Speaker 1: I Am all In.
Speaker 2: You, I Am all In with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey Everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast, Want
Speaker 1: of Production, iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart Podcast. One on
Speaker 1: one interview with mister Chase Kim. He was in one
Speaker 1: episode of the show. He played Lane's uncle Joe in
Speaker 1: just like Gwen and Gavin. He was born in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and raised in other countries as well. He initially
Speaker 1: chose to pursue a career in business and graduated from
Speaker 1: University of California, San Diego with a BA in History
Speaker 1: and political Science in nineteen ninety seven. However, after spending
Speaker 1: more than six years at his job in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: New York, Dallas, in Chicago, Chase decided to switch careers
Speaker 1: and became an actor and Steady debuted in two thousand
Speaker 1: and three in an uncredited guest star role as a
Speaker 1: Korean handler in the series The West Wing, and went
Speaker 1: on to be cast in dozens of other roles since then.
Speaker 1: His roles included Criminal Minds, Magnum p I, Hawaii Five O,
Speaker 1: Ritzolian Isles, and Bosh, Let's bring Him in Here. He
Speaker 1: is Chase Kim Chase. How you doing.
Speaker 3: I'm great. How are you, Scott?
Speaker 1: Good? Good good, Nice to meet you and thanks thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on. First off, how'd you get your role
Speaker 1: on Gilmore Girls?
Speaker 4: Well, it was pretty much the very standard auditioning process.
Speaker 4: This was pretty early in my career, so I started
Speaker 4: acting kind of a little bit later in my life.
Speaker 4: I think I was in my late twenties at the time,
Speaker 4: and this was pretty much one of my kind of.
Speaker 3: First TV roles and I just audition.
Speaker 4: I had to pre read with probably fifty other guys,
Speaker 4: guys that kind of looked like me, and then I
Speaker 4: got the call back and went to the bungalow over
Speaker 4: there at Warner Brothers. And the funny story about that
Speaker 4: audition is that I was getting ready to go in
Speaker 4: and Mara Casey, who is who was one of the
Speaker 4: casting directors on the show, came out before I read
Speaker 4: and pulled me aside and said, Hey, everybody really loved
Speaker 4: what you did on the in the first call, but
Speaker 4: you need to talk faster. And I said, okay, I'd
Speaker 4: never gotten a note like that before, and she just said, no,
Speaker 4: you just have to fly through the words like no pausing,
Speaker 4: You just have to talk faster, and I remember thinking, man,
Speaker 4: that's a really odd note to give to an actor
Speaker 4: that's about to go into an audition, But I tried
Speaker 4: my best to kind of speed through it and and
Speaker 4: I got the call that had gotten the role, So
Speaker 4: that was pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: Was that one of your first gigs that you booked.
Speaker 4: I want to say that was probably like my second
Speaker 4: or third TV gig that I'd booked, but it was
Speaker 4: definitely like the biggest one that it was the first
Speaker 4: one that had a name for sure, right, because all
Speaker 4: the other ones were like just like a description of
Speaker 4: a character, like cop Number one or something like that,
Speaker 4: and this was the first character that had an actual name.
Speaker 1: And had Were you familiar with the show? How had
Speaker 1: you been aware of the show?
Speaker 3: I definitely was aware. I was.
Speaker 4: I don't I wouldn't call myself a fan of the
Speaker 4: show going in, but I knew the show and I
Speaker 4: knew that it was kind of a big deal at
Speaker 4: the time, and I had pretty big viewership, so I
Speaker 4: was definitely excited for the part.
Speaker 1: How did your family react when you told them that
Speaker 1: you booked, Because I know you came from the business
Speaker 1: world and into acting late A little later in life,
Speaker 1: I did the same thing. Actually, yeah, And how did
Speaker 1: your parents react to that or your siblings or siblings?
