‘I get to die!’: Jean Yoon from Kim’s Convenience on new Netflix sci-fi role, her love for Yoko Ono and the show that left her filled with ‘immense pride’
- Jean Yoon, who played Umma in Asian-American show Kim’s Convenience, talks to the Post about her coming Netflix role on Code 8: Part II, Yoko Ono and more
- She reveals which series filled her with ‘immense pride’ and why ‘love got beaten out of’ Kim’s Convenience towards the end of the show’s run
Dying, in theatrical terms, is not every actor’s ambition. But for Jean Yoon, buying the farm was the biggest pull when it came to choosing her latest role – which in itself would not be what you would expect.
“I took the part because I get to die on screen!” says Yoon, laughing. “And it’s the way it happens – defiantly. But in one draft script that scene was cut, and I told Jeff, ‘You gotta put that back!’
“What was really fun for me, though, was playing a completely different character in a different genre – action.”
“The diversity is impressive and so satisfying, because everybody’s so good. As an actor of colour based in Toronto, that show fills me with immense pride.”
Korean-Canadian Yoon was Umma, matriarch of the corner store-owning Kim family: well-meaning, gently dysfunctional, culturally adrift and inadvertently hilarious. Yet her inextricable identification with the role began on stage, not screen, in a play of the same name.
“I did 322 performances,” says Yoon. “I’ve never done a play that many times; and I’m happy to report that I never got tired of performing it.
“I last did the play in 2017, during the TV run. That was weird, intense, block-shooting scenes from three or four episodes, all crushed into two weeks so Paul and I could take the play to New York,” she says. “Then the rest of the cast would do the scenes we weren’t in.”
Yoon reveals, “Ins really wanted the play to have a continued life,” which it has. He is now starring (as Appa) in a new version on the London stage. Despite its success, however, the television adaptation did not endure.
It might even have been rechristened Kim’s Controversy: before the final series, reports of an allegedly racist behind-the-scenes atmosphere surfaced, plus claims that a mostly white writers’ room was delivering scripts that rang false. Concurrently, Choi’s influence waned as another producer assumed leadership duties.
“I’m really proud of the work we did, the first couple of years on the TV show, especially,” says Yoon. “It’s unfortunate what happened and unfortunate that others involved were not generous enough to include the voices of the Asian artists whose story was being told.
“Because of stuff that happened between seasons four and five […] we were told Ins was running the show and it definitely felt better with him at the head. But it was chaotic: a bunch of big storylines had to be ripped out and replaced. They were untenable.
“The love got beaten out of the show for the laughs and it doesn’t work that way.”
Yoon is happier to flag “another show I’m proud to be involved with, on Amazon Prime now – The Horror of Dolores Roach. That’s super-fun and a sort of Latino Sweeney Todd …” she says. Then: there is more.
“I’m not really ready to talk about it, but I’m co-creator of a series based on a short film, called T-Bone, I shot recently with Julian Richings. It’s on its way!” she teases.
Finally, it is time to inquire about the elephant in the room: a stuffed elephant, of remarkable lineage.
Yoon, who is also a playwright, is the author of performance-art comedy The Yoko Ono Project, whose subject she has met.
“When my son, Anand, was born she sent him a copy of a picture book that John [Lennon] had made for his son, Sean – and this little blue stuffed elephant. If you pull the tail it plays ‘Imagine’. It’s super.”
