Grace Park stands as an Asian icon in entertainment who has paved the way for a more inclusive industry. As an ambassador for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Park is not just a figurehead; she actively stands as a shepherd to shaping the industry’s future. In an exclusive interview with Cold Tea Collective’s Natasha Jung at the festival, Park delves into her expansive career, its evolution, and the profound impact she envisions for the next generation of Asian artists and storytellers.
The pressures of the pursuit of perfectionism
Park compares her roles on Hawaii Five-0 with her current one as Katherine Kim on ABC’s A Million Little Things. As Officer Kalakaua, Park had to be a police officer, a professional surfer, a black belt jiu-jitsu expert, and multilingual, speaking four languages—plus looking like a supermodel doing it all.
“There’s just so many aspects which a lot of people think it’s cool, but I feel it’s a lot for women to be everything and never make mistakes,” Park says. “There’s an allure of that initially, but then later, it’s just too much, you know?”
She continues, praising the liberation with her latest role. “I’d say my most recent job on A Million Little Things was really satisfying. I got to be the everywoman. She’s a parent, you know? She’s a working mom. And so I appreciate that. Perfectionism is so draining.”
Finding power in the play
When asked if any of her previous roles could be written differently for an audience of today, she noted she was fortunate enough to play many flexible roles, where she wasn’t boxed in as a stereotype. However, Park believes the Asian identity would be written in a celebratory way.
“One of the things that I think I didn’t realize about myself was that growing up, I didn’t realize on some level I didn’t realize my Asianness,” she reflects. “Of course, in many ways, I did. We ate Asian food. My parents are Korean. I went to Korean school, but there was also this gap that I was missing.”
She continues, “That gap where people have not really stayed in touch, whether or not they were consciously trying to blend in or whether or not it was just because it just wasn’t celebrated around them.”
See also: Korean American adoptee Patrick Armstrong takes control of his own narrative in Conversation Piece
Future stories worth telling
As the interview concludes, Park shares the stories she would like to see will be eventually told.
“I’m not sure that I need to play this role. But I think that this is a story that has haunted me for a long time,” she says. “Anything around North Korea, people trying to leave there and the things that they’ve had to endure or the comfort women. The stories of Japanese occupation. It’s a really intense kind of stuff.
She concludes, “People live through it. I know that there are less and less of these women alive, and I think it would be really beautiful to capture their stories, whether it’d be in a scripted or documentary style, something like that.”
Grace Park most recently played Katherine Kim ABC’s A Million Little Things, which concluded five seasons in May 2023.
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