EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan Kim Opens Up About His Career, ‘Brilliant Minds’, TIFF & More
Jonathan Kim has become quite the rising star in Hollywood over these last few years. With roles in projects such as, The Christmas Chronicles, The Path of Totality, The Mother and the Bear, and now, NBC’s Brilliant Minds, Kim has been very busy, and BeautifulBallad at the wonderful opportunity to catch up with Kim to discuss is rising career.
On how he go involved with Brilliant Minds: “Pretty much just your simple audition. I was actually visiting my friend out in the West Coast. My best friend. He recently moved out to Calgary. And just got the audition from my manager/agent and just put myself on tape. I actually taped with my best friend’s wife. She’s like, ‘I want 10% going forward. I’m your new acting coach and also your manager.’ Maybe I have to fly out to Calgary, audition with her in order to book these really, really exciting roles.
On what drew him to the role: “I’ve always been a massive fan of the procedurals, like the NBC medical shows. For me, I think it was always my dream to become a doctor. It was my parents’ dream to become a doctor. And once I got onto this medical show, I only ended up being a paramedic. I still have a ways to go. But what drew me to the show was the fact that this is just a show with a lot of heart. So much vulnerability. It just talks about the human experience of the idea of being othered and allowing that gift to be your superpower as opposed to creating limitations. It’s just overall a super vulnerable, beautiful show where it is just about human connection. Something that I feel, as a whole, we’ve lacked since the pandemic and just overall because we’re so connected by technology. This is just a show that I think everyone needs to watch.”
On something he has taken away from filming Brilliant Minds: “Overall, being able to be a fly on the wall. Obviously, watching Tamberla Perry, Zachary Quinto, and other actors who I’ve watched since I was a little kid, just to watch their process, it was a masterclass.”
On what’s to come for his character on Brilliant Minds: “I don’t know if NBC will be too happy if I tease or say things, but let’s just say that, number one, you’ll have to wait and see. Max will be tested because, I don’t know if you’ve seen the last episode, but my partner, played by the wonderful Mishel Prada, Katie … We are both going to be tested, and we both have to go above and beyond.”
On working on an NBC series: “Just to be a part of a project with this scope or scale on NBC, you’re like, ‘This is amazing.’ Because I’m sort of used to the Canadian industry where we don’t have as much money. But with being on an NBC show, you don’t even have to act because the set deck is just amazing, right? It’s phenomenal.”
On something he learned from his time working on the TV series, Gray: “To be able to watch Patricia Clarkson just be free and do her thing and not worry about making mistakes, being bold in her choices. For me, that was such a massive takeaway. There’s no right way to do it. It’s OK to make those mistakes. Be messy. And then the beautiful thing about TV and film is that you get many, many takes. It’s not theater. I think that’s a big part of what I’ve learned”.
On whether he gets nervous working with actors who he loved as a child: “Reading the call sheet, you’re like, ‘Oh, my goodness. I don’t know what to do with mine, so how am I supposed to act?’ But I think having those reps being in the industry for many, many years and being able to navigate that, I’m able to sink into character, and for the most part, I’m fine. I haven’t had a moment where I’m like, ‘I can’t act because I’m so nervous,’ on set yet”.
On whether he has ever come home after filming saying to himself, “Wow, that just happened!”: My first day on set of a show called Beauty and the Beast, with Kristen Kreuk. I had one line, and I played an FBI agent, and my line was, ‘Five minutes, ma’am,’ and they didn’t tell me I had to drive a car. The joke is, as an actor, when you’re on set, no one knows how to drive a car. The crew says, ;Hey, go from point A to point B,’ which is probably 10 feet max. I’m like, ‘It’s all good.’ They yell action, I drive my car from point A to point B, I’m nervous as hell, and I get out of the car, say my line, and then all I hear is screaming from the ADB. ‘Someone stop the car.’ I didn’t put it into park. I put it into reverse. And so, it was quite embarrassing because I think Kristen Kreuk was behind the monitor watching everything unfold. It was hilarious. It’s so embarrassing.”
