Why Daniel Dae Kim believes ‘Yellow Face' resonates in today's political climate

San Francisco Chronicle​

18-05-2025

From 2004 TV smash 'Lost' to 2024's ' Avatar: The Last Airbender,' for more than two decades Korean American actor and producer Daniel Dae Kim has steadily risen up the call sheet to become one of the most reliable and recognizable Asian American faces in entertainment.
He has also used his visibility to be an outspoken advocate for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, departing the 'Hawaii Five-0' reboot after seven seasons to protest pay disparity, and testifying before Congress in 2021 amid a wave of anti-Asian violence.
In 2024, Kim returned to his theater roots, starring in the Broadway revival of ' Yellow Face,' playwright David Henry Hwang's 2007 semi-autobiographical tale about accidentally casting a non-Asian actor to play an Asian role. The snappy comedy-drama recently received three Tony Award nominations, including best revival of a play and best featured actor in a play (San Francisco-born actor and St. Ignatius College Preparatory School product, Francis Jue).
To his surprise, Kim scored a best actor in play nod — the first Asian leading actor in 78 years to do so.
The Chronicle spoke with Kim at the AMC Kabuki theater in San Francisco's Japantown on Sunday, May 11, where a new film adaptation of 'Yellow Face' packed the closing night screening of this year's CAAMFest, before it premieres Friday, May 16, on 'Great Performances' on PBS.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
A: It's a cliche, but I was in bed sleeping. I didn't expect a nomination; I was planning to wake up and read about my colleagues' and friends' good fortune. Then my publicist repeatedly called me — breaking through the do-not-disturb feature on my phone — and gave me the good news.
Q: 'Yellow Face' premiered in 2007, yet its themes about race and representation remain relevant today. Did the political climate of the past year affect the performances night to night?
A: Current events can definitely influence and affect not only how we perform but how the audience receives our performance.
I'll never forget the show that we did on Election Day 2024. The results affected all of our performances in a way that we heard lines differently in the show that we hadn't heard before, and we could tell they were resonating with the audience in a different way.
That's one of the beautiful things about theater is that on any given night, any performance syncing up with a specific audience can create something brand-new. And that's what happened that night.
Q: You've used your platform to raise issues affecting the AANHPI community, even testifying before Congress during the rise of anti-Asian violence. Who inspired you to be so outspoken?
A: It's the people who challenged the status quo because it not only affected their way of life, but also people who had an understanding of something greater than themselves.
David Henry Hwang was an inspiration, for sure. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii, who served 1963-2012) was a big role model for me. In fact, when I was younger, people used to ask me who my role models were as an actor, and I really didn't have that many as much as I admired Sen. Inouye. He came from an island that was not so overwhelmingly a minority when it came to race, and yet he took that power into Washington, D.C., at a time where there was so little representation for Asian Americans, and became one of the lions of the Senate. That's a significant contribution at a time when we had none.
A: These are the reasons why a play like 'Yellow Face' is so important, because it shines a light on why those misperceptions are so harmful. When people misguidedly think that incarcerating Americans, or thinking they're more loyal to a foreign country than their own, then there needs to be a narrative change. A play like this is a way of explaining and shedding light on this subject without a textbook or a sermon or a lecture.
This is the power of entertainment — people can laugh and cry and learn all at the same time.
Q: What do you hope audiences take away from 'Yellow Face,' especially those unfamiliar with the AANHPI experience?
A: When we're living in a time when we're being questioned about how to define what is American, I would love audiences to think again about the contributions that not just people who look like me have made to this country, but people who may have come from South America or the Middle East.