This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Tonya Pinkins: Welcome back. I'm Tonya Pinkins, and I'm talking with Peter Kim, star of Hackers and the upcoming Forty-Year-Old Version.

[0:25] Peter Kim: Have you been to Korea? Um, yeah, I actually went back last summer for the first time in like 19 years. I had not been back in so, so long. Um, and it is crazy, it is so different now. It's like we went to a few different places. Um, but in Seoul, I was kind of shocked that like you can go anywhere and speak English, and kind of everybody speaks English. That was not the case, you know, in 2000 when I was there.

[0:56] Tonya Pinkins: Okay.

[0:56] Peter Kim: Um, but it's a weird thing being Korean American going back to Korea. Um, my Korean is not great.

[1:02] Tonya Pinkins: Um, Shane?

[1:06] Peter Kim: Yeah, no, really, really, really, really, really. And it was interesting because when I went to Korea last summer, that was the first time where I didn't feel that shame because I think everyone spoke English. And now like the tourism is so, um, big in Korea. And I think they're just more accustomed to Korean Americans, you know, that don't speak Korean great or whatever. And there was no one like blinked an eye about it.

[1:31] Tonya Pinkins: Okay.

[1:32] Peter Kim: Or also that maybe they thought I was Japanese or, uh, you know, really do people think you're Japanese?

[1:37] Tonya Pinkins: I yes, I've got thought you were Chinese because of Kim.

[1:40] Peter Kim: Oh, yeah, no, Kim is actually, uh, pretty, pretty common Korean last name.

[1:45] Tonya Pinkins: Okay.

[1:45] Peter Kim: Um, it's probably like 99% sure. If someone's last name is Kim, they're Korean.

[1:50] Tonya Pinkins: 99% more than Chinese?

[1:52] Peter Kim: So Kim is a Korean name.

[1:55] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[1:55] Peter Kim: Okay. I think like Lee.

[1:57] Tonya Pinkins: Lee is Chinese.

[1:58] Peter Kim: Lee can be Chinese or Korean.

[2:00] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[2:00] Peter Kim: That you'd find it on, especially if they spell it L-I.

[2:03] Tonya Pinkins: That's definitely more Chinese than L-E-E.

[2:05] Peter Kim: Okay. L-E could be Korean, could be Chinese.

[2:08] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[2:08] Peter Kim: Okay. I'm very schatological.

[2:11] Tonya Pinkins: Tell me about the Koreans and poop.

[2:14] Peter Kim: Um, Koreans and poop.

[2:17] Tonya Pinkins: Yes.

[2:17] Peter Kim: There's a whole poop culture. Poop stores and poop food and poop containers.

[2:23] Tonya Pinkins: I you tell me.

[2:25] Peter Kim: I don't know about the poop culture.

[2:26] Tonya Pinkins: You don't know about Korean poop culture? Are you kidding me?

[2:29] Peter Kim: No, I'm not.

[2:29] Tonya Pinkins: Oh my god. There's like stores in Korea where they like make everything in little poop containers. And there's like a, um, there's a whole park where everything is in the shape of big turds.

[2:40] Peter Kim: You mean like the poop emoji?

[2:43] Tonya Pinkins: Beyond the poop emoji, there's a park and there's restaurants and stuff.

[2:46] Peter Kim: No.

[2:47] Tonya Pinkins: You really didn't know about this?

[2:49] Peter Kim: No, I, oh my God. See, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna mess up all the sound right now. Maybe Bea can pull it up because I'm on airplay.

[2:56] Tonya Pinkins: Okay, okay. But oh, so you don't know about it. I'm very schatological things, and so that's another reason why the Koreans are very dear to my God, that is crazy.

[3:09] Peter Kim: Yes, see, I'm introducing you to your own culture.

[3:12] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, yeah.

[3:13] Peter Kim: Introduce me to the poop.

[3:15] Tonya Pinkins: They are showing you my God.

[3:18] Peter Kim: Yeah, it's a boom group themed coffee shop.

[3:21] Tonya Pinkins: No.

[3:22] Peter Kim: Yes.

[3:22] Tonya Pinkins: I am not.

[3:23] Peter Kim: Oh my god, that's a little toilet teacup.

[3:27] Tonya Pinkins: Yes!

