By Michelle Woo
Photographs by Eric Sueyoshi
• • •
The moment Joon Park arrives at the KoreAm headquarters for his photo shoot with actress Jamie Chung, he unloads his wardrobe options onto some office chairs and then lifts up each garment one by one: a leather jacket, a striped zip-up, a plain white shirt. Jamie stands off to the side as a small group of publicists and editors voice their yeas and nays.
“I’m just trying to make Jamie look good,” he says, his voice deep and blaring. “I’m already beautiful.”
There’s a natural ease between our cover models that surfaces from the start as the two swap barbs like brother and sister.
They’d seen a lot of each other lately, having just returned from a weeklong publicity tour through Seoul, Bangkok and Taipei to promote their new movie Dragonball Evolution, a live-action adaptation of the cult manga comics and cartoon series.
While getting primped and prepped, they rehash their stop in Korea, where Joon was a former megastar as the leader of the chart-topping pop group G.O.D. Apparently, mobs of fans were awaiting his return. “It was crazy,” Jamie describes. “Girls were screaming, ‘Opba! Opba!’ I mean, I know you were a big deal, but that was a long time ago. I didn’t think they would remember.”
Joon laughs.
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It’s an unlikely friendship — Joon and Jamie emerge from different generations and seemingly different worlds.
Joon, with a boyish haircut and biceps erupting from the sleeves of his graphic T, has a presence that can’t be ignored. The seasoned entertainer demands attention with every word and move, audibly chomping on snacks in the dining area, talking animatedly about the joys of eBay and trying on different accessories in front of the full-length mirror. A born charmer, he jokes in Korean with the giggling hair stylists, occasionally breaking out into English to spit remarks like, “Don’t you think the girls and guys in Koreatown are kind of ghetto?”
Meanwhile, Jamie is perched on a director’s chair as her long, highlighted tresses are teased and sprayed. Twinkly-eyed and stunning, she looks as if she could have been plucked straight from the set of Gossip Girl, wearing a fitted blazer over a slinky dress and suede ankle boots. Her long eyelashes flutter as she mulls on her cell phone over a recent audition. “You know, sometimes you’re off and sometimes you’re on,” she later says about the Hollywood audition processes in general. A well-rehearsed interviewee, she speaks emphatically about a variety of matters, from her dream of one day working with Oscar-nominated actor Viggo Mortensen to her volunteer work at a hospitality kitchen on Skid Row.
But once the shoot begins, the dynamic just works. As the camera snaps away, Jamie puckers up and inches toward Joon’s face. Joon, in turn, shoots Jamie a pretend look of disgust. Jamie then puts Joon into a headlock.
Pals indeed, they’re both ready for the April 10 release of Dragonball Evolution, directed by James Wong (Final Destination) and produced by 20th Century Fox. The CG-drenched family flick follows the plight of a group of warriors searching for the seven mystical dragonballs in order to protect Earth from evil. Joon plays Yamcha, a desert bad boy who gets a new outlook on life as he’s swept onto the save-the-world expedition. Jamie plays Chi Chi, a high school beauty who yawns at her popularity and really just wants to fight and win the heart of misfit Goku, played by Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds), the film’s hero. The cast also includes Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera) as techno wiz Bulma, James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as villain Piccolo, Chow Yun Fat as Master Roshi and Randall Duk Kim as Grandpa Gohan.
Joon and Jamie were confident picks. “With Joon, I just had a feeling that he was Yamcha,” says Wong, who noted that his team wanted to do “a multicultural thing with the cast.” “His personality came through and he looked great for the role. It was instinctive.” And Jamie? “Jamie is relatively new to acting and with that comes a lot of enthusiasm,” he describes. “She has sort of the willingness to do anything. And she has a great look. I would say she’s gorgeous.”
Both being newcomers to the big-screen, Joon and Jamie turned to each other for support while on set in Durango, Mexico.
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“I was really nervous for my first kissing scene,” Jamie recalls. “I was like, ‘Does my breath stink? Is it supposed to be a wet kiss? I don’t want it to look stupid.’ It’s like that awkward kiss after a first date: ‘Do you go in? Do I go in? Do you go left and I go right?’ Joon was giving me tips.”
His advice? “I was like, ‘Just do it,’” Joon says with a laugh. “Of course, when it came to my [kiss with Rossum], I was like, ‘Ahh!’‘ And everyone was like, ‘Just do it!’”
They’re both still finding their ground in Hollywood, having arrived on very different paths.
Jamie was born and raised in San Francisco. After high school, she moved south to attend the University of California, Riverside (“I go where the sun is,” she says). One day, she saw that MTV was holding a casting call for The Real World: San Diego at the dive bar where she waitressed. Having always been interested in acting and being in front of a camera, she decided to audition. A few callbacks later, she landed a spot on the famed reality show.
She was a rather unmemorable housemate, dodging most of the drama that erupted through the season, including police altercations, a rape allegation, and, of course, plenty of hook-ups. And although she was now more certain than ever that acting was her calling, she purposely never mentioned it.
