Actor Daniel Dae Kim on new Amazon Prime show Butterfly and his Asian-American identity


Daniel Dae Kim did not follow the path his parents had in mind.

When the Korean-American actor, who was born in Busan, Korea and raised in the US state of Pennsylvania, chose to pursue a career in the arts, it was against his parentsโ€™ wishes. They were both highly academic, and they largely expected the same of him.

Kim thought about this when he answered a question about how optimistic he was about the entertainment industry in general, and if it was a career he would want his sons โ€“ both in their 20s โ€“ to follow him into.

โ€œI think it would be hypocritical of me, as someone who bucked my parentsโ€™ wishes to become an actor, to deny my children their own wishes,โ€ he says.

โ€œI think itโ€™s a very tricky time in our industry, with the advent of AI, and there will be a lot of jobs that will simply be lost to this technology. If they were to go into this business [Zander works in his fatherโ€™s production company], I would do my best to give them as much information so they have their eyes open, and share with them the pros and cons of my 30 years of experience.โ€

Daniel Dae Kim in a still from Butterfly.
Daniel Dae Kim in a still from Butterfly.
Kim is speaking from New York ahead of the debut of his latest project, Butterfly โ€“ a high-octane spy thriller โ€“ which will stream on Amazon Prime Video from August 12.

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