I'm so happy to meet you.
I'm so happy to meet you, too.
Thank you for being here in person,
and congratulations on the win on Critics' Choice.
I mean, that's a big deal.
How do you feel?
I felt really nice.
That was actually my first award, so yeah.
Yeah.
Are you normally an emotional person or what made you cry?
Did you just all of a sudden--
did that surprise you?
Well, I mean, how do I say this.
I felt a lot of emotions all at once,
and I made tears and burst.
Yeah.
But it was great, because it was real.
Instead of some kind of planned speech or whatever,
you were just real, which I think a lot of people
are responding to.
You were pinching your cheeks like you
do in the movie to see if you're awake or you're dreaming.
Is that something you are doing because it
happened in the movie or did you do that before you
were doing it in the movie?
I actually did that after the movie
and when I did the movie because I actually had no idea if I
was actually dreaming or not.
Right.
But now you know that you were not dreaming.
Yeah.
When did you realize, oh, this is not a dream.
I'm winning an award.
I'm not sure.
I still feel like it's a dream.
Yeah, well, it's not.
It's not, and you're right here right now.
So you're not dreaming now either.
So you've been acting for two years
but not really-- you never done a movie.
You've been trying to get something
and then this is your first movie that you've ever done.
Yes, that is my first movie and yeah.
They were looking for someone who spoke English and Korean,
and you spoke both and you're just so good in this movie
because it's just--
I mean, it's amazing to me that that was your first movie.
I was watching it thinking how natural you were.
Did you love doing it?
Yeah, it was really nice.
Yeah.
Do you want to do another movie?
Yeah, I want to do a bunch of other movies.
Yeah, because it was virtual--
you were at home, I assume.
Did you do something to celebrate when you won?
Yeah.
I had a pizza party, and I bought a red carpet.
And I'm like, I know what a red carpet is but what is it for?
Yeah, I think it's--
I don't know why.
I don't know.
It started as a thing and everybody does red carpet.
Yeah.
You're famous now are people like, people recognize you?
Do they want selfies?
I mean, like since it's COVID, I mean,
obviously I can't, but in Utah, Salt Lake City,
I did an autograph there and that was in Sundance.
I see.
I see, and where do you live?
Do you live here in Los Angeles?
No.
I actually live an hour away in Irvine.
I see, I know where that is.
OK, so you've been in a movie, you won an award,
but there's something else exciting
that happened this year.
Tell everybody what you did.
I got a dog.
You've got a doggy.
And he came from Korea, right?
Yes, which kind of gets weird because we did like a camera
test to see what we did and say it was an American Eskimo
dog, so I'm like, but it's from Korea.
Anyway, he's one.
He's very cute.
What's his name?
His name is cream.
Cream because his color is kind of cream colored.
I get it.
It's a good name.
Is that your only pet?
You have that one dog?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's great.
He must be so happy because you rescued him.
Yeah.
OK.
So I noticed that you like to wear suits,
but you're going to probably do a lot more like award
shows and stuff.
And since it's virtual, they only see the top of you.
So we got you something, so you'd be cozy and comfy
at home, but you look good.
So it's sweat pants on the bottom
and then it looks like you're all dressed up on top.
Oh, thank you.
You're welcome.
Congratulations on the movie.
It's called Minari.
It's in theaters and available on demand on digital platforms
now.
We'll be right back--
Alan Kim.