{"id":3101,"date":"2017-12-16T14:13:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-16T14:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2017\/12\/16\/calgary-raised-paul-sun-hyung-lee-on-finding-his-appa-in-kims-convenience\/"},"modified":"2017-12-16T14:13:40","modified_gmt":"2017-12-16T14:13:40","slug":"calgary-raised-paul-sun-hyung-lee-on-finding-his-appa-in-kims-convenience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2017\/12\/16\/calgary-raised-paul-sun-hyung-lee-on-finding-his-appa-in-kims-convenience\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary-raised Paul Sun-Hyung Lee on finding his Appa in Kim’s Convenience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Volmers\/ Calgary Herald<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was during his early days as Appa in Ins Choi\u2019s hit play Kim\u2019s Convenience that Paul Sun-Hyung Lee realized just how convincing he was in the part.<\/p>\n

At a Toronto Q&A held after a performance a few years back, Lee said he heard something like a gasp from the audience when he began speaking. The Calgary-raised actor has played aging patriarch Appa Kim nearly 500 times on stage and for two seasons on the hit CBC sitcom based on the play, which takes place in a Toronto convenience store and focuses on a dysfunctional Canadian-Korean family. But he is not Appa Kim. For one, he doesn\u2019t have the accent. He also had significantly less grey hair at the time and was also least was 20 years younger than the character he was playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this huge rumbling,\u201d says Lee, in a phone interview from his home in Toronto. \u201cI couldn\u2019t understand why and then it was \u2018Oh, yes, this is my voice. This is how I actually sound.\u2019 People started to laugh and clap. The reactions have ranged from people being completely floored and saying \u2018Oh my God, that\u2019s even more incredible\u2019 to people being disappointed and saying \u2018Oh, so it\u2019s not real?\u2019 I think it\u2019s a huge compliment as an actor when it doesn\u2019t even occur to people that it\u2019s an accent that is being put on.\u201d<\/p>\n

A veteran character actor who has a long history on stage and screen, it seems inevitable that Lee will nevertheless be forever inked to Appa. While the CBC has not made a formal announcement, it would be surprising if the sitcom was not renewed for a third season. While Appa has always been a main character in the story, it could be argued that Lee is still the breakout star of the series. You would be hard-pressed to find any promotional video that does not involve a befuddled and stubborn Appa and his wife Umma Kim (played by Jean Yoon). In the past couple years, Lee says he has been slowly getting used to the vagaries of Canadian fame.<\/p>\n

For instance, there is often a double-take from fans who think they may recognize Lee but are reluctant to approach him in case they are wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want to appear racist,\u201d says Lee with a laugh. \u201cThey go \u2018That\u2019s the guy from Kim\u2019s Convenience.\u2019 But I walk differently, I dress differently and then they hear me speaking and they stop and go: \u2018That can\u2019t be him. Oh,\u00a0my God, I\u2019m so racist because I think every Asian guy with a beard is Appa!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When the CBC announced it would be adapting Choi\u2019s play for television, there was never any question who would play the\u00a0gruff family patriarch. Lee helped develop the role and workshopped the play with Choi more than a decade ago. He debuted Appa in 2011 at the Toronto Fringe Festival and, so far, is the only actor to professionally portray the character in theatre productions as the play travelled throughout Canada and to an off-Broadway stage in New York City.<\/p>\n

As a character, Appa was older and a touch darker in the original theatrical production. The series uses Choi\u2019s 90-minute play, which is about the Kim\u2019s relationship with their daughter Janet and estranged son Jung, as a jumping-off point. But the show has obviously needed to expand on the original concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not as grouchy,\u201d says Lee about the television version of Appa. \u201cIn the play, because he is in his 60s and close to retiring, he is at the end of a very long road. The play takes place over the span of a single day and in that day he is faced with his own mortality and having to answer the question of what the true legacy in life is. Whereas in the television series, we young the family down and the separation from Jung is still rather fresh. These two Appas will never ever meet. The Appa in the television series will never become the Appa in the play just because of the amount of learning and the themes and the situations and scenarios that we\u2019ve explored in the television series. Appa has incrementally been learning and growing as a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee did not have to look far for inspiration for Appa. Born in South Korea, Lee came to Canada at three months old with his family. By Grade 2, the Lees had relocated to a booming Calgary. As in Kim\u2019s Convenience, Lee and his sister were put to work in various family businesses, which included a variety store. And, just as Appa Kim disapproves of Janet\u2019s less-than-practical ambitions to be a photographer, Lee\u2019s parents were horrified to learn that the son they brought to Canada for a better life planned to spend his pursuing an acting career.<\/p>\n

Lee didn\u2019t get the acting bug until after he graduated from Winston Churchill High School and went to the University of Toronto. Eventually, Lee discovered that his father had a good and poignant reason for disapproving of his son\u2019s career choice. It turns out Lee had an uncle in Korea, his father\u2019s older brother, who died years earlier. He had been a respected actor but died in poverty.<\/p>\n

When Lee received his first big paycheque as a thespian for the 1995 TV movie Where\u2019s The Money, Noreen \u2014 a thriller starring the former Mrs. Bruce Springsteen, Julianne Phillips \u2014 he gave it to his parents. It was for $5,000, which was the biggest cheque Lee had ever seen at the time.<\/p>\n

Now back in Toronto, Lee\u2019s parents have become true devotees of Kim Convenience and their son\u2019s involvement is a point of pride in the Korean community. Lee says he loosely based Appa\u2019s accent on his father\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cheat on it for clarity\u2019s sake,\u201d Lee says. \u201cIf I was to go fully authentic as my dad, people wouldn\u2019t be able to understand what I\u2019m saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Lee bristles at the idea that Kim\u2019s Convenience somehow promotes stereotypes of Korean immigrants, something that has been talked about since the series began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took umbrage to that,\u201d he says. \u201cThe word stereotype, I think, was misused in this case. I always say we are not stereotypes, we are playing archetypes. The difference is, with a stereotype it is one common trait that you blanket an entire group of people with. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s all they are, that\u2019s all they will ever be. You can interchange anybody with a stereotype. With an archetype, it\u2019s similar in that you\u2019re bringing a blanket trait that is common to a group of people but that\u2019s the starting point and you build from there. You get three-dimensional, realistic characters with hopes and fears and faults and strengths and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to portray in Kim\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season finale of Kim\u2019s Convenience airs Dec. 19 on CBC.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Volmers\/ Calgary Herald It was during his early days as Appa in Ins Choi\u2019s hit play Kim\u2019s Convenience that Paul Sun-Hyung Lee realized just how convincing he was in the part. 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