The actor built a career by picking his battles.
He still believes Hollywood can be reformed.
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Daniel Dae Kims career is a study in the steady accumulation of power.
(Kim developed it from a Korean drama.)
Its the very first time in television, and Ive been working in television for 31 years.
Thats a matter of perspective, too.
Theres one school of thought: Why did it take so long?
The other school of thought is its not a given for anybody.
[Laughs] I also played Torvald inA Dolls Housein New York when I was 23 or something.
If you dont have the opportunity, then youll forever be at a certain level.
But that also speaks to the pipeline of actors that were pursuing this career at the time.
So you probably had a second job that limited your ability to pursue your craft fully.
WhenLostpremiered in 2004, it was such a phenomenon with a huge ensemble cast.
Were you afraid of your character, Jin, dying early on?Constantly.
All of us were.
From what I understand, it was planned for me to be killed off in season one.
Through a lucky confluence of events, I was able to stay on and last the whole six seasons.
What saved you?There was a writer there named Monica Macer, whos a friend to this day.
She is African American and Korean American.
She lobbied for me.
How did the Korean dialogue come together?
Then I would learn it in Korean.
So that was generally the process.
I think it would be obvious to most Koreans watching if I didnt do that work.
They basically said, Trust us.
I did, and it turned out for the best.
As an Asian actor, youre just looking to get hired.
Its about working within the system to try and change it when you have the opportunity.
The character grew to a place where I dont think youd call him a stereotype by the end.
The greatest benefit of it all was that my Korean was never better.
The opportunity to be able to learn Korean on an American TV show is once in a lifetime.
So Im grateful for it.
I dont think you could question the positive effectLosthad on representation.
AfterLost, you signed on forHawaii Five-0.
Why did you decide to do that?
But my kids blissfully had never had to experience that.
But once you sign a contract, youre onboard.
In the way thatLosttransformed that helped my character, this didnt have the same trajectory.
Im not digging ditches.
So was it perfect?
But was it good enough?
Clearly, it was.
I asked for both of those things, and thats how I was able to start my company.
CBS was kind enough to give me a space on the lot and money for an executive.
It was drastic, and it was never made up.
So what was the goal at the negotiating table?Make us all equal.
And I didnt think that was an unreasonable position to take.
Not at all.And the thing is, it wasnt a source of conflict for me.
It was very clear and simple.
It became much more dramatic because of the way that it didnt come together.
Is it something you discussed with Grace Park, who left the show for similar reasons?
That said, I was transparent with Grace about my goals, and Grace had her own goals.
And in some ways they coincided with mine, and in some ways they didnt.
I think we need to talk about the good with the bad.
Still, I think it was meaningful to Asian actors in the industry that you and Grace walked away.
Would you say thats true?Yes.
I think that was definitely a part of the decision process.
We had the luxury of being able to say no.
So its hard for me to collectively say whether they were allies in this.
And I do know that the way things got spun by the end changed my relationships with them.
Thats a very diplomatic answer.
Can you be more specific?
[Shakes head] Ive spoken more about it here than I ever have, so … How did you cope with it?I tried to be very gregarious.
And I think there were some ways where I worked harder to prove myself as American by leading.
I was class president.
Im sure that had a lot to do with my finding a place to fit in.
Were the demographics mostly white?Yeah, its a heavily Eastern European population and very blue collar.
I made a lot of friends in the neighborhood, and we formed this posse that was fairly multicultural.
But in sixth grade, I moved to the next town over, which was Bethlehem.
And then I was an outsider and an Other, and my entire experience changed.
Nobody knew me, so I was easily labeled the chink.
Good at math, nerdy, not an athlete.
Those things had never applied to me before that point.
You think,Why am I not considered attractive?
I was used to apologizing, and this was the first time I never had to.
Its no coincidence that I met my wife there as well.
Wow, so how long have you been together?Since 1986.
What is that math?
Holy shit, thats 35 years.Yeah.
