Kim perfect fit for ‘Minari’s’ adorable hellion
Despite never acting before, audition tape caught director’s eye
Here are some things Alan Kim likes: Harry Potter. The song “Blinding Lights” by the Weeknd. Legos. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and rainbow sprinkles.
Acting? Yeah, he likes it. But he’s just as into playing video games or watching TV and going outside with his dog, an American Eskimo named Cream.
Alan is 9, so you can forgive him for not knowing if this whole Hollywood thing is for him yet. At the moment, however, he’s getting a lot of attention because he is one of the stars of the new movie “Minari,” an award-winning drama about a family of South Korean immigrants trying to build a life for themselves on a farm in rural Arkansas in the 1980s.
The movie, playing in theaters where open and on a special digital platform from distributor A24, features actors who are far more recognizable than Alan: The family’s patriarch is played by “The Walking Dead’s” Steven Yeun, and Yuh-Jung Youn — who is kind of like Korea’s Meryl Streep — co-stars as the grandmother.
But it is Alan who has emerged as “Minari’s” breakout star. When the movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2020, he turned up at every screening or interview dressed like a cowboy: Western hat, bandanna, boots and a sheriff ’s badge pinned on his suede vest.
“I had the cowboy boots from the movie,” Alan said, “and my mom was like, ‘Come on, wear this!’ ”
In his promotional appearances for “Minari,” Alan has continued to show off his panache even over
Zoom, rotating through a collection of dapper miniature blazers and starched shirts. For this interview from his family’s home in Irvine, California, he is wearing a pastel bow tie and collared shirt embroidered with seagulls and boats. While he may not be used to speaking about himself yet, he is comfortable on video chat. He’s in the third grade but has been doing virtual school since March 2020.
On Instagram, he has “like, maybe 2,000 followers?” — but his parents run his account because “I don’t think I’m responsible enough with it.”
Perhaps it was the adoration he was greeted with in Park City last year, but Alan seemed to have an idea that those numbers might be going up soon. Asked if he expects he’ll be famous post-“Minari,” he answered enthusiastically and without haste: “Yes.”
And how will his life change?
“I will have to stay inside all the time,” he said. Or, if outside: “I would have to wear a hoodie and full disguise!”
In “Minari,” Alan plays Daniel, a boy whose desire to run free through the Arkansas wilderness surrounding his family’s new trailer is restrained due to a heart murmur. He is forced to share his bedroom with his grandmother, newly arrived from Korea, who makes him try traditional herbal remedies he thinks taste revolting. Director Lee Isaac Chung needed a boy for the part who could pull off being both adorable and a hellion — “a kid who pees in his grandma’s tea and still somehow doesn’t come across terribly,” he said.
So with just six weeks, casting director Julia Kim set out to find the perfect kid. She needed a child
who was fluent in both English and Korean, and, of course, one who physically resembled the actors who’d already been hired to play his parents (Steven Yeun and Yeri Han).
“As you can imagine, that’s not a long database,” said Kim. Knowing she’d be unable to rely solely on young actors with talent representation, she drew upon her connections within LA’s Korean American community. In Koreatown, Kim visited churches and after-school programs, asking administrators for permission to quietly observe from a distance.
To broaden the scope of her search, Kim decided to visit the office of a local Korean newspaper. The next day, the daily publication ran a notice about the “Minari” casting call that included a photograph of Youn, 73, an actor who is revered in South Korea.
A couple of weeks later, emails started trickling in — one from Alan’s representative at a boutique agency. He’d never acted before, something his audition tape made obvious. In it, Alan’s actions were exaggerated; when he pretended to take a bad-tasting medicine, he scowled and yelled in an over-the-top fashion.
“But I still kept watching his tape because I found him so funny,” said Chung, the director. “I was kind of worried about whether or not he could take direction, and needed to see if he could do things in a more natural way instead of a stage way. And he does. There’s such an honesty to what he’s doing.”
Alan’s mother, Vicky, was on set for the entire 25-day shoot, fanning her son when temperatures soared above 90 degrees and keeping his juice box collection well stocked.