On attending his first Toronto International Film Festival for The Mother and The Bear: “Where do I start? The fact that all my best friends got to experience this thing with me. To have my parents walk the red carpet with me. I’m an only child to Korean immigrant parents. For them, when I told them that I was going into acting, they were like, ‘What is this thing that you’re doing?’ This past September was the ninth year or eighth year I’ve been in the industry. My mom’s like, ‘I guess you’re finally an actor.’ It’s really funny because they don’t get it either, right? For them, it was such a cute moment. They walked the red carpet, and they were so nervous, and they’re like, ‘Are you sure this is the car that we get into to get to the red carpet?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is all you guys.’ And it was so special. So special.”
On his experience filming The Mother and The Bear: “It was tough. Very rewarding, but tough. Tough, because I had to film in Winnipeg in the middle of March, mid-February, and this was when it was just getting warm in Toronto. And I had to get my goose, and I had to go out to Winnipeg, and it was really, really cold, gloomy, but the rewarding part was just to have a character written, as the director kind of described it, as this Korean Prince Charming kind of character. You don’t see those characters in North American television as much. It’s just starting to happen. Just to be able to play a character that’s not the nerdy guy or the lab tech, just to be able to dig my teeth into something like that, for me, the ultimate blessing and so much gratitude for that. Shout out to Johnny Ma. He’s one of the best directors and writers. He’s my guy.”
On whether having a film premiere at TIFF is one of his biggest acting milestones thus far: “I would say so. To have a film premiere at one of the top eight-tier film festivals and to be a collaborator in telling this amazing story that’s also very, very heartfelt, I would say so”.
On how the TIFF premiere pushed him to work harder on his craft: “A few days afterward, I’m like, ‘I just want to get back in class. I just wanted to just continually work my craft.’ All that stuff, the TIFF stuff, it’s amazing, all the bright lights, but ultimately it comes down to the craft. The work. That’s all it is. For me, that’s what I believe in, and I think that’s what I got from my dad. Resilience and working hard. And so, that’s what I want to continue to do, and then hopefully do bigger stuff.”
On how he transitioned from acting, to executive producing on the new film, The Path of Totality: “It was an indie Canadian sort of horror/thriller. That was a wild experience just because it was a two-hander. We shot that movie in 10 or 11 days. We had the weekends off, obviously, but it was a labor of love. And so, to be able to have a bit more creative control and a bit more voice as a collaborator, was another blessing in disguise. I worked with that director on a project called Riverfront Romance. And he ended up reaching out like, ‘Hey, I have this role for you. I think it’d be perfect for you. What do you think if you came on as a producer and also as an actor?’ I was like, ‘For sure. Why not?’ Such a learning experience, but a labor of love. 11 days. I think about that now. That’s crazy.”
On the experience of only having 11 days to shoot the film: “We actually shot pretty quickly because we had a bit of prep time. I prepped for the role, maybe a month and a half before filing. I worked with a friend of mine, my acting coach, Marion Flung, and we went in just knowing that we had 11 days to shoot this thing and just came in as prepared as possible. It seemed longer because my character was in this room, trapped in this room, for a period of time, and it felt like an eternity. Actually, when I came home, and we wrapped, I think I got a little bit of PTSD, and I had to talk to my therapist about it a little bit. It was very traumatic, but at the end of the day, it’s still make-believe.”
On how you prepare for a role as isolating as the one in The Path of Totality: “We did a block shooting. Where we were able to shoot from page one to the end. That emotionality, that sort of feeling like I’m going crazy helped. I used that. As an actor, you use these things to really propel the work, and that was such a wonderful opportunity as well, too. I think every single project that you do, you take what you can. Build the toolbox.”
On how he decompressed after shooting: ” It was Christmas break, so all I did was stay at home, and I did nothing. I didn’t want to see my friends, and I just wanted to just hang out and just be on my own for a little bit. It stays with you a bit”.
On landing the lead role in Jin and the Wild Dog: “This is the second movie that I’ve done with the director/writer, Andre Rehal. I did a film called Strangers in a Room. It just released on Tubi, I think, maybe a month and a half ago. The movie we filmed about a year ago, Jin and The Wild Dog. It was also challenging. We filmed that, I think, in 18 days? 17 days? And it just made me sort of solidify this mentality of I want to do action movies for the rest of my life.”