We got married in 1993.
And its always been my dream, literally since 1991.
I was struggling to find any work.
I think I made a total of $13,000 for the entire year living in New York City.
Im glad I didnt know because, had I known, maybe I wouldnt have continued to pursue it.
And its not that my company is necessarily about Asian Americans now.
Its really about all the people who exist in the margins and telling their stories.
How did you come acrossThe Good Doctor?
Everyone loves a good medical drama.
And so I felt like it was a bit of a unicorn.
We pitched it to CBS, where I had a first-look deal, and they passed.
Usually, in that circumstance, the project just dies, but I still believed in it.
And thats when showrunner David Shore came aboard and it [ended up at ABC].
How did the casting for the lead come about?
The first time we developed it, it was with an Asian lead.
And the second time, when Shore came aboard, we had a conversation about it.
And so he had to have a level of comfort with it.
And then the studio came in with Freddie Highmore, whom we both absolutely loved.
And so it shifted the focus to creating a diverse ensemble.
Can you talk about how those conversations went?It was 2017.
And when I go to a writer, I say, This is what it is.
I have ownership of the project only until a showrunner comes aboard.
And then, at that point, the power dynamic shifts.
And then when your lead actor comes aboard, the power dynamic shifts again.
And then when the ratings come, the power dynamic shifts again because theres a studio and connection involved.
The only time that, as a developer, I have real control is at the beginning.
And did you feel that was just not a hill you could die on at that point?Yeah.
I felt like we were so close to getting a show made, and ultimately that is the goal.
So that extends to being color conscious about your showrunner and I dont mean arbitrarily.
I mean, who contributes best to the authenticity of the story youre telling?
And let that race or gender or sexual orientation be reflected in those choices right off the top.
Are you producing dream projects that you want to act in yourself?Yeah.
In fact, theresa heist moviewere working on that Ill be acting in with Randall Park.
I hope its going to be an all-star Asian cast.
The tone is set from the top down.
Thats the kind of environment that I enjoy the best because Ive had plenty of the opposite.
Ive probably worked with more difficult lead actors than good lead actors.
Im talking about kindness and displaying leadership ability.
I remember working with Jimmy Smits on an episode ofNYPD Blue.
Understandably, he struggled, and he got frustrated.
I never faulted him for the situation he was in.
I remember that gesture even though it was 20 years ago.
Those are the stories I will tell till the cows come home because they inspire me to keep going.
It ignores the various levels of aggression that come before that.
So it is antiquated and outdated as a definition.
The judge said that.
Thats a false paradigm.
Politics is not my full-time job.
Advocacy is not my full-time job.
There are much smarter people than I who have dedicated themselves to these efforts full-time.
These attacks against Asian Americans shouldnt be a political issue.
These are human issues.
And that was March of 2020.
I thought the stakes needed to be raised somehow.
What we were doing wasnt good enough.
It wasnt good enough to bring attention to the subject.
And sure enough, there was a greater awareness that came about of Asian American hate.
So there was no reward, per se, to be paid out.
We each took that money for the reward and gave it to community organizations throughout the country.
I also made a donation toNextSharkbecause they were doing such great work journalistically.
You received criticism for calling for police involvement.
Im curious to hear what your thoughts are and if they have shifted at all around policing.
There are community organizations that believe in the need for alternative safety measures rather than introducing more cops.
I do believe that the police have a role to play.
What is the role of police, and how can we make policing effective?
Is the answer no police?
To me, Im not so sure.
At the same time, people shouldnt fear the police.
And the fact that they do says something negative about our society.
So it also touches on the issue of mental health.
A lot of the perpetrators are suffering from mental-health issues.
One has to ask, What are the policies that are leaving people like them on the streets?
What are the social services that are available or not available to them?
These are really nuanced questions, and youre right in that a reward isnt the be-all and end-all.
But it was something to spark the conversation.
That reward might have been a Band-Aid; its certainly not a cure for the systemic problem.
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