Peter Thurnwald’s Storyline In ‘XO, Kitty’ Has A Real Life Twist

In the Netflix series XO, Kitty, Peter Thurnwald plays Alex, a teacher at an international boarding school in Seoul. Inspired by the popular To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before novel and films, the new series features Lara Jean’s younger sister Kitty, who attends the school partly because she wants to reunite with her Korean boyfriend, played by Choi Min-young. Not telling him about her plans is a mistake and her reception isn’t quite what she imagined. She gets some “older brother” guidance from Alex and the expats quickly become friends.

In the series, Alex is searching for the parents who gave him up for adoption. Kitty, played by Anna Cathcart, tries to help Alex find his parents, but she only complicates his search with her own misconceptions. Thurnwald knows what its like to be curious about your birth family. He was born in Korea and adopted by an Australian family. As he grew older he began to wonder about his birth parents and thought about finding them. Unfortunately, the orphanage with his birth records burned down, complicating Thurnwald’s search.

“In the end, I never went,” said Thurnwald. “But I hope that one day I’ll be able to return to Korea for the sole purpose of finding her. I just don’t think I’m quite ready to go looking for someone that may not want to be found. That being said, if she did come forward and want to reconnect, I would definitely want to meet her.”

Landing the role in XO, Kitty, which filmed in Korea, did provide Thurnwald with a chance to explore his birth country.

“I had so much fun working on this show,” he said. “Sometimes I completely forgot I was working on a Netflix
NFLX
production because it felt like this big holiday in Seoul. My favorite scene was the one shot in the night market with Anna and I wandering through the streets.”

He enjoyed spending time with Cathcart and Choi, and fellow cast members Lee Sang-heon and Gia Kim. The show also stars Kim Yunjun, who appeared in several k-dramas and the US TV hit Lost, and Michael K. Lee, a Korean American actor who now lives in Seoul.

“The locals on the shoot were amazing hosts and so we were always doing something together, whether that was going to KBBQ with Min-young, going climbing with Sang-heon or hiking with Gia,” he said. “It was also great to work with Sascha, the showrunner, and the creative team. I think they did an amazing job of listening and respecting the actors on the show by including suggestions that they were giving.”

When he auditioned for the show Thurnwald had just finished filming a show called Players in Los Angeles and was wondering what wait staff job to apply for. He initially auditioned for the character Min-ho, played in the series by Lee Sang-heon. The first time he read the script he thought the title was Hello Kitty.

“I didn’t know too much about To All The Boys at this stage,” said Thurnwald. “So, like most auditions, I worked on it for a few days, sent it off into the void, and forgot about it. To my surprise, within a few days, I was chemistry reading with Anna for that same role. Of course, it ended up going to the perfectly cast and very handsome Sang-Heon, however, it gave Sascha Rothchild, writer Jenny Han and I the opportunity to have a conversation about my heritage, particularly my adoption. Over the coming weeks, I went through the same process with Alex and booked it! No more applying for café jobs.”

The storyline created by Korean American author Jenny Han features such k-dramatic elements as love triangles, love contracts and a secret love child. As the plot progresses, viewers learn that Alex could be a secret love child, whose parents might prefer to forget him.

“Throughout his arc, Alex deals with a lot of laughs, heartbreak, and loneliness, not only because his parents rejected him at birth but also because he’s alone in a city that he should belong to but doesn’t,” said Thurnwald. “He’s lucky to have Kitty as his candlelight in the dark because it’s her playfulness and kindness that keep him held together.”

Alex also helps Kitty weather the complications created by her unexpected arrival and also the unexpected feelings she experiences there.

Thurnwald is also a director and producer, currently working on his own series, a drama-comedy about two brothers, one adopted Korean and one white, who accidentally meet for the first time and battle with their sense of identity to find their family.

“It’s this very crazy story that is based on my own experiences as well as the experiences of other Korean adoptees,” he said. “I think with the release of Beef and other fantastic drama comedies in the last few years, it’s a very prevalent story with universal themes of identity and family.”

He’s always felt a very strong pull toward being behind-the-camera.

“I love acting but producing and directing intrigue me a lot more these days. In the last few years, I’ve been dabbling in it. I made my first short film two years ago and now I’m producing another higher-budget short to be shot in rural Queensland. It’s always a slow process trying to get into the film industry from the perspective of a filmmaker, but I’m excited about the challenge and growing my production company to bigger and brighter things.

Thurnwald likes directing because working with actors is so much fun. He admits that he doesn’t have enough experience producing or directing to know which he’ll want to spend the most time doing.

“But I do know that I love storytelling, especially on screen,” he said. “As long as I’m finding stories that engage me and can be told to an audience, I think I’ll be working in one of the three for a long time to come.”