[3:28] Peter Kim: No.

[3:28] Tonya Pinkins: It's a whole thing.

[3:29] Peter Kim: I'm not American. I'm not, I'm not having that. I'm not. I'm really uncomfortable with that. I'm a little bit embarrassed by my people.

[3:38] Peter Kim: Um, yeah.

[3:40] Tonya Pinkins: Wait, I would do want to talk about Parasite though.

[3:43] Peter Kim: Yeah, let's do it.

[3:44] Tonya Pinkins: No, let's talk about it. That has been kind of like on social media that I actually think is really kind of which is so, you know, people are like, oh Parasite, like are you excited, you know, for Asian representation to increase because of the movie and stuff. And then, you know, Parasite is supposed to be made into an HBO series and they're with white people.

[4:02] Peter Kim: Yeah, and you know, but the thing is, and the thing is people like I think, um, I'm, I'm, I have all the praise in the world for Parasite and everything that's wonderful that's happening for it, but I, I don't think it's gonna necessarily help Asian Americans um in the biz. I mean, I think because you know, like he's making this remake of the movie with, oh, he's doing the American version?

[4:29] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[4:30] Peter Kim: He and, um, his main producer are, and who are Korean are behind it, you know. And so I think it's like, well get the money.

[4:39] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, or like a ma for them, like Americans don't, they're not thinking about Korean Americans as, um, as Americans or Asian Americans as Americans. They're thinking of people who don't look like them as Americans.

[4:51] Peter Kim: And I'm not saying that's good or bad or whatever, but I'm just saying like that's not like being Korean is different than being Korean American. Being Asian is different than being Asian American.

[5:01] Tonya Pinkins: And so, you know, I in a weird way I feel like as an Asian American performer, like we're in this weird in between. Like we're not Asian enough to be in the Asian movies, and then we're not white, so we can't be in the mainstream stuff.

[5:14] Peter Kim: Um, and even with like, uh, yeah, so I, I, I I'm like I'm happy for, for, for Parasite and for Korean film and all that.

[5:24] Tonya Pinkins: Of course.

[5:25] Peter Kim: But it's, I don't know, I don't think it's, it's a direct translate.

[5:29] Tonya Pinkins: Agreed. And I will say that one of my, the what my entree going deep into Korean um filmmaking and storytelling was that I watched a series, I don't even remember what it was called, it was so terrible, with Paula Patton, and uh it was terrible. It was about a mother who was, uh, a producer on a television show, and she, her news was tracking a serial killer, and the serial killer gets her kid and kills it. And the kid was like the bad seed, and she was the saint mother.

[5:59] Peter Kim: And I was like, Did she like I went to look it up and I was like, Did she executive produce this piece of crap? And when I looked it up, it turned out it was a, it was a South Korean series called, uh, translation God's Gift 14 Days. A spectacular series.

[6:17] Peter Kim: Um, the child is the saint and the mother's a little irresponsible. And it was like this woman was giving Oscar award-winning performances, and so I can't see Parasite doing that because Americans we always sanitize everything and make everybody so nicey, smiley, have a nice day, good.

[6:34] Tonya Pinkins: I have no desire to see an American version of Parasite. It was perfect. Why would we want to try to do anything else with it?

[6:39] Peter Kim: Yeah, it was, it was a masterpiece.

[6:41] Tonya Pinkins: It was a masterpiece.

[6:43] Peter Kim: Yeah.

[6:43] Tonya Pinkins: Masterpiece.

[6:44] Peter Kim: Yeah. Now, something else that we share that you might not even know we share.

[6:49] Tonya Pinkins: Oh.

[6:50] Peter Kim: It's Thoroughly Modern Millie.

[6:52] Tonya Pinkins: I did. Oh, I didn't know you did that show.

[6:58] Peter Kim: I did. I did it before it came to Broadway.

[7:00] Tonya Pinkins: Crazy.

[7:01] Peter Kim: Yeah. And I, um, heard you somewhere talking about, you know, the challenge for you of playing a Chinese person when you're a Korean person. And I was thinking a lot about that because, you know, we're actors, we want to be able to play anything, and certainly white actors get to play everything.

[7:17] Tonya Pinkins: Sure.