“It’s such a cliché,” Jamie says of reality stars striving to be actors. “Such a typical Hollywood thing.”
Wanting her actions to speak louder than words, after The Real World, she linked up with an agent and quietly piled her resume with roles from obscure (“Hooters girl” in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry) to impressive (recurring character Cordy Han in Days of Our Lives). Then last fall, Jamie snagged her biggest role to date: In ABC Family’s Samurai Girl, Jamie played the heroine Heaven, a rich teen who’s kidnapped by ninjas and thrown into a world of samurai tradition, revealing truths about her identity. For the role, she was trained in martial arts, which helped her land a part in Dragonball.
Joon, on the other hand, was born in Orange County and grew up living the laidback, California-cool lifestyle, working at a surf shop and entering dance and freestyle rap contests on the side. He says he’s always been an entertainer, the clown among his friends, but never really knew what to make of it. Then one afternoon, while walking down Melrose Avenue in the early ‘90s, he was approached by two scouts who asked him if he wanted to be in Janet Jackson’s video “If.” He jumped at the chance. “I played a slave,” he says coolly. “After that experience, I wanted more.”
His cannonball-shot to K-pop fame also came by way of chance. His older sister was working in Seoul as a stylist in Korea’s film and music industry when some top managers noticed her keychain with Joon’s photo hanging from it. They asked her who he was and when she said he was her brother, insisted that they meet him.
Joon flew to Korea and after winning over music producers with his rapping skills, charisma and good looks, was asked to form a pop group. Thus, G.O.D. (which stands for Groove Overdose) was born. The five-member boy band reached megafame in the early 2000s, releasing seven albums and selling out hundreds of concerts throughout Asia. “It just took off,” Joon says.
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Then in 2007, lead singer Kim Tae Woo was called for mandatory military service and the group’s plans were put on hold. Wondering what to do next, Joon decided to try Hollywood.
“It’s always been a dream,” Joon says. “I thought this would be a good time. So I was like, I’m gonna do it.”
Almost immediately, he landed his first project, a cameo in last year’s Speed Racer. After that, his manager then sent him the script for Dragonball Evolution.
“I was in awe,” he says of the opportunity. “I read the books, watched the cartoons, played the video games. So I was like, dude, I really want to get this role. But then I went to the audition and there were like 13 guys there. Some of the faces I’d seen on screen before. These guys were buffed out and had Yamcha outfits on. I thought, there’s no way.”
And yet here he is today, sitting at a table with Jamie, both saying what a whirlwind the past couple of years have been. They’re wide-eyed as they try to sum up what it means to here, to be actors in this great big industry where new adventures constantly await.
“Every day is a challenge,” Jamie says. “You just learn from each job and you take what works for you, what gets into the scene. Then you take that to the next job. You’re constantly learning, you’re constantly growing.”
Joon adds, “Your job is to imagine yourself in an imaginary place. You get to make believe. And even if it’s hard, when you see the final product, you’re like, wow.”
Jamie nods and joins Joon to say in unison: “That’s what it’s all about.”
Joon, who divides his time between L.A. and Seoul, continues to search for new roles as he soaks in all he’s accomplished: “I don’t have dreams of status. I never have high hopes. I just do the best that I can and as long as I give joy to other people, I’m happy.”
Jamie, now living in West Hollywood, is armed with a string of new projects: She’s set to appear in the TV movie Princess Protection Program, then the action flick Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising, and then the slasher remake House on Sorrority Row.
And then?
“Some of my goals are to one day produce and act in movies that I feel very passionate about, whether it’s the untold story of comfort women or the stories of people who’ve escaped North Korea, the things that really hit close to home,” she says. She pauses and adds, “Another goal would be to do a romantic comedy. I want to do everything.”
Everything but sing, that is. When asked to share something few people know about her, she confesses that’s her biggest fear.
“I think I’m the only Korean in the world who doesn’t like karaoke,” Jamie says. “I run away from it. For the independent movie I did called Burning Palms, my character had to sing. It was my first day of filming and I was in a bar full of extras and I had to go on stage and sing ‘Like a Virgin.’ It was my version of hell.”
When Joon is asked if he ever sings G.O.D. songs at noraebangs, he says, with a smile, “Not by choice. Friends request it and I’m like, ‘Buy the ticket.’ But then I’ll do it. It’s pretty funny.”
“Oh, that is funny,” Jamie says.
When asked how they would describe each other, Jamie goes first.
“Joon Park,” she begins. “Humble, outgoing, friendly, very gracious, all around nice guy — surprising for a guy who was on top of the world. He’s a Korean superstar!”
“I paid her some money to say that,” Joon says.
And Jamie?
“She’s like a dongsaeng,” Joon says. “I look at her and she’s like a little girl to me. You want to like protect her and make sure she’s not doing things to harm herself, but then you step back and see her act and you’re like, whoa, she’s a pro. And on the same token, she’s a smart girl. She knows what’s up. So you let her do her thing.”
“Thank you,” Jamie says, her expression genuine.
Joon smiles. “She’s like a true little sister.”