On preparing for this action role: “A lot of working out. I think seven days a week of working out, but at the same time, he’s an ex-Navy SEAL. The way that he works and the way that he operates, the way that he thinks, is very, very different from how I am. I get distracted really easily, but Jin’s someone who’s very laser-focused with intention. And at any given notice, something can pop out, and he has to be ready to go. Just preparing in that kind of way. Watching a lot of videos on YouTube. Training in that kind of way as well. Not just weightlifting, but a lot of how people in the military would also train as well because those Navy SEAL guys are…I wouldn’t be able to do it, but here we are filming a movie about one.”
On other things he did to prepare for Jin: “Naturally, my voice is at a higher resonance, so I had to change his voice totally. Super, super deep. And that also took a while for me to actually come out. My friends were like, ‘Why are you talking so weird?’ I’m like, ‘Really? What you talking about?’, it was one of those Austin Butler things where he changes his voice. That’s on a smaller scale, but it’s interesting, too, as an actor how much voice and cadence really, really allows you to hop into a character. During that time, I was actually working at a supplement store. As practice, I would speak in that voice. And the way that you would command the room or command sort of how a person sees you. It’s just very, very different.”
On what he loves about acting: “Every single project that you work on, you take what you can, and you put it into the toolbox. And that’s what I love about acting. That’s what I love about it. I think life mirrors art, and art mirrors and vice versa. And in essence, that’s what also allows you to grow as a human being and to really just understand how you navigate the world around you. I love it so much. I can talk for hours about it, but I’ll stop.”
On whether he prefers TV or film acting: “Having a job as an actor, whether it be TV or theater or film, it’s a gift, but I would love to do what Steven Yeun has done from The Walking Dead and do movies here. Also, go back home to Korea where my parents’ are originally from and do movies like he did.”
On what made him want to become an actor: “I had actually a friend of mine who worked at the gym. And every single day, I would scan in, he’d be like, ‘Hey, Jon, you have a good look. Why don’t you just try commercial acting?’ I was like, ‘No, I’m okay.’ But in the back of my mind, I’m like, ‘I would love to. I would love to.’ And then I think, with anything, with any sort of endeavor or this small seed that was planted in my mind, it kind of grew and grew and grew. And after probably the, I would say, thousandth time of him asking me to try a class, I was like, ‘Why not?’ And the rest has been history. It’s wild.”
On music inspiring his need to act: “Music was always my first love. I love singing. I play guitar. I played violin since I was three, four, until I was 17. For me, music was always my first love. And with acting, there is a musicality to it. There is, once again, a cadence. Tone. It intersects.”
On whether he would ever do a musical or musical feature: “That would also be quite the challenge. But that being said, I loved Glee. I went to the Glee concert with my ex-girlfriend 10 years ago. I love that show. All musicals. I would love to.”
On people coming into his life at the right moment: “It’s these little moments where you meet people, and they sort of guide you on this path of this journey. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure kind of thing. Right? It’s amazing. That’s the best part, right? Where you do meet these people along the path, along the journey, whatever you want to call it, and that’s what success is, right? You meet along the way, and you build these relationships through empathy and compassion. I’m a huge fan of the book, The Alchemist. I read that once a year. And when you want something bad enough, the whole universe conspires to help you. And so, I feel that’s just one of those things where, whatever the journey you decide to embark on, as long as you want it bad enough, I think you meet people along the way that will definitely help.”
On what’s in store for 2025: “I’m just back in acting classes.Just being in classes, getting ready for the next opportunity. A lot of auditioning as well, too, for a couple of cool projects that I can’t really talk about. But just living life and sinking my teeth into what’s next in terms of my career. And with acting especially, it all ebbs and flows all the time. Just getting ready for all that. And also a few more episodes that are coming out on Brilliant Minds as well too. Just getting ready for that as well too.”
Kim has a couple more episodes of Brilliant Minds coming our way, so make sure to check them out!
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo Credit: Andre Widjaja