[7:18] Peter Kim: Um, but, um, and for me coming to New York, I was raised Catholic and we sing Latin, and I was always hired to sing gospel, which just for me was this sense of being inauthentic the whole early part of my career where people were asking me to sing in a way that I wasn't my culture.

[7:36] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, yeah.

[7:37] Peter Kim: I don't riff, I don't run, and I just felt fake, and I, and I knew 20 girls over there who could, who would looking at me and roll in their eyes, like what is she doing?

[7:46] Tonya Pinkins: Right.

[7:46] Peter Kim: Um, talk a little bit about, you know, that.

[7:48] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, I mean, yeah.

[7:50] Peter Kim: So I think, um, that particular situation was is, is, uh, pretty specific. So my, you know, I, I did Thoroughly Modern Millie. Uh, I booked it actually in my third year at grad school and so at Yale.

[8:05] Peter Kim: At Yale Drama. Um, so I, I was really psyched to have the gig. Um, so like a week after I found out that I got it, uh, they announced their closing. So I was like, oh great, I'm going into this Broadway show. And it's closing in like three months. Great.

[8:21] Tonya Pinkins: Um, so you know, I went in for it and I was comfortable going in for it, but now that time has passed and my experience of actually doing the show, um, I had a really hard time with the language.

[8:37] Peter Kim: And it's not that I'm Korean and that the character's Chinese, it's that I don't speak the language. And I feel like the language, since that's the, they sing and speak in Cantonese and Mandarin.

[8:51] Tonya Pinkins: Okay, so you did it before it came to Broadway.

[8:54] Peter Kim: Yeah. And I, I didn't like it before it came to Broadway, so I didn't even go see it on Broadway. So I didn't know they actually put the real language in because when I saw it, it was just this very offensive to me.

[9:04] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[9:05] Peter Kim: So they, and they built that around the actors that they, that originated the roles like Francis Ju and um, Ken Leong. Um, and so they, they built it around what they could speak actually if I'm recalling correctly.

[9:20] Tonya Pinkins: Right.

[9:20] Peter Kim: And so, you know, good for them that they got the original cast that could speak. Right. But when they got replacements, they ended up hiring two Korean Americans that did not speak the language.

[9:32] Tonya Pinkins: It's not that I'm Korean if I was cre if I'm, if I was of Asian descent and I could speak um Cantonese or Mandarin then like no problemo.

[9:41] Peter Kim: So I, I think I don't know why that that wasn't of the, that wasn't the priority in terms of casting that part. And I guess, uh, because ultimately when I was performing, I mean I learned it all phonetically and it was really, really challenging for me.

[9:58] Tonya Pinkins: So when I was doing the show for tourists who I'm sure were from China and me basically making doing the best I could but really not being comprehensible.

[10:10] Peter Kim: It's a tonal language.

[10:11] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, so and they're five feel horrible actually and so, um, you know, I know that they're doing a revival now or they're bringing it back for I think at Encores or something. And I think they're trying to address, you know, a lot of the kind of I guess what people are considering racial insensitivities and stuff around multiple characters.

[10:35] Peter Kim: Right. But, um, I just hope that whoever they cast Raban Fu and Ching Ho, if they are singing and speaking in Mandarin and Cantonese, that they have working knowledge of those languages.

[10:46] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[10:46] Peter Kim: And that was a personal thing for me. You know, I, I really wanted, I didn't have this awareness when I was auditioning for the job. Um, and I, you know, I, so I guess hindsight is 20/20.

[10:59] Peter Kim: Um let's talk about this awareness. Like I think a lot of young people today don't have a lot of awareness of a lot of historical things. So do we hold people responsible for doing things because they lack awareness, or do we go after them? I mean, I specifically I was looking at the protests of West Side Story. Oh, about the young man who, you know, he has apologized publicly and said, um, I made a mistake. I'm not that person anymore. And the person who he, you know, uh did something bad to has come out in his defense. So I'm like, who are all these other people to be defending somebody who's not asking to be defended? Right, right, right. Like what is that? I you know I'll say for myself, I don't know, it's tricky, right?

