah, it's a it's a fun little It was a
fun little movie called Thelma and June Squib, who's like
ninety something, was the lead in it. It was a cool,
really fun script written about an elderly person that gets
scammed by one of these internet scammers. But she decides
that she's going to get back what she lost, so
(19:05):
she like becomes like a little bit of a vigilante
and goes after these people.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yes, it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Wow, what's the name of that again, we'll look out
for what.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Is it's a movie called Thelma. Yep.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Okay, we're gonna do a little thing called rapid Fire. Not.
You don't necessarily have to be quick with your answers. Okay,
I don't want to trigger your Gilmore anxiety here? How
(19:38):
do you like your coffee?
Speaker 4 (19:40):
If I'm drinking coffee, it's gonna be probably just black.
I'm not a huge coffee guy, but more of a
diet coke guy.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Are you Team Logan, Team Jess or Team Dean?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
My wife told me if if anybody asked me that,
I got to say team Logan.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
There you go, smart woman. We like Logan a lot
over well, we like them all, but we really like Loagan.
Who's your favorite? The Gilmour girls couple, Luke and LARELEI
or Emily and Richard?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Oh, Luke and Laurel I thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Would you rather work with Michelle or Kirk?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I think I'm gonna have to say Kirk because he's
his buddy. He's we'd have we'd have a blast.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, that's right, there you go. What would you I
see Sean a lot on the convention circuit. I just
saw him, you know, a week ago.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I saw him like three weeks ago at a party,
I think, and he's doing great.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah. What would you order at Luke's Diner?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Oh, I'm just gonna do an omelet.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I'm gonna do a kind of an omelet with Chrispy
ash Brown's on the side.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
You got it, buddy, coming right up. Would you rather
hang out with Paris or Lane? I think we know
the answer to this question.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Lane.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah, Paris, she's too much get It's like getting the
bomb sheld then inviter he over, Yes, yeah, Harvard or Yale?
Or drop out and live in a poolhouse.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
I think the Koreane Mey's gonna have to go with
Ivy League and let's go with Yale.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Good choice. Would you rather attend a dar event with
Emily or a town meeting with Taylor?
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I always found the town meetings to be kind of
fun and quirking, So I'm gonna go with the town meeting.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Alrighty uh Gilmore Girls. Character that you would want as
a roommate, I.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Don't know about this one. I'm gonna have maybe you
know what, not the actor, the character, Yeah, the character,
m hm. I bet no, I'm gonna go with logan
like that guy's loaded, he's got money.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
There you go, no one in style now yeah, going
on the private jet. Something in your life you are.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
All in on. I am all always all in on
Dodger Baseball.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I'm a huge Then you're then you're in heaven right now.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling pretty good right now.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Uh, Chase Kim, pleasure to talk to you, get to
know you a little bit. We enjoyed your work on
the episode, and best of luck to you, and look
out for Thelma the Sundance Film Festival debut. Uh and
hopefully if they get a deal, which sounds like they might,
in your local theaters. Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
All the best, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Pleasure, hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram
(23:03):
at I Am All In podcast and email us at
Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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