Medicine Hat News

Actor says contract dispute behind ‘Hawaii Five-0’ exit

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LOS ANGELES Daniel Dae Kim said his decision to leave “Hawaii FiveO” stemmed from a contract dispute.

In a Facebook post, the actor said he and CBS were unable to agree on contract terms, so he made the “difficult choice” to exit the series.

Kim, who played Chin Ho Kelly on the crime drama reboot, said the “path to equality is rarely easy,” without elaboratin­g. He was travelling Wednesday and unavailabl­e, a spokeswoma­n said.

The departures from the show of Kim and Grace Park, who played Kono Kalakaua, were reported last week. Both had been with the show since it debuted in 2010 with Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan as, respective­ly, lawmen Steve McGarrett and Danny Williams.

“Daniel and Grace have been important and valued members of ‘Hawaii Five-0’ for seven seasons,” CBS said in a statement Wednesday. “We did not want to lose them and tried very hard to keep them with offers for large and significan­t salary increases.”

The network added that it has “tremendous respect” for the actors and hoped to work with them again.

In his post, Kim said as an Asian-American actor he knows firsthand how difficult it is to find opportunit­ies, especially well-developed characters like Chin Ho.

Kim, who starred in ABC’s “Lost,” said he was grateful to CBS and the show's producers for having confidence he would bring the role to life.

He’s looking at other acting projects, he said, and is producing ABC’s upcoming series, “The Good Doctor.”

“Hawaii Five-O,” a remake of the 1968-80 series starring Jack Lord and James MacArthur, returns next season for its eighth year.

 ??  ?? Daniel Dae Kim
Daniel Dae Kim

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