Um it is tricky, and there's no right or wrong. I'm a very different person now than I was 20 years ago. We would hope so, you know, and that um sure I've done things in the past that maybe I'm not the most proud of. Um I I don't know, maybe it's a generational thing, but I I do believe like we have to forgive, you know. Maybe we don't forget, but we have to forgive, especially if that per it's tricky because we want to make sure that whoever is apologizing is actually. Well, considering that he's like in a relationship with the person that he offended, supposedly, I I think that someone's forgiven. Right, you know, someone's forgiven them, but I feel like this American punitive culture that we have, you know, we we we we forget that we're all better than the worst thing, we're more than the worst thing that we've ever done.

[12:40] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[12:41] Peter Kim: And um, you know, how do we I think culturally we need to find more forgiveness, genuine forgiveness, not you know, pet this is the Bible forgiveness. Right, right. I think you know, I just want to jump back to thoroughly modern Millie. You know, the thing is I pe you know, fundamentally, like people within the Asian American theater community were upset at me for doing that part because they found the part offensive and you know, severe.

[13:11] Tonya Pinkins: At the time while you were doing it?

[13:12] Peter Kim: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I I had seen the show before auditioning for it, and I was like, ooh, they're walking this really fine line, but they were succeeding, in my opinion. Okay. And so uh I felt comfortable going in for something like that. And I and I think, you know, in hindsight, the language barrier was the thing that ultimately I am I have regrets about, but it's not for going in for the role, even though people would disagree with the. Like, what did they say to you about it? Like, what was the the goal?

[13:43] Tonya Pinkins: Well, that's just that people think like the roles are stereotypical, that they, you know, uh it's offensive because like the characters speak Chinese and they're um you know, they work in a laundry, blah, blah, blah.

[13:57] Peter Kim: Which is a historical yeah, you know, and you know, believe yes. Do we want other rep other depictions of people of Asian descent that isn't that is not of the foreigner, that is not of working in a laundromat. But I found that overall in the piece that they came out ahead, they both win at the end. So and they were both smarter and the guy gets one of them gets the girl. The other guy like, you know, wins. You know, he fools Mrs. Mears. So I guess that's to say to go back to the kind of like cancel culture that we exist in. That um, you know, things are not so like black or white.

[14:38] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[14:38] Peter Kim: Things are way more nuanced than people want to admit that people want to spend the time thinking about. Yeah. Like it's so easy just to make a decision about someone or something they said or did. But like it is complicated. There's there's so much more than what you just hear or read about in like a blip. And in deep fake culture we can't even know that it's you saying it I've been seeing all these things where people are taking people's headshots and animating the eyes and the mouths.

[15:06] Tonya Pinkins: What?

[15:06] Peter Kim: You haven't been seeing that on Instagram? Okay, well my Instagram I was looking at uh Rosa Parks head um police head thing where it's animated and her talking and um Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington people who are animating their headshots and it's creepy to me as fuck.

[15:29] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[15:29] Peter Kim: Yeah that's like I guess deep fake has become an app now and so anybody can do it to anybody. So then you can just have them saying whatever the hell you want to you could be speaking through their voice or you can put any kind of voice you want um on on a headshot. So you're just taking a headshot and animating it. That is frightening.

[15:48] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, we're there. We're there. Like, I mean, I knew Deep Fake was being used to take celebrities and politicians and use them on porn, but now it's just like on my Instagram feed. It's crazy. Um something else that I just wanted to chat about was, you know, um, so you like I was saying five years ago or so, like I kind of had this shift in my career and also my personal life and everything. And um, I don't know, not to be all like woo-woo about it, but I do believe that we bring certain projects into our lives for a certain reason. And and obviously it's we're meant to work on it for our own personality.

[16:27] Peter Kim: Yeah, yeah. And um, because I just want to talk about this movie that we were not do you think you know that was how we was gonna wrap it up. We were the second woman ever to win best director at Sundance. I know. So tell us about the 40-year-old version, Rada Blank's writing, directing debut. Who are you in this movie?

[16:47] Peter Kim: So I play Archie Choi. He is uh Rhada, the character. Uh Rada plays a version of Radha. Um, he is her childhood best friend who is also her agent. So kind of a complicated relationship. Um, but the movie is her agent before she becomes a rapper. Yes. Okay. Yeah, so the movie is about a struggling New York playwright who decides to become a rapper at 40. Um, so uh it's actually a love letter to New York and to New York theater, actually, as much as it kind of like, you know, uh makes some digs, you know.

