Sandra Oh takes ‘Killing Eve’ break with dramedy ‘The Chair’
Sandra Oh has been dancing with death and serial killer Villanelle on “Killing Eve” since 2018, so she could do with a laugh.
That’s one of the reasons the Canadian-American actor took on the role of Professor Ji-Yoon Kim, the newly appointed head of a prestigious but struggling college’s English department in Netflix’s comedy-drama series “The Chair.”
As rewarding as she finds “Killing Eve,” Oh said, its darker elements make it “hard for me to shoot the show .... I feel like I’ve wanted to live in a comedy space.”
The six-episode “The Chair,” out on the streaming service, blends humor with the daunting challenges that Ji-Yoon faces at a school beset by financial woes and generational clashes.
Enrollment in the English department is down and most of the professors are older, white and stuck in their ways — which doesn’t go down well with the politically correct students of Pembroke University.
Ji-Yoon’s relationship with her headstrong, grade-school daughter Ju-Hee (Everly Carganilla) is rocky as well. The series from actor-turned-showrunner Amanda Peet attempts to show family relationships in a realistic and complex way.
“I moved into the mother part of my career, and usually it’s kind of been a death knell for actresses,” Oh said. “I realize it’s because the parts for the mother aren’t that great. But the ones that I am playing are very full, multidimensional and rich to play.”
“The Chair” was filming in Pittsburgh in March when a series of shootings in the Atlanta-area left eight people dead, six of whom were women of Asian descent and Oh felt compelled to make her voice heard.