Ever since Daniel Dae Kim was in Lost, the actor has been a television mainstay. He recently made the jump to leading his own streaming show in the 2025 TV schedule with the new Prime Video action series, Butterfly. The 57-year-old actor has also pointed out one kind of role that he’s never had the chance to land despite it being a longtime “goal.”
When Kim spoke to NPR about his career, he got into his hopes to play a wider range of roles, including in one specific genre while talking about Asian representation in movies and TV. In his words:
We have made progress and when you see TV shows like Squid Game or Beef, we're seeing representation on a much more sophisticated level than we ever have, there are more actors of Asian descent who are working today than there ever have been — and so these are like unquestionable signs of progress that we have to note and appreciate. But I still haven't played a romantic lead and I've been doing this for 30 years. It's been a goal of mine since I started, but I just can't seem to get cast as someone who gets the girl.
During Kim’s career across the last three decades, he’s seen a lot of progress for Asian representation, pointing out how there are more actors with Asian backgrounds in TV shows than we’ve ever seen before, and name-dropping big TV shows like Squid Game and Beef as becoming huge successes while also featuring predominantly Asian talent and creatives. However, Kim is still waiting to get a call about playing a romantic lead in a Hollywood movie.
We’ve certainly seen more Asian leads in romantic movies lately, including Manny Jacinto being Lindsay Lohan’s leading man in Freakier Friday, Ali Wong and Randall Park in Netflix’s Always Be My Maybe, and Lana Condor in the To All The Boys trilogy. But when it is going to be Daniel Dae Kim’s turn? He also said this:
I really do think things have changed, for the positive. When you look at movies like Crazy Rich Asians and you see this idea of a romantic comedy that centers Asian Americans, it's something that could not have been done when I started my career. Just could not, I can't imagine any studio executive saying like, ‘That sounds like a moneymaker!’
Crazy Rich Asians was definitely a huge accomplishment for visibility for Asian Americans, since it was not only written and directed by Asian talent but also starred an Asian massive cast. It became a box office hit and is thought of as one of the best romantic comedies Hollywood has ever made.
Just this past weekend, the animated musical film KPop Demon Hunters, which stars a predominantly Asian voice cast (including Kim) and is written and co-directed by Maggie Kang, just earned the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office and has also become Netflix’s most-watched original ever. As the movie breaks all the records, it’s once again proof that there’s a massive audience for authentic stories by Asian filmmakers.
So, hey, it feels like it’ll be only a matter of time before Daniel Dae Kim gets his romantic lead moment. Goodness knows he’s already a heartthrob and deserves to break into the rom-com genre after all his action roles.
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