Speaker 4: You know, it's funny because in the Lane Scare Lane
Speaker 4: her Keiko's character on the show being Korean and all that,
Speaker 4: and my family is definitely very stereotypically Korean, and my
Speaker 4: mom is like very stoic, and even at that point,
Speaker 4: she probably wasn't all that supportive of me being an actor.
Speaker 4: She was probably just like ah, But when she started
Speaker 4: to see me more and more actually on TV than
Speaker 4: she started to kind of accept it. But to this day,
Speaker 4: like Korean moms are not very easy with the compliments,
Speaker 4: so it's like maybe like a knowing nod and a
Speaker 4: wry smile or something like that, but nothing outwardly like
Speaker 4: she was proud of me or anything like that.
Speaker 1: You know. Staying on that subject, how did you feel
Speaker 1: that Koreans were depicted in Gilmore Girls? Did you were
Speaker 1: you ever at all offended by stereotypes or did you
Speaker 1: think it was a pretty accurate depiction. No.
Speaker 4: I thought it was definitely a very accurate depiction. I
Speaker 4: thought the relationship between the mom and the daughter I
Speaker 4: thought was depicted very accurately in a sense that there
Speaker 4: was obviously the underlying life and everything, but she was
Speaker 4: very hard on the daughter, and the daughter didn't really
Speaker 4: understand the mom very well. And I think that kind
Speaker 4: of cultural gap for the first generation Korean Americans definitely exists.
Speaker 4: So I thought it was done very accurately. And I
Speaker 4: found the wedding episode to be very humorous because it's
Speaker 4: very accurate, like they go to the ceremony and they
Speaker 4: all basically just eat and they want to go home.
Speaker 1: I was particularly moved when Lane was back in the
Speaker 1: house after living with the band, back with her mom
Speaker 1: and they had that and Lane stood up for herself
Speaker 1: in a very vocal way on the staircase, and then
Speaker 1: the mother said, Lane, come down here right now, and
Speaker 1: they shared some ceremonial drink. And is that part of
Speaker 1: your culture?
Speaker 3: Well, I think the drinking.
Speaker 4: There's a heavy drinking culture in Korean and the Korean culture, I.
Speaker 1: Mean that particular ceremony is that is did that, Sarah?
Speaker 1: Because we speculated on what that really meant because that
Speaker 1: just happened a couple episodes ago. Okay, so was A
Speaker 1: what what were they drinking? And B was that a
Speaker 1: rite of passage? Was that a ritual that that families,
Speaker 1: Korean families do once their children they feel their children
Speaker 1: have become grown ups.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I don't think there's like an official thing,
Speaker 4: but what they were drinking is probably more than ninety
Speaker 4: nine percent sure. It was probably so ju, which is
Speaker 4: like a rice wine, okay, and it's kind of like vodka.
Speaker 4: A lot of times in this day and age day,
Speaker 4: places that don't have a full liquor license will use
Speaker 4: sod you to make like.
Speaker 3: Cocktails and whatnot.
Speaker 4: And then but there is definitely a time when it
Speaker 4: becomes acceptable to like drink around your parents.
Speaker 3: And it's like when.
Speaker 4: You're young, it's kind of not looked upon favorably, but
Speaker 4: like when you become an adult, I think you definitely
Speaker 4: are able to kind of show that side of yourself.
Speaker 1: No very moving scene. That's one of my that's my
Speaker 1: favorite Lane and Missus Kim scenes. And there are a
Speaker 1: lot to choose from. Yeah, so Stars Hall, it was
Speaker 1: all dressed up for the Winter Carnival for your day?
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely?
Speaker 1: How did that feel when you walked onto the set?
Speaker 1: It's pretty impressive, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean the way they go all out obviously, like
Speaker 4: you know, there was snow on the ground, and it
Speaker 4: actually was pretty. It was I want to say, it
Speaker 4: was like right around this time of year when we shot,
Speaker 4: and it was at night, and I remember being unseasonably
Speaker 4: cold for California and so being out there and you
Speaker 4: can see your breath, and so it really felt real.
