[POPSEOUL! Guide] Kyopo stars offer words of wisdom for making it in Hollywood
Posted: October 25, 2008 Filed under: POPSEOUL! Exclusive | Tags: aaron yoo, Leonardo Nam, Smith Cho, Yul Kwon 87 Comments
If Korean stars want to exclaim, “I make it,” they need to listen to the shiny pearls of wisdom provided by those in Hollywood.
Recently, at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, POPSEOUL! snapped up the chance to interview Hollywood’s rising kyopo stars: Smith Cho, Leonardo Nam, Aaron Yoo and Survivor winner Yul Kwon who graciously offered some very practical advice to any Korean star trying to attain the “American dream” of breaking into big league Hollywood.
Check out, “POPSEOUL’s basic guide to making it in Hollywood”
1. “Finish School” – Leonardo Nam
Yes, people, he actually said the most overplayed words in any interview BUT it made sense considering how many Korean singers and actors breeze through their “education” or put it aside to increase their fame– like a certain group of girls who declare it’s their generation (hint hint). With that said, bet Nam is a Wondergirls fan especially with Sun Ye‘s announcement that she will be taking her college entrance exams again this year.
2. “Stay Real” – Aaron Yoo
No matter what role they give you stay true to yourself or at least that’s what Mr. Redpants stated. Guess it’s working considering he created from scratch his leading role in the upcoming movie Friday the 13th. He’s probably reeling just as much as we were when Boa’s American version of “Eat You Up” was released.
3. “Respect Yourself” – Smith Cho
Hey we know the truth, Asians are “hot” and can be very “sexy” but Cho says that although true, don’t sell yourself out completely. At least have some dignity. Hmm, wonder what she thinks about the singer turned oompa loompa.
4. “All about working hard and outsmarting the competition” – Yul Kwon
No duh! How else would he have won on the hit reality show, “Survivor”? Either way, this seemingly humble man really did outsmart everyone else to win. Rain should have probably talked to him before trying to break out into the American Industry, Pinky probably could’ve used a replacement for his first Brain.
5. “MASTER ENGLISH!” -All
Yes, it was a consensus among all that one must not only learn but MASTER the language. Unfortunately our favorite ESL student never did master it- you know, you know. Hopefully the Wondergirls will heed this piece of advice if nothing else before they debut in America.
POPSEOUL! 
great post…people complain over the stupidest things…
All the 5 points are no brainers, but when u are caught in the action u tend to overlook a lot… #5 and #1 is a must…
English is just the first hurdle in the US.
There are very few native Asian-American stars here,
Nobody in the US knows Daniel Henney and he is American.
The stars of LOST are closest to being actually recognized by
the the non Aian US fan,but somebody has to be first.
@ hao … i come to POPSEOUL! for the same reason as everybody else for current information on Korea.
However, i don’t take time criticizing others
That is just insecurity even you know that.
i completely agree to all of these points.
i met Yul Kim. he’s hot haha
sharyouidiot
October 26, 2008 at 1:00 am
shar you are an idiot. how are you going to bring up names like jackie chan and jet li. they don’t need to perfect the language because they don’t need to. they are casted in movies for their martial art abilities and not their acting/english skills.
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i think you’re the one who couldnt understand the whole point of the article.
Shar wasnt out of context.
you see that asia has dozens of stars who have great martial art skill, i.e Donnie Yen, but Mr. Chan & Lee are two of the most successful in Hollywood, there must be basic reasons why they can make it and the other cant.
if there were people who could give piece of advice like this and get heard seriously, i think they would be Mr. Chan & Lee, not some random asians from hollywood who likely gone soon.
…no doubt Chan and Li are successful Asians in the US movie industry but I guess these thread is for Koreans and Korean-Americans who have managed to get a break into US show business, they could have just asked Rain and Daniel Henney among others…and the reason why Hollywood invested on Chan and Li is because they are already big Asian stars and well known by the American audience aside from the fact that any of their films will be sure box office hits anywhere in Asia…
great blog and interesting reading for students of english. of course, ‘finish school’ is a responsible message when young people follow everything their idols do and say. if only the giants in the music industry, distributors and producers, would hand pick stars with more social conscience instead of going for pop and cash. the standard of music and culture in general will improve and what’s more, stars won’t burn out into black holes after ten years. ten years later, tit’s too late to learn the lesson for the kids who followed the idols’ example and drop out of school
JTune,
Chan and Li are great in both their martial arts and acting…
furthermore, their english is not that bad..
i think we still can tolerate with it…
but,
most korean artists which don’t even know how to speak proper english want to make it big in america???
if the artists dont have something to back-up them(martial arts etc), their english have to be like michelle yeoh or zhang ziyi…
^
Zhang Ziyi’s English still sucks but at least it’s understandable… On the other hand, Michelle Yeoh speaks wonderful English.
