Here’s a story-in-reverse you don’t hear often: Claudia Kim came to Hollywood because it was willing to offer her more diverse roles than she could get in her native South Korea.
Unlike her contemporaries, from Doona Bae and Kim Yunjin to Lee Byung-hun or even Daniel Henney, Kim was never a household name in Korea before crossing over—she has only a handful of supporting K-drama roles under her name. And most of those parts had her playing the ice queen archetype.
Kim got tired of the limitations the industry there (where she goes by her Korean name Soo Hyun) seemed to have for her. So, equipped with her accent-free English acquired from the half-decade spent in the U.S. as a child, she began auditioning for American projects. Immediately she was told that crossing over was impossible.
Her naysayers have been proven wrong. With a quiet sincerity that shines through on screen, she’s successfully booked roles in blockbusters like “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “The Dark Tower,” as well as the Netflix historical drama “Marco Polo,” spurring Korean headlines to ask, “Where did Claudia Kim come from?” Her latest turn as Nagini in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is one of her meatiest roles to date.
“There’s such a limitation in Korean projects, especially for women in their 20s and 30s,” Kim said. “I refused to do certain roles that required women to just be there and be some kind of weak supporter for men. I decided that I didn’t want to be viewed as this person who just speaks English and has that cold look. So I stopped, and I was waiting for something new, and that’s when I started auditioning for U.S. projects.”
She’ll tell you straight away that she’s Korean, not Korean American, as some assume. The truth is, identity’s been a source of inner conflict ever since she was a kid. When she’s stateside, she feels too Asian; and when she’s in Korea, she doesn’t feel quite entirely Korean.
Playing Nagini has come with its own challenges, some external—many, wary of stereotyping and objectification, are critical of the snake being played by an Asian woman. And then there’s the fact that she’s a cursed woman fated to one day become the pet for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. This new film shows little of the Nagini we’ve known so far in the Harry Potter universe. Here, she knows her humanity (or should that be witchery) is running out, but isn’t willing to resign herself to that fact. “She’s such a beautiful and fragile person, and yet she has such power inside,” Kim said. “She just hasn’t discovered it yet.”
Perhaps, it’s just as true of Kim. It feels like she’s just getting started. And now that the door, and a bigger range of possibilities, is opening just a bit wider for her, she’s more than ready to step right through—in both Korea and Hollywood.
This article appears in KORE’s December 2018 issue. Subscribe here.