Speaker 4: Because I know I've talked to people that have been
Speaker 4: on the show when it was supposed to be winter
Speaker 4: and you're in coats and it's like eighty degrees out.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you had to do it as well, where
Speaker 4: it's like it doesn't feel real because it's so high outside.
Speaker 4: But on the night the Knights that I shot, it
Speaker 4: felt totally real.
Speaker 1: So we were we were discussing the scene. We were
Speaker 1: discussing the scene with you and Zach at the bottle toss. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he says that line, welcome to the s h yes,
Speaker 1: bio technic itch Yeah, okay, we'll just say that I
Speaker 1: can't say the word okay, And we know that that
Speaker 1: is a callback to the series ec Did you know
Speaker 1: right away what that reference was?
Speaker 4: I did, I mean, but it was funny because that
Speaker 4: scene itself played out kind of funny because you know,
Speaker 4: I'm supposed to be playing it like I don't know
Speaker 4: what I'm doing and I don't want to be embarrassed,
Speaker 4: and I just go out there and I'm like softly
Speaker 4: tossing at the balls and he here he comes, just
Speaker 4: like firing the balls at the bottles, and the balls
Speaker 4: were flying all over the place on the day, and
Speaker 4: it was like, and I think there was a little
Speaker 4: bit of when Sally Strether's character is like, oh, you're
Speaker 4: gonna hit the girls, you know, at the dime toss
Speaker 4: or whatever.
Speaker 3: There was a little bit of that because he was
Speaker 3: firing him pretty hard and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he looked like he's got a good army.
Speaker 3: They were bouncing all over the place, so it was
Speaker 3: kind of funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and uh and coincidentally, he had a role on
Speaker 1: The OC for three episodes and was that booked around
Speaker 1: the same time you appeared on Gilmore.
Speaker 4: I booked the OC after that, so I want to
Speaker 4: say it was like the next maybe towards the beginning
Speaker 4: of the next year. I booked the OC, but I
Speaker 4: was actually supposed to be in the wedding episode of Gilmore,
Speaker 4: but there was a scheduling conflict with the OC and
Speaker 4: I couldn't.
Speaker 3: Do it right.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which which whose wedding? Which wedding?
Speaker 3: Uh for a Lane's wedding.
Speaker 1: Oh Lane's wedding gotchah.
Speaker 3: So I was supposed to.
Speaker 4: Be one of the career Yeah, the Korean family members
Speaker 4: coming back to the wedding, And I doubt I had
Speaker 4: a whole bunch to do at that episod, But I
Speaker 4: certainly wanted to do it because, like I said, it
Speaker 4: was still pretty early on in my career and you're
Speaker 4: trying to eat as much as possible.
Speaker 1: What was it like working with Keiko?
Speaker 3: And it was great.
Speaker 4: You know, she is such a such a just a
Speaker 4: kind nice person in general. And subsequently we've become friendly
Speaker 4: through other friends. I became really good friends with Sean Gunn,
Speaker 4: who obviously plays Kirk and and so we'd meet at
Speaker 4: his house for gatherings and stuff, and we you know,
Speaker 4: became very friendly afterwards. But she was so nice to
Speaker 4: work with, and like I said, I was still very green,
Speaker 4: so I was like, you know, just trying to not
Speaker 4: get anything wrong. When I was on set, I was
Speaker 4: just kind of like, all right, I just want to
Speaker 4: make sure I don't mess up.
Speaker 3: I don't want to, you know.
Speaker 4: So it was definitely you know, I would treat it
Speaker 4: a lot differently, you know, if I was on a
Speaker 4: show like that today.
Speaker 1: Right, So Zach called you the Korean Brad Pitt, which
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, I would say that's a compliment.
Speaker 3: There's two little references.
