Sandra Oh says she was a 'merciless' theatre kid

CBC

14-03-2025

Sandra Oh was about eight years old when she discovered her passion. It was after seeing a production of Annie at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa that she realized she wanted to be an actor. After that, she says she became a "merciless" theatre kid.
"I was a part of the drama club and did all the things," Oh tells Q 's Tom Power in an interview. "I joined improv [and] I was in every school production. Drama is such a great place for people to find their tribe. You know what I mean? And I found mine very early."
As a young person, Oh was a big personality who was always looking for an audience. She remembers running improv exercises with her comedy troupe on the public bus, and she had the chance to take part in Canada's biggest high school improv tournament, the Canadian Improv Games (formerly the Ottawa Improv Games).
But Oh's traditional Korean parents weren't always super keen on her pursuing an acting career.
"I've been extremely blessed to have very, very loving parents," she says. "Not everyone's perfect, but I have been very blessed that way in my family of origin. What's great when you have to … really battle it out, is that this kind of challenge, adversity in an ultimately safe place is extremely character-building for a young person."
In the early '90s, Oh met her longtime collaborator Mina Shum, who slipped her the script for her debut feature, Double Happiness. It's a coming-of-age story that stars Oh as Jade Li, an aspiring actor who's torn between fulfilling her own desires and giving in to the expectations of her traditional Chinese Canadian family.
" Double Happiness was very, very close to the bone for me," Oh says. "And when my parents saw that — again, it's because my parents love me — they knew this is not going to end."
Not long after that, Oh's ambition led her to move to Los Angeles, where she rose to fame for her roles in Sideways and Grey's Anatomy. Today she's one of Hollywood's most accomplished stars, but she says her identity will always be Canadian.
I realized how fundamentally the country and the culture of Canada formed me. - Sandra Oh
"We are our own very distinct and marvelous people," she says. "When and if you have the ability to move outside of your country, you realize — at least I did — I realized how fundamentally the country and the culture of Canada formed me."
And despite being a big star, Oh still has a fondness for Canadian indie films. Her latest role is in Ann Marie Fleming's new movie, Can I Get a Witness?, which is set in a not-too-distant future when the climate crisis has been solved. But there's a catch: all humans are legally required to end their life at 50.
"I loved what the film is about," she says. "For me, what was so attractive about it, was the meditation on death and the meditation on the relationship between a mother and a child. And I was very interested in exploring that."
Can I Get a Witness? is in theatres now in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and it will open in more cities across the country in the coming weeks.
The full interview with Sandra Oh is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.