[17:31] Tonya Pinkins: Well, you gotta make digs. That's where the human.

[17:36] Peter Kim: Okay. Um, but it is ultimately a love letter to New York, to theater, and to um to hip hop. Now you shot it on film in black and white. Tell us about what that how that changed the process because everything's on Alexa's and Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[17:53] Peter Kim: Yeah, I mean it was it was challenging because um you can only get so much like so much of a take in in in it before you have to like reload and stuff. Right. Um and it takes a while, not a while, but it does, it takes some time to like reload and like um so you it was interesting, it was kind of like theater in a way, like you kind and and Rhada likes to do long shots, she doesn't like to do coverage, and she just she likes to get it all in.

[18:21] Tonya Pinkins: She's shooting it in proscenium a wide and you all are she's blocked the action right and the camera is uh there's like a handheld quality to it, so it's like following you.

[18:30] Peter Kim: So it's like steady camp. Yeah. So um so you kind of when you were doing a take, and you know, you wanted to get it like on that take, like you kind of had to be on your a game and ready to do the whole thing, um, which was really fun. Cause then, you know, like as a theater actor, like that's that feels great. Cause sometimes when you're working, like especially in television, I think, um, it feels so choppy, you know. You're like, okay, great, we got the white shot, now we're going medium, now we're gonna do close ups. And then so that pacing is very different.

[19:01] Tonya Pinkins: Right.

[19:01] Peter Kim: Um, and um it but it was good to know because like on my first day of shooting, um, I was like, we're doing the shot, and I was like, Oh, we're not doing any coverage. Because I was like, What are we doing coverage? Like, no, no, I don't like coverage. I'm like, oh, okay. And so we're, I was like, Great, okay. So that means like we're just taking these long shots and we can overlap and we can, you know, all of that. So that was Yeah, you know, so there's like a freedom there that sometimes you feel like you you you don't get when you're in television.

[19:31] Tonya Pinkins: But wait a minute, she's directing and she's in these long shots. How does she do that?

[19:34] Peter Kim: Well, she would frame up the shot. Okay. Um frame up the whole long blocked out shot that's gonna last for five minutes. Yep. She would frame it out, and then with a stand-in being her? Um yeah, she did have a stand-in, Tracy. Um, and then they had this thing, it's really cool. So even though they're shooting on film, there's a way to like get um playback. Yeah, on a digital monitor. Yeah, that's yes, okay. I don't know what it's called, but they were able to do that. So she would frame it up, see it, and then you know, watch playback, and then she would step in, do the take, okay, and then watch playback. Okay, and then we would move on.

[20:12] Tonya Pinkins: That had to move it a lot slower, though. She's having to watch playback every time.

[20:15] Peter Kim: Yeah, definitely, definitely. But as as the shoot went on, um, and like that uh dialogue between the DP, her, and her first AD, once that kind of like everyone found the rhythm, they had they understood understood what the vocabulary was, there was less of that. Like then it was just about her checking for making sure the frame was right what she wanted, and then we would just shoot.

[20:36] Tonya Pinkins: How many weeks was your shoot?

[20:37] Peter Kim: We shot the whole thing in 21 days.

[20:40] Tonya Pinkins: Nice, yeah.

[20:42] Peter Kim: And in New York, which is not easy to shoot in New York, it's hard. And um, it's a it's a really funny movie with like with so much heart. Um is this your first time at Sundance?

[20:57] Peter Kim: It was.

[20:58] Tonya Pinkins: How was that?

[20:58] Peter Kim: It was intense. Uh I was told it was gonna be a whirlwind, and it certainly was. Um, I will say, like it's the whitest place ever. It's the whitest place.

[21:07] Tonya Pinkins: It is very white.

[21:09] Peter Kim: I I I remember I remember talking to Michael, my husband was with me, he's also a white guy. He was there and I was like, it is so white here. Holy smokes. You definitely feel like you stick out, you know.

[21:23] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[21:24] Peter Kim: And you're like, the trans public transportation is free because it's only them here. It's like that Saturday night live thing where they're on the bus, and when the black guy gets on, everybody gets serious, and as soon as he leaves, they're serving champagne and stuff like that.