Speaker 4: I think there's a reference to George Clooney and there's
Speaker 4: a reference to Brad Pitt.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: Wow. So you basically covered all the bases there for
Speaker 1: Oceans the Oceans films exactly. What's your favorite memory from
Speaker 1: being on the set?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: I mean the absolute favor is just getting that call
Speaker 4: from my agent that I had booked it, obviously, but
Speaker 4: then being on the set I do remember because Starzola
Speaker 4: was like set up for the carnival. I just remember
Speaker 4: walking out of my trailer after getting dressed and just
Speaker 4: like feeling the kind of grandness of it all right.
Speaker 4: And like I said, it was still early on in
Speaker 4: my career, so I was excited to be there to
Speaker 4: begin with. But then you walk out and there's actually
Speaker 4: like a full on carnival scene going on.
Speaker 1: Was very cool, you know, I I he just reminded
Speaker 1: me of how large that set truly was. Because you're
Speaker 1: we're we were used to it. So it didn't. It
Speaker 1: didn't intimidate us, and it didn't. We were just kind
Speaker 1: of delighted by it, used to it and that's that's
Speaker 1: our office, and this is But we had more real estate.
Speaker 1: We had the entire back lot at Warner Brothers. We
Speaker 1: had three sound stages, we and we kind of we
Speaker 1: we had more real estate dedicated to Gimmore Girls and
Speaker 1: any other production, even films. Absolutely, we didn't walk around
Speaker 1: feeling like we were the kings of the studio by
Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination. But now you make me
Speaker 1: realize as kind of a newbie coming into this situation,
Speaker 1: seeing this scope and the size of this and the
Speaker 1: detail of these sets and all the real estate, it
Speaker 1: must have been really impactful. It's been really something for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, because I think even now as somebody that's
Speaker 4: done a lot more work since then, Like, there's no
Speaker 4: way any TV show would have that on a lot.
Speaker 3: That would be like a location shoot or.
Speaker 4: Something, right, I mean, like, but if you go back
Speaker 4: and watch Gilmore Girls, you guys have a lot. Always
Speaker 4: had a lot of stuff that seemed like it should
Speaker 4: be on location, but it was just that huge set.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, we certainly were able to save while the
Speaker 1: producers were able to Warner Bros. Were able to save
Speaker 1: a ton of money just having a dedicated space like
Speaker 1: that for sure, because going on location and do all
Speaker 1: that stuff is you know, you double that budget. Was
Speaker 1: there a point in your career, in your business career
Speaker 1: that you said, I can't do this anymore? I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously it did happen, but would tell us take us
Speaker 1: through that a little bit.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I graduated college of ninety seven when
Speaker 4: it was like right on the cusp of the huge boom,
Speaker 4: So it was like, you know what kids are going
Speaker 4: through these days in terms of trying to find a job.
Speaker 4: It was unheard of, Like there was all these job
Speaker 4: fairs at college, and you pretty much had three or
Speaker 4: four job offers coming out of school. Everybody that I
Speaker 4: knew did. And so I took that route and kind
Speaker 4: of went the tech tech route and jumped around a
Speaker 4: couple of different places. Lived in Dallas for a little bit,
Speaker 4: in San Francisco, but by the time I'd made it
Speaker 4: back to Los Angeles, which is where I'm from, I
Speaker 4: was working for a company in Pasadena and also living
Speaker 4: just down the street in Pasadena, and I remember the
Speaker 4: five minute commute to work just being the most miserable time,
Speaker 4: like just just trekking down the street, going like, man,
Speaker 4: what am I doing?
Speaker 1: Like this?
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna go sit there on this desk for
Speaker 4: nine hours and it's going to suck, right, And I remember,
Speaker 4: and I think the blessing that ended up happening is
Speaker 4: that that job or that company ended up kind of
Speaker 4: the investors pulled their funding and so the company just
Speaker 4: went belly up, and so I basically had to figure
Speaker 4: something out of that point. And that's when I decided,
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm going to take this time to
Speaker 4: really figure out what I want to do, and landed.