Vicky used hand motions to help Alan remember his lines and reminded him not to rush, “because if the words came too fast, the scene would have to be done again,” he said she told him.
But because Alan’s mother was more comfortable speaking Korean, the film’s second assistant director, Steve Hannan, became another vital on-set Alan-whisperer. Hannan — who has a son around Alan’s age — noticed early on that the young actor was becoming “a little kinetic” between takes during his six-hour days.
“So I took it upon myself to keep him positive about the whole experience,” Hannan said. “I’m a big guy, so I would put him up on my shoulder or let him crawl on my back. But I tried to talk to him like a professional, pointing out things about set etiquette.”
Which isn’t to say that the then-7-year-old got special treatment. Because of his experience working in print advertisements, he knew that being on a set meant “he had to be serious,” Chung said.
“And we had to keep that atmosphere going for him to respect him as a professional,” the director said. “After a couple of days, we set the rule that no one baby talks to him or overly celebrates when he does a great take or something. Treat him like a pro, and he’s going to act like a pro.”
In June, Alan will start filming his second movie, a dark comedy called “Latchkey Kids.”
“The choices he makes now are really important,” said Kim, the casting director. “… If you have a kid like Macaulay Culkin, you keep sending them in for the same thing, and it gets stale after a while. It’s about surprising the audience and letting him stretch his wings as an actor. Alan was the perfect fit for this film, but he also has the chops to have longevity.”
ST. LOUIS — Cameron Krutwig and Braden Norris scored 20 points apiece to lead No. 20 Loyola Chicago to a 75-65 win over Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference championship game Sunday for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The Ramblers (24-4, 16-2) will be making their seventh NCAAs appearance and first since the 2018 team reached the Final Four as a No. 11 seed.
Keith Clemons added 13 points for Loyola, which has won six in a row and 17 of its last 18.
Tremell Murphy and D.J. Wilkins scored 20 points each for Drake (25-4, 15-3), a bubble team. The Bulldogs were appearing in the MVC title game for the first time since they won the tournament in 2008. D.J. Wilkins added 14 points.
Krutwig, the MVC Player of the Year, had eight rebounds. He sent Loyola Chicago on a 7-0 run with a hook shot from the lane that broke a 24-all tie. Clemons hit a 3-pointer midway through the second half to push the lead to a 53-37.
Both teams recorded 10-0 runs in the first half.
Loyola Chicago, which hit 10 of 24 shots (63%) in the opening half, won its three tournament games by a total of 50 points.
Drake won its first 18 games of the season. It was playing without regulars Roman Penn and Shanquan Hemphill, who suffered leg injuries in February.
The MVC is the only league in the nation that was able to complete every regular-season conference game.
Northwestern 79, Nebraska 78: Ryan Young's putback with 2.7 seconds left gave Northwestern a win over Nebraska in a regularseason finale.
Young had missed the front-end of a one-and-one, giving Nebraska the ball back with 42.7 seconds left and a one-point lead. But the Huskers turned the ball over on a shot-clock violation. Pete Nance, who had made an old-school, right-handed hook for a 76-75 lead, put up a running hook that missed but drew three defenders, leaving Young alone for the putback. Kobe Webster missed a 3-pointer that appeared to be after the final buzzer.
The Wildcats (9-14, 6-13) won their third straight game after losing 13 in a row. Both they and the Cornhuskers (7-19, 3-16) begin play in the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis on Wednesday, with Northwestern playing Minnesota.
Chase Audige scored 14 points, Nance 13, Miller Kopp 12, Boo Buie and Robbie Beran 11 each and Ty Berry 10 for the Wildcats, who had six in double figures in a conference game for the first time since the 2002-03 season. Northwestern shot 53%, including 11 of 25 behind the arc. Webster had 23 points and seven 3-pointers for Nebraska, both career highs for the Western Illinois grad transfer. Trey McGowens added 15 points. The Cornhuskers hit 14 of 33 3-point attempts and shot 46% overall.
Northwest built a 16-point lead in the first half and went into the break ahead by nine.
Webster's 3-pointer started a 15-4 run over six minutes of the second half for a 70-67 Nebraska lead with just under four minutes left.