Sandra Oh’s sizzling new role
The Grey’s Anatomy star is wowing TV audiences in her new role in the hit series Killing Eve
SHE was one half of TV’s most f amou s friendship, the pair who brought us the concept of “my person”. When she said goodbye we wept as we danced it out with her and her bestie, and we wondered if Grey’s Anatomy would ever be the same again.
The love for Cristina Yang endured long after Sandra Oh left the hit show – and she knew it wouldn’t be easy to shake the beloved character she’d played for nearly a decade.
It’s why the actress spent four years waiting for the perfect project to materialise – she knew she had to top the gifted surgeon she’d portrayed with such skill.
Sure, there was a lead role in a lowbudget movie here and a supporting role in a comedy there. But nothing came close to Cristina, best friend and confidante of Meredith Grey and one of the lead characters in the award-winning medical drama series.
The role turned Sandra (48) into a household name yet she still had to wait some years before a meaningful offer came along. But now she’s finally been able to sink her teeth into something meaty – and fans are loving her new show.
In Killing Eve, Sandra plays lead character Eve Polastri, an agent with British secret service agency MI6. The series, which recently started on DStv, revolves around her obsession with hunting down a psychotic assassin named Villanelle, played by English actress Jodie Comer.
It’s an all-consuming quest for which she’s willing to risk everything, including her marriage and even her life.
Villanelle is just as obsessed with Eve and in each episode they go head to head in an epic game of cat and mouse. “Usually Eve and Villanelle are kept apart and at a certain point they crash into each other,” Sandra says.
It’s this explosive dynamic that’s had viewers coming back for more.
“When they’re in the same room, it’s too much energy,” Sandra explains.
“They’re like two sparks that explode when they’re together, yet they need each other.”
ALTHOUGH Killing Eve is an action-packed thriller, there are moments of drama and black comedy, giving Sandra plenty of opportunity to show her acting range. “There are crazy, heightened moments of high theatrics, which are so over the top but completely grounded in truth,” she says.
“Then in the middle of all the hysteria is the ridiculousness.”
Eve is the source of a lot of the humour. Although she’s dedicated to her job, she’s not nearly as tough as the ruthless Villanelle – for instance, she’s not all that good at handling a gun and has a habit of screaming when she’s scared.
The show, which is based on the Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings, has been getting rave reviews since it first aired in the US in 2018 and was quickly renewed for a second season.
Although South Africans are currently watching season one, it’s in its third season in the US.
Sandra says the role is just what she was craving. Although she previously avoided watching herself on screen because she found it too embarrassing – which meant she’s never seen a single episode of Grey’s Anatomy – she admits to binge-watching Killing Eve.
The only people more excited than Sandra about the success of Killing Eve are her parents, Oh Junsu and Jeon Young-nam.
When Sandra picked up a Golden Globe award for best actress in a TV drama series last year, her dad couldn’t contain his delight as she went on stage to accept her award.
A clip of Oh Junsu standing, as if to check that everyone in the room was witnessing his daughter’s success, went viral.
Sandra says her parents’ initial scepticism about her choice of career was her biggest motivation in achieving this level of fame and success.
With a sister, Grace, who’s a lawyer and a brother, Ray, who’s a medical geneticist, she had a tough time getting her Korean immigrant parents to understand her decision to pursue acting.
“It was very, very tough,” she said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2007.
“Because, like, you know, my parents at that time looked down on the arts. It’s like one step above prostitution.”
Because of that, she says, she simply had to reach A-list status to prove something to her businessman father and biochemist mother. Thankfully Grey’s Anatomy helped her achieve that.
Fans were devastated to see her bowing out of the series back in 2014 but Sandra insisted she’d played Cristina Yang for long enough and it was time to do something new.
She fondly recalls driving around town with her mom and dad until they found a massive billboard for Killing Eve, Sandra’s face front and centre.
“Koreans are ambitious, man,” she says. “It means a lot to my parents that I do the work that I do, and it has the visibility.”
DESPITE being one of the small screen’s most beloved characters for so many years, Sandra has successfully managed to keep most of her private life out of the public eye.
Since her four-year marriage to director Alexander Payne ended in 2007, she’s been involved with drummer Andrew Featherston.
But although they’re frequently spotted out and about together, she’s refused to comment on the 10-year relationship, only revealing she’s “very happy”.
As far as she can, she avoids reading things published about her in the tabloids.
“I don’t listen to this stuff. I don’t see it,” she says. “I tell my people I don’t want to know about it, because while rationally you might know it’s ridiculous, it can hurt your feelings. It can knock me off from being my authentic self.”
Besides, she’s too busy carving her career to fuss over hearsay.
The long hiatus between Grey’s and Killing Eve put things into perspective for her, she says.
“The four years of actively waiting,” she says. “Actually being able to exercise your own choice can bring about greater opportunity. “I think it’s just as important what you say no to as what you say yes to.”
‘It was tough. My parents at that time looked down on the arts’