Speaker 3: On given acting a go and and so and here
Speaker 3: I am, And so.
Speaker 2: What did you do?
Speaker 1: You got into an acting class?
Speaker 3: I did you know? I first I moved. I moved
Speaker 3: to Spain for a little bit just to clear my head.
Speaker 4: I you know, I was single at the time, interesting,
Speaker 4: and I took some of the severance money and I
Speaker 4: just like moved moved to Barcelona for like six months.
Speaker 3: And during that time, I just kind of I didn't
Speaker 3: do anything. I really just like read.
Speaker 4: Books and listened to music and travel around Europe for
Speaker 4: a little bit and came back thinking, you know what,
Speaker 4: I'm going to give this a go. And so I
Speaker 4: went into an on camera acting class and just started
Speaker 4: grinding from there.
Speaker 1: Nice. So do you was there an actual moment that
Speaker 1: you read call that sparked this desire to change careers
Speaker 1: or was it just the sort of the sum total
Speaker 1: of the boredom and the lack of passion And yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it was going into the office gun.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was just a cumulative effect, you know.
Speaker 4: And I was a child of the eighties, and I
Speaker 4: grew up just kind of I was a latchkey kid,
Speaker 4: and I watched a ton of TV, and I was
Speaker 4: always fascinated by TV. And I remember people ask me
Speaker 4: all the time, like, what, you had nothing in your
Speaker 4: history that says that you would become an actor, Like
Speaker 4: I didn't do theater growing upup. I didn't do any
Speaker 4: of those things, you know. I kind of I was
Speaker 4: more of a jock. I played baseball, football like and
Speaker 4: but I do remember as a kid, I watched a
Speaker 4: ton of TV and I just would get lost in
Speaker 4: it and think, man, that would be a really cool
Speaker 4: thing to do, right, And then many years later it
Speaker 4: kind of caught up with me.
Speaker 1: Was your family supportive? What was their reaction?
Speaker 4: Yeah, my mom was definitely. You know, my dad when
Speaker 4: I was fairly young, and so it was just my
Speaker 4: mom at the time, and my mom was always she's
Speaker 4: never too high or too low, and she said, well,
Speaker 4: do you know if you think this is what you
Speaker 4: want to do, And she was always kind of skeptical,
Speaker 4: and like I said, until I started to appear on
Speaker 4: her TV a little bit more, I think she was
Speaker 4: definitely thinking maybe it was a phase or something like that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, she's definitely been very supportive.
Speaker 1: Right, right, What positions did you play in baseball?
Speaker 4: I was kind of a utility guy my senior year
Speaker 4: in high school. I caught and played outfield and played
Speaker 4: a little bit of third base.
Speaker 3: Gotcha, Yeah, I know you're a baseball player too, right,
Speaker 3: I was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yes, so difficult, the difficult profession to earn a living in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unless your name is shoey Otani.
Speaker 4: And then.
Speaker 1: Tell us what you're working on now.
Speaker 3: Well, since the.
Speaker 4: Strike ended, it has been lots of audition requests coming in,
Speaker 4: which is good, but it's also like I was talking
Speaker 4: with my wife before and I said, man, I kind
Speaker 4: of was hoping that this would go through the holiday
Speaker 4: season so I could have like a peaceful December.
Speaker 3: But as soon as that strike ended, it was like, oh,
Speaker 3: can you take for this? Can you take for that?
Speaker 4: Which is all good problems to have, but I did.
Speaker 4: I worked on a I did a few days on
Speaker 4: a feature film last year about this time, and just
Speaker 4: found out that it got into Sundance.
Speaker 3: So that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: Oh nice, So you're going to go to Sundance and
Speaker 1: support the film.
Speaker 3: I doubt it. I didn't have that big a part
Speaker 3: in it, but I will support it from afar.
