Daniel Dae Kim calls out ‘overcorrection’ in Asian nationality-specific casting

Daniel Dae Kim is sharing his nuanced thoughts on nationality-specific casting for Asian characters.

The Lost star discussed his observations and analysis of how Asian and Asian American actors are often held to more specific identity-based standards than performers from other cultures during a conversation with American Masters PBS.

“Right now, there’s a focus on nationality-specific casting when it comes to Asian Americans that I feel is an overcorrection,” Kim opined. “Very often, when we’re cast, if the role calls for a Korean American, they will not see a Japanese American or Chinese American or any other Asian nationality.”

Kim believes that creating nationality-specific barriers for actors is frequently unnecessary because characters’ nationalities are sometimes arbitrary. “There are very often times when the role itself has not been thought through,” he said. “It doesn’t require any kind of specificity in the story as it’s being told, or in the specifics of the character, because very often, it’s not even being 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.”

The actor noted that nationality-specific casting can sometimes be “important,” especially in instances when characters need “authentic language” or are depictions of actual people. But for roles that speak to the broader Asian American experience, Kim doesn’t think that casting directors need to narrow their search to one particular nationality.

“Anytime there’s a role that focuses, to me, on the American experience of being Asian — that’s something that no matter [if] you’re Korean, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, that’s something we all share in common as Asian Americans,” Kim said. “And we all know what it feels like to be othered. That’s a common experience. So to me, the nationality isn’t as important.”

Kim thinks that the increased focus on nationality-specific casting began with good intentions. “Originally, it was like, ‘Well, we can’t just consider them all as one,'” he remarked. “That’s true, but we need to be a little bit more sophisticated now about how we can open opportunities to actors.”

The Hawaii Five-0 star also finds it unusual that, in his estimation, Asian American actors’ nationalities are more hyper-specified than other actors’.

“Asian American actors are often specified by nationality when other ethnicities are not,” he said. “When African American actors are hired, very rarely are they asked, where is their country of ancestry? Whether you’re Botswanan or from the Ivory Coast, it’s not pertinent. Especially if you’re playing an American.”

Kim also called out the lack of attention paid to non-American actors playing American comic book characters.

“How many of our superheroes who are playing American are from other countries like Australia and England?” he asked. “And yet we don’t ever ask whether that’s important, relevant, and it doesn’t limit them from taking those roles.”

(Indeed, Brits Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson, Henry Cavill, Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, and Tom Hardy have all played prominent American superhero characters, with little-to-no objection to their casting.)

The actor also said that he put his philosophy into practice while casting Reina Hardesty as his Korean American character’s daughter in his new spy thriller series Butterfly.

“She’s Japanese American, and she’s mixed-race Japanese American,” he explained. “That was a deliberate choice on my part, because what the significant part of her character was is 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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Kim was recently nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his turn in Yellow Face. He discussed his boundary-breaking nomination during an interview with Entertainment Weekly in May.

“In my category, there’s been no Asian American who has been nominated for leading actor in a play in history. I am the first, and we have seven Asian Americans who are nominated, and it’s a watershed moment for our community,” he said. “Now, it’s an even more important time to speak truth to power and talk about the ways that art can say things that are beyond a textbook or a classroom. We can entertain, but also create understanding through the work that we do. And that’s why we as artists are so powerful.”