Daniel Dae Kim On His Spy Thriller ‘Butterfly,’ K-Dramas And Karaoke

Daniel Day Kim plays an intelligence agent who returns to Korea to rescue his daughter, played by Reina Hardesty.

Prime

The glossy well-constructed spy thriller Butterfly is the story of a secret operative who risks his life to return to Seoul. It’s also a story about a father and daughter who need to resolve the pain caused by his absence. Daniel Dae Kim plays David Jung, a highly skilled secret agent, long thought to be dead. During his extended absence his daughter became an asset for the intelligence agency that he co-founded, an agency that has since turned against him. She’s a coldblooded killer and he wants to rescue her. She might be so angry to learn that her father’s alive, she may want to kill him.

It wasn’t just the thriller’s rapid fire action scenes that led Kim to both star in and produce Butterfly. It was also the dangerous dynamic between Jung and his daughter Rebecca, played by Reina Hardesty (The Flash, It’s What’s Inside). Their relationship definitely needs mending.

“I’m a dad myself,” said Kim. “I know that parents can sometimes make very big mistakes with the best of intentions and I’m interested in playing and watching people who are flawed, not your perfect hero. Every character in our show has made mistakes and everyone is seeking some kind of forgiveness or reconciliation. Whether the audience chooses to give it or not is the question I’m interested in seeing gets answered. That attracted me to the piece. I also love this idea of bringing together Korean culture and American culture because they both reflect two sides of who I am.”

The international cast includes Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly), Louis Landau (Surprised by Oxford), Charles Parnell (Top Gun Maverick) and Sean Dulake (Dramaworld), but also features Korean drama and film stars Kim Tae-hee (Hi, Bye Mama), Kim Ji-hoon (Death’s Game), Park Hae-soo (Prison Playbook), Sung Dong-il (Reply 1988) and Lee Il-hwa (Reply 1988).

“The idea that I could have a cast full of Korean stars, as well as well-known American actors and put them in a story that is authentic to who I am, it was really a gift,” said Kim.

The American actor and producer is known for his roles in television and theater, having played Jin Soo Kwon on Lost, which might be the first time any character spoke Korean on a U.S. television series. He played Chin Ho Kelly on Hawaii Five-0, and executive produced the U.S. version of the k-drama The Good Doctor. Kim also voiced characters in animated films including Raya and the Last Dragon, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, and most recently Healer Han in the hit movie KPop Demon Hunters. He has long been a fan of Korean dramas

“Most of the Korean actors that joined our show I was a fan of before they came on board,” said Kim. “My favorite k-drama of all time is Reply 1988. Kim Tae-hee is a legend in Korea. Kim Ji-hoon is an up and comer. I am so excited to be able to bring them to a new audience for people who haven’t seen their work. And I’m equally excited for people to see Korea in the way that we try and show it to them—with respect, authentically, and a little bit of a personal view from my perspective.”

Despite the many dramatic action scenes, Butterfly takes time to celebrate Korean cuisine. Kim’s character turns to brewing the traditional Korean liquor makgeolli after his departure from the espionage world. There are a few food scenes reminiscent of the amount of time that k-dramas spend focusing on food.

“Korean cuisine is unsurprisingly some of my favorite in the world,” said Kim. “I wanted to shine a light on all the richness of the different kinds of food we have and drink we have. When I grew up and my friends would come to my house as a kid, they would smell kimchi and go, what the heck died in here? I remember feeling embarrassed about that and a little ashamed about something that I ate every day. So, how nice is it now to say the word kimchi and know that everyone, every non-Korean, knows what it is? Not only do they know what it is, they’re like, oh, I love it. It’s so flavorful and it has probiotic qualities. It’s just a shift in the way that Asian cultures are viewed now. I’m so happy to see that in my lifetime.”

His favorite scene in Butterfly involves David Jung and Rebecca drinking makgeolli.

“He ends up singing her that lullaby,” said Kim. “I like that scene a lot because you not only get to see what their relationship dynamic is, but you also see a little bit of betrayal. You see the resentment that results from it in the fight afterwards and there’s a bit of a confessional at the end of it. In some ways, that scene is a microcosm of our first season. If you buy into that scene then I believe you buy into the rest of the season.”

It’s not the only time David Jung sings in Butterfly. He starts the series singing karaoke in a crowded room. He’s a little off key, but everyone is drunk and doesn’t mind. His character isn’t drunk because he’s there with an ulterior motive. Kim actually likes singing karaoke and enjoys belting out the song he sings in the series, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers.

“That’s a good song,” said Kim. “That’s a fun song to sing. I also like the Backstreet Boys. ‘I Want It That Way’ is a fun song to sing. I like songs where everyone just feels like they want to chime in, so that it becomes an impromptu group singing, and that’s when it feels the most fun for me.”

Butterfly was adapted from a graphic novel of the same name, but it wasn’t originally set in Seoul, as the TV version is.

“It was actually set in Virginia and in Europe with white characters,” said Kim. “But when it was brought to me as a potential project to do, I asked the author of the book and the publisher whether or not they’d be open to changing it to Asian people or Asian Americans and set it in Korea. Thankfully, they were open to that.”

Adapting a graphic novel is always a challenge. A graphic novel provides lots of visual cues, but everything doesn’t easily translate to the screen.

“There’s always a question as to how much we should take from the original source material versus how much liberty we should be taking,” said Kim. “Thankfully the writer and the comic book company were very collaborative. Steven Christy, the head of Boom, is one of our executive producers. We were in touch with them regularly about the development process and I really like the balance we were able to find between respect for the original and originality.”

A drama with espionage agents naturally requires a lot of action scenes and this one is no exception. David Jung is pursued by legions of agents, including a ruthless tatttooed killer, played by Kim Ji-hoon. Daniel Dae Kim continues to do as many of his own action scenes as he can because he enjoys them.

“The older I get, the harder they get, but they’re as much fun, if not more than before,” said Kim. “Not many people like to do action. I do. I find that it actually helps my scene work as an actor because it activates me, it grounds me into the work. So, I’ll keep doing action scenes as long as the insurance companies will let me.”

Filming in Seoul was a different experience, but a rewarding one.

“There is a slightly different philosophy toward when it comes to how the actors work behind the scenes, makeup and hair and trailers and all the mechanics of those kinds of things,” said Kim. “But one thing that we have in common is the desire to really delve into storytelling. I was not surprised, but encouraged to see that every one of our actors really cared about their characters. They weren’t just doing it for a paycheck. It led to some really in-depth discussions about relationships and beats and scenes, and it was really heartening to know that that artistry transcends national boundaries.”

Butterfly airs on Prime starting on August. 13.