Speaker 1: Well, at least you're there. I mean, yeah, that's something
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a it's a fun little It was a
Speaker 4: fun little movie called Thelma and June Squib, who's like
Speaker 4: ninety something, was the lead in it. It was a cool,
Speaker 4: really fun script written about an elderly person that gets
Speaker 4: scammed by one of these internet scammers. But she decides
Speaker 4: that she's going to get back what she lost, so
Speaker 4: she like becomes like a little bit of a vigilante
Speaker 4: and goes after these people.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Wow, what's the name of that again, we'll look out
Speaker 1: for what.
Speaker 3: Is it's a movie called Thelma. Yep.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna do a little thing called rapid Fire. Not.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily have to be quick with your answers. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't want to trigger your Gilmore anxiety here? How
Speaker 1: do you like your coffee?
Speaker 4: If I'm drinking coffee, it's gonna be probably just black.
Speaker 4: I'm not a huge coffee guy, but more of a
Speaker 4: diet coke guy.
Speaker 1: Are you Team Logan, Team Jess or Team Dean?
Speaker 4: My wife told me if if anybody asked me that,
Speaker 4: I got to say team Logan.
Speaker 1: There you go, smart woman. We like Logan a lot
Speaker 1: over well, we like them all, but we really like Loagan.
Speaker 1: Who's your favorite? The Gilmour girls couple, Luke and LARELEI
Speaker 1: or Emily and Richard?
Speaker 3: Oh, Luke and Laurel I thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Would you rather work with Michelle or Kirk?
Speaker 4: I think I'm gonna have to say Kirk because he's
Speaker 4: his buddy. He's we'd have we'd have a blast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, there you go. What would you I
Speaker 1: see Sean a lot on the convention circuit. I just
Speaker 1: saw him, you know, a week ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I saw him like three weeks ago at a party,
Speaker 3: I think, and he's doing great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What would you order at Luke's Diner?
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm just gonna do an omelet.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do a kind of an omelet with Chrispy
Speaker 4: ash Brown's on the side.
Speaker 1: You got it, buddy, coming right up. Would you rather
Speaker 1: hang out with Paris or Lane? I think we know
Speaker 1: the answer to this question.
Speaker 3: Lane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Paris, she's too much get It's like getting the
Speaker 1: bomb sheld then inviter he over, Yes, yeah, Harvard or Yale?
Speaker 1: Or drop out and live in a poolhouse.
Speaker 4: I think the Koreane Mey's gonna have to go with
Speaker 4: Ivy League and let's go with Yale.
Speaker 1: Good choice. Would you rather attend a dar event with
Speaker 1: Emily or a town meeting with Taylor?
Speaker 4: I always found the town meetings to be kind of
Speaker 4: fun and quirking, So I'm gonna go with the town meeting.
Speaker 1: Alrighty uh Gilmore Girls. Character that you would want as
Speaker 1: a roommate, I.
Speaker 3: Don't know about this one. I'm gonna have maybe you
Speaker 3: know what, not the actor, the character, Yeah, the character,
Speaker 3: m hm. I bet no, I'm gonna go with logan
Speaker 3: like that guy's loaded, he's got money.
Speaker 1: There you go, no one in style now yeah, going
Speaker 1: on the private jet. Something in your life you are.
Speaker 3: All in on. I am all always all in on
Speaker 3: Dodger Baseball.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Then you're then you're in heaven right now.
Speaker 3: I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling pretty good right now.
Speaker 1: Uh, Chase Kim, pleasure to talk to you, get to
Speaker 1: know you a little bit. We enjoyed your work on
Speaker 1: the episode, and best of luck to you, and look
Speaker 1: out for Thelma the Sundance Film Festival debut. Uh and
Speaker 1: hopefully if they get a deal, which sounds like they might,
Speaker 1: in your local theaters. Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 3: All the best, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Pleasure, hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram
Speaker 1: at I Am All In podcast and email us at
Speaker 1: Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com