What Are You Striving to Achieve in Hollywood?

After portraying Hae-sung in Past Lives and earning a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor this year, Teo’s next destination has just been revealed: Hollywood’s action blockbuster Karoshi. We caught up with Teo in Korea just before he departs for the U.S. to begin the intense filming process for Karoshi.

(C) CINE21

-Recently, news broke about your casting as the lead in the Hollywood action film Karoshi. What made you choose this as your next project?

=After Past Lives, many people in the American film industry were curious about my next steps. In turn, I often posed a question back. Having studied acting for over 20 years, I have a strong grasp of 20th-century American cinema, and a sense of how Asian actors have been cast over time. That's why I asked them back. Traditionally, Asian male actors have often been relegated to roles as mysterious figures or as detective characters like Charlie Chan—stripped of a natural masculinity and viewed more as plot devices than fully human characters. Because of this, I made a firm decision to avoid stereotypical martial arts or comedic roles. When the offer for Karoshi came, it checked all the boxes of what I was looking for. The film had a distinct and refreshing twist that set it apart from other action films, making it an obvious choice. It felt like a stroke of good fortune falling right into my lap.

-How would you assess your current standing as an actor in the U.S. market?

=I make it a point to tell everyone wherever I go—I’m not a one-hit wonder. I’m not someone who will appear suddenly and then disappear. To ensure that, I’ve studied how Western and Eastern film industries perceive masculinity. My task is to accurately grasp the unique qualities that each market finds appealing and to find that elusive middle ground. It’s a challenge shaped by my multicultural background; having been born in Germany and lived all over, I carry this complex sense of identity. In some ways, it leaves me with a feeling of not fully belonging anywhere.

-It seems like Hae-sung in Past Lives captured that elusive middle ground quite well.

=Hae-sung in Past Lives is probably one of the first Asian male characters to appeal as a romantic lead to white women. While Asian men have been portrayed as significant action characters in films like those from the Marvel universe or as attractive mixed-race characters, like Henry Golding in Crazy Rich Asians, there hasn’t been an example of an Asian man resonating romantically across both Western and Eastern audiences. For instance, when a middle-aged woman in America’s heartland sees Hae-sung and thinks, “I’d be happy to have him as my son-in-law”—that’s an Asian portrayal breaking through racial boundaries in a way we haven’t seen before.

-In the recent variety show Music Adventure By Accident, your cowboy look felt like something we hadn’t seen before—almost like an Asian lead in a Western.

=The Western genre is one I’ve always loved. From Dances with Wolves, which I watched as a kid, to recent hits like Yellowstone, I’ve admired Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan’s work (Yellowstone, Sicario, Wind River are directed and written by Sheridan- note by editor). I also thoroughly enjoyed Old Henry, which came out a few years ago. Growing up in Germany, I was exposed to a lot of German-Italian-Spanish Westerns, or “macaroni Westerns”. I watched everything from Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci classics to B-grade comedies like Terence Hill’s My Name Is Nobody and the Trinity series. But the more I watched, the more I felt the disappointment of knowing that, as a Korean, there was no real opportunity for me to be part of a historical Western with authentic characters. So, starting about three years ago, I began mentioning in variety show meetings that I wanted to truly experience the West—and this time, it finally came to fruition.