[21:36] Tonya Pinkins: I've been seeing that one.

[21:38] Peter Kim: It's great. I was like, that was made on that is hilarious. I mean, I will say uh I was, you know, it was great because I was I was like flown out and put up and all that because y'all, it is expensive to go there. I was looking before I knew I was being put up, I was looking at hotels.

[21:56] Peter Kim: $800 a night. Yes, not okay. An elite group of people. Yeah. So, uh, so thankfully I was brought out there. Um, but um, it's crazy. It was super fun. I was really grateful that I was with like a movie that I was really proud of and that I had such a big part in. But I can imagine it would be a really tricky place to navigate as an actor if you don't have a project in the festival, or if I don't know. I just kept on thinking, like, because I've been on that other side where like, was it FOMO? Um, where a fear of missing out, where there's a lot of FOMO where you're like, oh, that person's going to that party and I wasn't invited, or oh, they're getting their photo taken, but they don't want my photo taken.

So like, it's just you can't help but like that's the way the machine is built. So I mean, I luckily was like, you know, asked to do a lot of this stuff. But I have been to premieres where I've not been asked to be photographed and all that stuff. I didn't know it had a name. I mean, I'm just like, that's just life. You're not the hot one on this thing. For me, there, like, I knew I was there with the film, and the films were um, you know, they didn't have the money for $800 a night. So it was like they rented a house, and like 20 of us stayed in a house together. And um, yeah, I got I friend of mine was head of Gray Goose, and so I got to be on the list for the gray goose parties, all of them.

And the first one I went to, it was the most horrible experience. I took the stars of the film with me. Um, and uh, people just all night long kept saying, Oh, uh, the urban party is over there, the urban party film is over there, the urban film, and it was like, we're not there. And well, who are you now? And well, why are you here? And it was horrible. And I just was like, never again. I don't ever need to go back to this place again. That is not good. So I found the black house. Did you get to the black house later? The black house is like the safe zone. And it has been for many years now, right? Yeah, the black house at Sundance. One of our producers, um, is I don't I don't know if she's a she she's part of Blackhouse and organized.

What's that? Uh, Anuka Bacotti. Okay. She was one of the producers on the movie who uh she's a black woman. Um, great, and you know, so yeah, she was like, Yeah, black house. Like, that's where you go. That's like that's the spot. Now I guess here I hear macro is another macro is another next place to hang out new though. Yes. Um, and you know, there was like the annual LGBT, I think it's the annual Outfast Brunch. Oh, I don't know anything about it. Is uh I'm FOMO'd there. This is the first, I think this is the first year where they actually like we're in this new bigger space. Okay. Um, so that was also a traditionally a safe haven for the LGBTQ community when they go to Sundance. And then also with the Asian American um uh filmmakers and actors, there was uh uh an Asian American um panel and group, um, which apparently I couldn't get in because it was so sold out.

It was like so packed I couldn't get in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some special cred to get in the Asian American. I know I was like there. Um, but I was just I was like thrilled that I couldn't get in because I was like, great, that means there's just so many people here, you know. Yeah, so I feel like it's it is slowly changing, and you know I I will say like I was thrilled for Rada because she did win the best directing award for uh narrative feature and a Netflix deal when it's coming out of Netflix deal. Let's hope you get many more jobs, you know, from your mouth to God's yes, yes. Um, but the movie's coming out, we don't know when it's being released. I think in the fall sometime. That's what I read.

Yeah, and um, you know, it's so funny because Rhada and I um I believe in like you have to find the people who you have to find your people, right? And I and when I tell like a lot of young actors that are trying to like build their careers and stuff, I'm like uh I believe in the 80/20 rule. I don't know if you've heard of it. I do the principle. Yeah, so I'm like, you have to invest in the people that get you and the people who believe in you, and you and part of it part is finding those people because that takes a while, and then you know, 80% of the opportunities that you get will come from that 20% that you invest in. That 20% of your efforts uh give you 80% of your results. Yes, and so Radha, I think is a great example because I first met Radha like 10 years ago.

