Yun Jin Kim is one of the few actors who has worked successfully in both k-dramas and on American television. One of the reasons she has done well in both countries was that she is fluent in English and Korean. She emigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was 10 years old. Here are some interesting facts about the actress who recently signed on for her fourth season on the American series "Mistresses" and also appeared in the box office hit k-movie "Ode To My Father."
Although she studied acting in the U.S. she returned to Korea to work on her acting career. She lived there for 7 years. Her breakthrough hit was the Korean film "Shiri," which became the highest grossing film in Korean history at that time.
Her breakout role on American TV was playing Sun in the fantasy drama "Lost." Although she was one of the first characters on American Tv to speak Korean, her drama husband, played by Daniel Dae Kim, only pretended to. The Korean-American actor could only speak English. Sun had to pretend not to understand English which meant the only person she understood in her post-airplane-crash reality was the husband she had planned to leave.
Yun Jin Kim originally auditioned for the role of fugitive Kate in "Lost." While the directors did not think she was right for the part, they liked her so much they created a role for her. When she appeared on "Lost," the New York Times called her a "game-changing actress."
3. Despite the fact that she has filmed all over the world, Kim admits that she has no sense of direction. When she appeared on the Conan O'Brien show in 2013, she spoke about the problems this caused for her.
"My friends once gave me a map for my birthday," she said.
4. Kim enjoys k-dramas so much that she wants to bring them to American audiences. She worked with Fake Empire Productions and ABC to adapt the k-drama "Nine: Nine Time Travels," starring Lee Jin Wook.
5. The actress married her former manager. She and Jung Hyuk Park married on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in 2010. Kim and Park had known each other since 2002 when he became her manager. She wanted to marry in Hawaii which she had grown to love while filming "Lost."
"It truly is a magical place," she told People magazine. "I feel at home."
