Minari 's Alan Kim, 8, Says Earning Purple Belt in Taekwondo Was More Exciting Than Golden Globe Win
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Alan Kim has 8-year-old priorities!
On Monday, the young actor appeared on a new episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss the Golden Globe win for his film, Minari. The movie was awarded best motion picture — foreign language, Sunday.
"Yeah, it was exciting," Kim told host Jimmy Kimmel when asked about the award.
However, the child actor — who showed up to the interview wearing the new purple belt he earned in his Taekwondo class last week — then added that it wasn't more exciting than his personal feat.
"Was it more exciting than the purple belt, or no?" Kimmel, 53, asked Kim of the Golden Globe victory. He quickly replied to the host, "No."
Jimmy Kimmel Live
RELATED: All About Minari, the Moving Immigrant Drama That's Now a Top 2021 SAG Awards Contender
In the drama, Kim stars as David, one of the children in a family of Korean-American immigrants who migrate to a farm in Arkansas in pursuit of the American dream. It also stars, Steven Yeun, Youn Yuh-jung, Yeri Han, Noel Kate Cho, Scott Haze and Will Patton.
During one scene in the film, David pees in a bowl to give to his grandma in place of the Mountain Dew she asked for. When asked if he's ever done that in real life, Kim quickly replied, "No! Absolutely no, that's too dangerous," before admitting he felt "a teensy bit guilty" that his character did it in the movie.
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He also confirmed that it was actually Mountain Dew in the movie, and said that it marked his first time trying the sweet beverage.
"So I guess shout-out to [Lee Isaac Chung] for introducing me to Mountain Dew," he said of the film's director.
Josh Ethan Johnson/A24
Produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment and distributed by A24, the movie also won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury and Audience prizes last year.
The film's director, Lee Isaac Chung, accepted the film's Golden Globe on Sunday night. In his speech, the filmmaker thanked the team behind the drama, as well as his wife, whom he said was "hiding over there," and he thanked "this one here," signaling to his 7-year-old daughter clinging close to him.
"She's the reason I made this film," he said. "I just want to say that Minari is about a family. It's a family trying to learn how to speak a language of its own. It goes deeper than any American language and any foreign language. It's a language of the heart, and I'm trying to learn it myself and to pass it on, and I hope we'll all learn how to speak this language of love to each other, especially this year. God bless you all, and thank you."