I was brought on to do dialect work for one of her plays. Okay. I don't even do dialect work. I don't I don't know how I got involved, but I was brought in. Um, and then um then a few years later, she passed me back to do dialect work again for her solo show, and we hit it off. We just always had a great like camaraderie, and she trusts my uh uh my opinion about things, not just like dialect wise, but just also like dramaturgy wise and stuff. And then this movie was supposed to be a web series. So six years ago, Rhada was like, Hey, I'm gonna make this web series. Do you would you there's a part that I'm thinking about you? Would you want to be in? I'm like, yeah. And then that fell apart because her mom passed away two weeks before we were supposed to shoot it.

And then two years ago, Rhada reached out to me and was like, Hey, remember that web series? Well, I made it into a feature. And now it got into the Sundance filmmakers lab. Do you want to go out there with me to shoot a few scenes and work on it? I'm like, hell yes. And so we hit it off, you know, there. We had such a great time, and then we got to make it last summer. Um how lovely that you got to stay with the project that it didn't go and let's be honest here, right? Because I can say whatever I yeah. So at Sundance, I at my last dance on this, I pulled Rada aside and I said, Listen, I love this movie, I love this part, but I totally get it if you have to recast with a name. Because I know how it works.

Like, yeah, you need John Cho in the part to get the movie made or whatever. And she said, even then, she was like, Nope, there's no one else. And and you know, like people say that shit. And they don't, yeah, you know. Then all of a sudden, John Cho's doing it. So, you know, uh really, really. I mean, let's be sure. Let's be honest. Yes, that's real. That is so real. So once, you know, Barrada was always in my corner, a hundred percent. And then, you know, we even when the movie was being passed around to different producers trying to get them financing, and finally, when we got the financing and I got the offer, it was that was it, you know. And talk about people, you know, like talk about people who um who are in your corner, you know.

Like, I would never have had this opportunity if it wasn't for her, like believing in me, believing in what we were like together, and all of that stuff. So it's a real um, yeah, like again, like this movie is really this experience is really special to me for for that reason, too, because as we know, in this industry, it it's not a meritocracy. They're all so talented. There's so many talented people. So many you could just throw a stone and hit some talent. Especially in New York, you know, like so it's not even about that, and that is the most heartbreaking thing about this business. Or one of the most things it is it's life. So we're gonna wrap up with three questions that come from one of your alums from Ann Hamburger, who also went to Yale.

Okay, and I love these questions, and so I'm gonna ask you. Um, she says she asks herself these questions, um, you know, at various points of her life as she's trying to figure out what's next. So I'm asking them to view. I'm gonna say all three, okay, and then you can answer them one at a time. Who are you? What is needed, and how can you serve?

[29:47] Peter Kim: Who am I? Um, I am a Korean American man who is gay who loves what he does and has so much more to learn. Um, what is needed? Kindness. A thousand percent. Kindness and generosity of spirit. It doesn't cost you anything. Um the last How can you serve? How can you serve? You serve. Meaning How can I serve? How can you serve? Uh how can meaning like How can I serve? Yes, how can I serve? Um I can serve uh by example.

[30:51] Peter Kim: Give us an example. Um I am a product of mentorship. I've had incredible mentors throughout my life and in my career, and I would not be who I am or where I am without them. And so I believe you must mentor. Um if someone asks you to meet for coffee, you meet them and you buy them their coffee. If you we have to. That's the only way pay it forward. Pay it forward. Pull somebody through the door when it's open for you. Yep. I think uh a great example is Lena Waith. She's she is doing it, she is doing it, and she is a producer on Rada's movie, and she literally made the movie happen. Yeah. She literally said to Rada, Rada, Will you help let me help you make this movie? Yeah. And she did it.

[31:41] Peter Kim: So pay it forward. Thank you, Peter Kim. Thank you. Thank you for coming and talking to me. I'm Tonya Pinkins, and that was my guest Peter Kim on You Can't SAY THAT. How come you don't say no when you mean no?

[31:58] Tonya Pinkins: Thanks for listening to You Can't SAY THAT, the show where you can. I'm Tonya Pinkins, and You Can't SAY THAT is part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Derek Gunther with music by Kat Dale. If you like what you hear, don't forget to subscribe and rate this podcast highly wherever you stream. Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at Tonya Pinkins. And to learn more, visit BPN dot F M forward slash Y C S T. Stay safe.