@ megane,
Why should they ask Rain or Daniel Henney? Rain has totally failed in the states and nobody knows Henney here. I guess you can ask Rain for tips on how to completely make a fool of yourself while trying to “debut”, but other than that!
Zhang Ziyi speaks terrible english and is only known to a select few people here. Michelle Yeoh is pigeon holed into the martial arts genre. Americans only want to see her doing kung-fu. I really love Gong Li and would love to see more projects for her, the english is cringe-worthy, but tolerable, like Chan or Li. I know we’re talking about Koreans making it, but in America, korean, chinese, japanese are interchangeable and most people don’t care if a japanese is cast to play a korean, or vice versa. That’s just the way it is.
@Shana…it’s because Rain had done two US films already and Henney will be seen in the next Wolverine movie to be released in 2009…even if both of them fail in their Hollywood career at least they were able to do it.
…and yes, in acting, East Asians are lumped together like Rain’s role was that of a Japanese race car driver, Ziyi and GongLi acting as geishas, etc.
Yes, but they haven’t “made it” in Hollywood. Rain already has one big bomb under his belt, and I’ve heard terrible things about his next role. We’ll have to see what Henney brings to the table in Wolverine, but that’s still up in the air. Aspiring actors don’t need advice from people who themselves have yet to do anything in Hollywood.
Sandra Oh would be a great person to talk to, she has respect in Hollywood in tv & film. People are always commenting negatively on her looks, which i think is unfair because I have loved her film roles.
Asians won’t “make it” in Hollywood until they stop taking stereotypical roles.
If you don’t respect yourself, then how can you expect others to respect you?
FIRST!
just joking.
this is kinda harsh but to make it in the states asians usually have to speak english without an accent. its either that or they have to do some kind of martial arts. also, with all this its still most likely that they wont make it.
im not trying to be mean but thats the sad truth.
i agree that this has to change though.
why brought my CEO Rain, here? hehe… joke!!
but if there’s advice Rain could possibly give is about how he could make big hollywood names cast him in the their movies twice in a row with his so-called limited english, regardless of fail or success, Brad Pitt started his career with some failures.
not to say how the director praised him, Mcteigue was saying….
“we dont actually have actors who can do what Rain can do. the fight choreographers kept coming back and going rain is amazing, he can do this, he can do that”
or John Goodman said…
“Rain is insane. he’s very talented and the most hardworking person in the industry now after brother James gone”
Just because the topic is about Koreans who would like to make it in hollywood, not necessarily means only Koreans could give advice. you listen to those who’s been successful, and i think either you’re japanese, koreans, chinese, etc, you face the same problem in hollywood, coz you’re asians.
beside, those people above, trust me, you come to asia, and ask some random people on the street about those people, they would be like “WHO?”
and if you asked bout Mr. Chan & Lee, they surely know them, they are both very well known among westerns and asians
Yeah, That’s true. I don’t know any of the above celebrites whom Popseoul thought are qualified to give advice.
200 years since slavery ended but the vestiges of it are live and kicking. The majority of America does not want to listen to Asians imitating what’s considered American culture. The East, or “The Orient,” is considered exotic and mysterious. These Western-centric views embedded in the American belief system is what defines mainstream culture in the U.S.
@megane…Daniel Henney is American for all I know…half blood (like Keanu Reeves is half Asian), but Koreans don’t consider him Korean. Biracial kids are discriminated over there too you know. Dennis Oh is another half blood.
@Shana…yes you’re right, Sandra Oh would have been in a better position to give advice but this interview is for the newbies in Hollywood who were at the San Diego Asian FF, Sandra probably wasn’t there.
@sima
very very true!
SORA: shut up, i don’t see any errors in Popseoul’s english. i think it’s you who actually has errors.
It’s hard to say what Asians need to do to become stars in Hollywood. Most non-whites have been forced into stereotypical and sometimes racist roles because that was all that was made available to them by white producers. The reason being that a white audience simply could not accept that non-whites could be “just like them.” This is thankfully changing ever so slowly though.
Let’s look at the first Asian to truly become an icon in the West. Bruce Lee. He had a lot of success in Asia because he was focused, uncompromising, hard working and had a unique style. He also studied philosophy in the US and thus his English was quite good. He was well spoken and intelligent. He was also pretty good looking with an impressive physique and brought to the US something new. Bruce had a vision and because he actually had some clout, he had the power to stick by his convictions.
Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view because of Bruce Lee, the only Asians to ever garner any sort of fame and cash since his death were martial artists (Jackie Chan, Jet Li, is Tony Jaa the next one?). I like to see this as a slight upgrade as previously what you mostly had were racist, weak yellow peril/immigrant/loser roles.
Today, the only Asian American actor who could be considered a success in Hollywood today is John Cho. He started out as the milf guy in the American Pie movies and then starred in the cult favorites Harold & Kumar movies. Soon he’ll be in the new Star Trek movie. He also had a hilarious guest spot on How I Met Your Mother. He’s fairly well known, good looking and hasn’t been pigeon holed into stereotypical roles. His character Harold was your everyday Asian American guy that you knew but never saw on film or tv.
We’ll see about Masi Oka & James Kyson Lee. They are great characters on Heroes but will that be all they are known for like George Takei & Star Trek. Those guys seem to be stereotypical nerds but they’ve almost made their nerdy archetypes cool just like Bruce Lee made martial artists cool.
I don’t watch Lost but the two Korean actors there had some good roles even though it appears Daniel Kim’s character has been killed off.
Of course there’s Sandra Oh on Grey’s Anatomy, another show I don’t watch. Does anybody remember her predecessor on ER, Ming Na?
How did these actors manage to garner at least some success in Hollywood while mostly avoiding stereotypical roles and not being martial artists?
I haven’t mentioned Gong Li, Zhang Zi Yi or Michelle Yeoh since even though they are known in the US and have done much quality work in Asia, most of the American roles they have been in were stereotypical. Ken Watanabe…same deal and probably not very well known except by Bale Batman fans.
Bruce Lee was actually a quarter German…and he’d actually given up on the States/the west, it wasn’t until he made some impressive movies in Hong Kong that he got asked back to Hollywood.
“like a certain group of girls who declare it’s their generation (hint hint)” ROFLMAO! riight ‘their’ generation…more of a ‘wonder’ generation than a ‘girls’ one XP
@rhey…and then there’s also ethnic Asians who were born here and grew up the American way and may never encounter the problems like those who were not but still couldn’t make it in Hollywood…maybe it all depends on the talent you bring with you..
“Stay Real”-Aaron Yoo
^yes! definitely stay real.
he was awesome in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”. mad props.
[…] Or at least it appears they read our guide to success. […]
is it just me or do some of the girls’ face look funny?
[…] Or at least it appears they read our guide to success. […]
@renzus
SORA: shut up, i don’t see any errors in Popseoul’s english. i think it’s you who actually has errors.
_______________
It’s because this entry has been edited. Boo you’re late.
LOL THAT LAST ONE IS SOOO TRUE~
yes we asians have accents BUT COME ON at least speak correct grammar first, LOOK GOOD LATER~
Hmm…anyone ever heard of Margaret Cho (comedian)? She had a sitcom some time back I think called “All American Girl” which is hilarious but due to low viewership it got canceled after the first season. There are many Asian Americans who are ‘making it’ in Hollywood but seriously, I think we may be looking at ‘Hollywood’ as too much of an end-all. I mean Hollywood is looking towards the East for inspirations; look how many movies and scripts they’ve bought from Japan, Korea, China and even Thailand.
One question i never understood is there are SOO many cute Korean Americans out there (like real ones not halfies), why doesn’t the Korean industry promote one of them into the US market? The whole ‘learn English’ wouldn’t be a problem. I’m gonna be completely bias but Eric Mun is OHH SO MUCH cuter than Rain and doesn’t he speak fluent English?
I love Margaret Cho! Her show received a lot of harsh criticism from the korean american community, so that was another reason why it didn’t make it. She supposedly has another show on vh1, but I haven’t heard how it’s doing. Hollywood might be looking at scripts from asia but they sure don’t want any asians to play the parts!
If americans already have their own artists that could do just about anything, why would they need asians?
could we blame americans? of course not.
those koreans debuting on the state definitely needs outstanding personality, extraordinary talents, and extra luck to set their flag of their own.
being cute wont help as much, i hope people back to their senses.
lawl MASTER ENGLISH! i’m good on that how come im not a star???
american tale ur mistaken. what you need is money, more money, and a sister or other relative who’s already a celebrity. you also have to be preggers.
don’t belive me?
jamie lyn spears
miley cyrus
LOL am i right or am i right!