Daniel Dae Kim called out the “chilling effect” on free speech and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in Hollywood.
In an Associated Press interview conducted in Seoul, South Korea, the Tony nominee was asked if he’s worried about backlash against DEI efforts in the entertainment industry.
“We’re already seeing it,” the Butterfly actor and executive producer said. “If you look at what happened with Paramount and CBS News, we’re seeing a chilling effect on free speech and journalism and DEI. ‘DEI’ is a bad word these days, but to me, DEI’s not a fad. The idea of inclusion is not something that’s a political trend. It’s my life. It’s what I’ve lived every decade I’ve been in this business.”
Kim is referring to the $16 million settlement reached between Paramount and president Donald Trump over a contested 60 Minutes interview with former vice president Kamala Harris, which the GOP leader had claimed was fraudulently edited. At the time of the $20 billion lawsuit filing, the media conglomerate deemed the move “meritless.”
Following the settlement’s announcement, late-night host Stephen Colbert, whose show is televised on Paramount’s CBS, called the decision a “big fat bribe” amid the looming and long-gestating Paramount-Skydance merger. Just days later, he announced to audiences that his show — and The Late Show franchise as a whole, which began with David Letterman — would be cancelled next year. Amid speculation from viewers, Congress members and fellow industry peers, Paramount defended the decision as purely financially motivated.
Elsewhere in the Q&A with the AP, the Lost alum noted, “I have a lot of sympathy for actors who take stereotypical roles when they’re starting out because you need some way to break into the business. It’s much easier once you’re more successful and more established because you have more financial stability. It’s something that, if you’re not a person of color, or someone who’s a minority in the United States, you don’t have to think about. You don’t think about what this role means for the rest of a nation or an ethnicity. You just do what you’re drawn to, and that’s very liberating. I am lucky enough now where I can also make those same choices. But I don’t ever escape the fact that whatever I do will be watched and seen by so many people and judged through their own lens and filters.”
