How Su Kim Navigated the Pandemic and Other Challenges to Cast Apple TV+’s ‘Pachinko’

Su Kim is the Korean casting director and co-executive producer of the Apple TV+ series Pachinko. The show is based on a historical fiction novel about a Korean family that emigrates to Japan. Spanning multiple generations and languages, the series jumps back and forth through nearly a century from the 1880s to the 1980s with Japanese, Korean and English-speaking characters.

Insights: Lessons from Su Kim

• Master multiple languages and regional accents for authenticity in international roles.
• Be prepared for remote auditions using digital tools like Zoom, and stay adaptable to varying casting requirements.
• Seize opportunities for global exposure by auditioning for international projects, as they can significantly advance your career.

Pandemic Challenges: Casting Pachinko Season One

With the show shooting in Japan, Korea and Canada, there were multiple casting directors, including Mary Vernieu and Michelle Wade Byrd. Season One casting began during the pandemic, which posed a challenge as different countries had different COVID protocols. Korea, Kim explained, did not shut down like the U.S. and Canada, which meant auditions could be had in person, with safety protocols in place.

Later on, chemistry readings over Zoom were also challenging due to the 17-hour time difference between Los Angeles and South Korea. Zoom itself was initially a tool that was unfamiliar to many Koreans when the pandemic first hit and a document was created to explain how to sign up, connect and get the video going. 

Shooting locations were ever-shifting between Vancouver, Toronto, Korea and Japan, which required casting to pivot and decide if an actor cast in one country should be flown to another for the shoot or if that character should be a local hire. Casting also had to know who was eligible for a visa to travel but also had to quarantine for two weeks before and after. If an actor tested positive, a backup had to be ready.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

How Su Kim Cast Season Two of Pachinko

For Season Two, COVID was much less an issue, but language was very important. Most actors had to be fluent in Korean and Japanese, but there were regional accents that were important to master for authenticity. Some of the Koreans had a Chinese accent, and the Japanese was an Osaka dialect.

“For the Nagasaki factory in Episode 5, we knew from historical research there were certain kinds of dialects for the workers in those factories,” said Kim. “It was very challenging to find dialect coaches in Canada who could teach period-appropriate regional dialects. We had lots of dialect coaches who were virtually coaching actors from Los Angeles and Japan, which required a lot of collaboration.”

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

“Fluency was very important,” she said for the actors portraying Noah and Mozasu, the children of the main protagonist, Sunja. Season Two saw the boys get older, and two new actors were introduced to play them: Kang Tae-Joo and Mansaku Takada.

“In the audition process, if we felt that someone could be right for that role, we would give them more time to practice lines and then come back to see how they progressed and bring something new that maybe we didn’t see in the script. Our experience on Season One guided us on how to narrow down the choices and put priorities in order.”

Su Kim Reflects on Her Early Days of Casting

Kim said what she’s proud of most when it came to casting Season Two of Pachinko was being the bridge to a more international opportunity for local Korean actors, unlike previous shows she cast in Korea. She explained how, in her early days of casting, she was brought on as the local Korean casting director for Netflix Sense8, which aired between 2015 and 2018.

“They were looking for Koreans who could speak English, then a couple of years later they started looking for Korean actors who with Korean accented English performing skills,” said Kim of the casting evolution she began to notice that was coming her way from Hollywood. “Then they started looking for Native Korean speakers because, with many bilingual Korean actors in America, the Korean is American accented.”

Over the years, she has cast Korean talent on such projects as USA Networks’ Treadstone, Netflix’s To All the Boys: Always and Forever and the feature film The Creator. However, none of them compared to the significance of Pachinko, a show so deeply immersed in Korean culture from beginning to end, while airing on a wide-reaching platform like Apple. 

“Probably the most important thing for me was being responsible for representing good Korean talent,” she said. “With Pachinko, it was a huge opportunity for them to work with global film crews and producers. Some of the actors who traveled to Canada (for the shoot) had never been there before. The younger actors had to get passports for the first time because it was their first time being abroad.”

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

Many of the Korean actors were also aware of just how big an opportunity this was. Kim pointed out that Lee Min-ho, who plays the lead of Koh Hansu, a wealthy businessman in love with the main protagonist Sunja, is such a huge star in Korea that he hasn’t had to audition in close to 15 years because he’s been “offer only” in the country. But he, along with other top-tier Korean stars, were more than willing to audition.” 

“That helped us to reach out to more Korean actors who we thought would never read for the role,” said Kim. “For season two, it was slightly easier. Actors knew what Pachinko was, they knew what Apple TV we and they knew Min-ho auditioned, so it was easier to approach the talent.”

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

Another advantage Kim had was being familiar with the film industry in Hollywood. She attended film school in the United States and worked as an assistant to a Hollywood producer, honing her skills by working production.

Moving back to Korea, she worked in the film and TV industry in various capacities, including script supervisor, line producer, translator and more. On the first season of Pachinko, she also worked in post-production before being upped to producer in Season Two.

Despite wearing all the different hats on both seasons of the show, it’s her ability as a casting director to showcase Korean talent to the rest of the world that is most meaningful to her. 

“I’m most proud of being the bridge to bigger opportunities for local Korean actors.”

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