Joe Seo connects with his roots
One of Joe Seo’s goals as an actor has been to portray well-rounded characters that aren’t Asian stereotypes. Born and raised in California, Seo said one of the reasons he loves his role on “Cobra Kai” as Kyler — the school bully who’s a wrestler, not a martial arts expert — is because it’s such a different role for an Asian American man.
“It goes against the grain of the way Asians are portrayed,” he said from Atlanta, where he was working. “I jumped at this opportunity and thank the producers for trying to push the envelope.”
The winner of Sundance’s Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance for his portrayal of a gay teenager in “Spa Night,” Seo recently was a guest speaker at Georgia Tech, where he talked about Asian American representation in the media.
A: As BTS said, love yourself. It’s so important to acknowledge that we deserve to be loved. It starts from there and then we can address everything else. Asian Americans especially seem to have a tough time with this. All I know is that I am open to helping out our community in any way, whether it’s talking about mental illness and depression or representation.
PAUL SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY
A: At the beginning of my career, I did want to go to mainland Asia to pursue work. (Asian actors) there could pursue anything, whether it be an athlete, lawyer, president or janitor. In America, it was so limited. It’s getting better, but it’s still not that good. There are a lot of (information technology) or asexual roles for Asian dudes.
A: There was a completely different vibe working in China, Japan and Korea. In China and Japan, they viewed me as a Korean guy. But in Korea, no one saw me as a full Korean, because I did have a thick (American) accent. So I couldn’t really break into a lot of the roles that I wanted. When I came back to America, I was told I was too Asian for a leading role. I felt like I had no country or place. But I had so much fun, too. Korea is like New York on steroids. The food is amazing. The nightlife is great. Everything is open at all hours. And it’s so safe!
A: Korean was my first language because of my grandma’s input and then English was my second language. Then later in life, English was my main language and then Spanish. By that point, I couldn’t even say a whole sentence in Korean. After I fell in love with Korean films like Park Chan-Wook’s “Oldboy,” I started to relearn Korean, because I wanted to pursue all options. I studied on my own.
A: I was born in San Francisco, so we would come down to Los Angeles to visit relatives. Later, when we moved to LA, we went up to San Francisco to visit. Those are the kinds of road trips I remember — up and down California mostly. One of the great things about California is all the terrains. You can get from the beach to snow in a day. We also took trips to Yosemite or even to Mammoth to ski and snowboard.
A: You should be able to get a full refund. But your case is a little complicated. Let’s see if we can unpack it.
Airbnb had an “extenuating circumstances” policy that allowed guests to cancel reservations for stays made on or before March 14, 2020, with check-in dates between March 14, 2020, and April 14, 2020. But you were outside of that window.
That means the Airbnb extenuating circumstances policy didn’t apply to your rental in Lanai. But here’s where things get interesting. Airbnb claims your rental wasn’t refundable, but the owner says there was no such policy. So who is right? I’ll get to the answer in a moment.
You ran out of patience and filed a credit card dispute. In credit card parlance, that’s called a friendly dispute because you were doing business with Airbnb. And your bank sided with Airbnb, which further complicated your case.
A brief, polite email to one of Airbnb’s executives might have helped. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of Airbnb’s top customer service managers on my website at elliott.org/ company-contacts/airbnb.
So whose policy should prevail: the owner’s or Airbnb’s? I think the rules to which you agree are the rules that bind you. But those weren’t the rules to which the owner agreed, so you have some wiggle room. I’m unhappy that the owner never received your deposit. That suggests Airbnb simply pocketed your deposit. I guess that’s how Airbnb justifies its $80 billion valuation.
Given the fact that Airbnb had already promised a refund, I think the process should have been pretty straightforward. I contacted Airbnb on your behalf, and you received your $282 deposit back.