by JAMES S. KIM | @james_s_kim
editor@charactermedia.com
Kris Schultz didn’t know much about Korean culture growing up as an adoptee, so the summer camp seemed like a perfect opportunity to learn about the country she came from. But she secretly has a larger purpose in mind—to find her Korean parents. It’s a difficult task, especially when she doesn’t speak any Korean and adoption records might be hard to come by. With the help of Klaus Kim (Teo Yoo), however, Kris goes farther into her past than she thought possible.
When it came to casting, Seoul Searching writer and director Benson Lee took to Facebook to throw as wide a net as possible on an independent film budget. While some of the roles went to up-and-coming or established actors, the role of Kris Schultz went to (at the time of casting) 18-year-old Toronto native and aspiring actress, Rosalina Leigh.
“She had never acted before in her life,” Lee told KoreAm. “But she just had an inkling for acting. When I saw her audition tape, I was blown away. She was as good in the audition as she is in the movie. I was like, wow, this girl’s a natural actor.”
Leigh was studying at the University of Toronto when Lee asked her to come down to New York City to give a live audition. That took a bit of figuring out: “She was like, ‘Oh, I’ll get on a bus and come down to New York,'” Lee recalled, laughing. “I was like, ‘Bus? You’re 18 and you’ve never even been outside Toronto or to the States by yourself.'”
Eventually, Leigh did make it down with her mother, and Lee said it all but confirmed his decision to cast her.
“She just blew us away. Like, blew us away,” he said. “She was as good in the audition, face to face, as when she read that script [on video]. I was so excited and happy to find her, because she’s not an easy character to cast.”
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