Ethnicity gets seat at the table
‘The Chair’ tackles issues in a relatable way.
Sandra Oh is ready to embrace authentic storytelling that presents the Asian-American experience as a reality, without being too heavy-handed.
Oh stars in the new Netflix comedy series “The Chair,” which follows Korean-American Ji-Yoon Kim (played by Oh), the first woman and first woman of colour to become the chair of her university English department. Among many things, she has to deal with institutional patriarchy, racism, sexism and white privilege.
The 50-year-old Ottawa-born actress says this role is “an expression of a fully integrated character” and the first one she’s played that she feels is very close to a lot of people’s real lives.
“With ‘The Chair’ I feel like there’s a lot of elements that I’ve always wanted to play, that is never heavy-handed in a way, because you’re just really still focusing on character and a character in a certain workplace environment, a certain home environment that I feel is very authentic and I think relatable to many people,” Oh said during a video interview.
The Emmy-nominated actress has been vocal about being at a stage in her career in which she’s interested in roles that explore race. She has been carrying the responsibility of representation as she continues to break barriers in Hollywood. “The Chair” provided her with an opportunity to explore the character that way.
“When we’re showing people’s or characters’ stories, we always have our ethnicity with us. I’m not parading around, saying, ‘I’m an Asian lady! I’m an Asian lady!’ … But when I speak to my parents, my parents sound a certain way. We don’t really focus in on it. It’s just a part of our reality. So the thing with ‘The Chair’ is that we were just presenting more as a reality. And I’m really happy to be a part of that,” she said.
The two-time Golden Globe winner felt that her previous roles on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Killing Eve,” which also earned her an Emmy nod, hadn’t presented the opportunity to explore ethnicity as it was a different time then.
“My time on ‘Grey’s,’ which was 10 years and I say it was during the Obama years, because it was a stylistic choice that no one spoke about race in the hospital … And I think it was a choice based on the times.
“And then, with ‘Killing Eve,’ it’s just a different type of show, where even though I would try to in the beginning of the third season, I tried to bring in some of this background of where she kind of hides out and then kind of recuperates in the back of a Korean restaurant.”
Created by Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman, “The Chair” makes its six-episode debut on Friday and also stars Jay Duplass, Holland Taylor, Bob Balaban and David Morse.
Oh’s character not only has to handle a crumbling department but is raising her adopted, mixed-race daughter, Ju Ju (Everly Carganilla) and caring for her elderly father, Habi (Jiyong Lee), who can’t connect with his granddaughter because he doesn’t speak English.
Having a voice in the room for creative storylines has been extremely important to Oh and, as executive producer on “The Chair,” she was able to work with the writers and have an influence on the story and the character arc.
Speaking about the most essential element she wanted to see reflected in the show, she said, “I think it was definitely when Everly Carganilla was cast. And the storyline had to move into a transracial adoption story. I definitely felt like it was really important to service that storyline. Ji-Yoon Kim, as a professor, would think of it holistically. So to honour your child’s ethnicity, and to do your best to try and fill in everything and give your child everything, that was one thing that wasn’t necessarily planned, because you need to adapt to your cast.
“Everly, who has Latinx background and also a Filipina background, we chose her Latinx background to kind of explore, as Ju Ju’s background is Mexican.
“You get so much depth, because here she is trying to pass on culture, trying to pass on family, and what that means in a new place where we get to … choose how to build our families. And the ways that it works and the ways that it makes you feel alienated.”
Although the series is a thought-provoking examination of educational institutions, Oh is nothing but proud of her own educational background in Canada.
“I’m really, really happy with my education that I got in Canada, particularly at the National Theatre School, which was really just a place that didn’t teach you how to act, it just (gave) you the skills and the tools on how to manage your instruments, which is your own body and self.”
The actress also appreciates how her Canadian roots have helped her bridge the gap internationally as she worked on sets around the world.
“You don’t really understand this until you leave Canada, if you do, is that we think differently … It’s interesting, having lived in America for a while, a long while actually, and working in the U.K., that I definitely pull on my Canadian roots to try and build the bridge between the way Americans make television and how British people make television, and the kind of code switching that has to happen in the midst of that.” “The Chair” premieres on Netflix on Friday.