Jean Yoon, who portrayed the family matriarch, and Simu Liu, who played her son in Kim’s Convenience, have criticised the show's writers room for its lack of diversity.
Jean Yoon who starred in the sitcom Kim’s Convenience has come out in support of her co-star Simu Liu who had criticised the producers of the show for the treatment of his character.
According to a report by Liu had expressed frustration as his character was not developed deeply through the series. He also alleged that the personal experiences of the Asian Canadian stars were not taken into account by producers who were “overwhelmingly white”. Liu had also criticised the playwright Ins Choi for not being a ‘champion’ of East Asian and female voices.
Reacting to Liu’s comment, John Doyle, news writer, had rebuked the actor. Now, Yoon has come out in support of Liu and has also responded to Doyle in a Twitter thread.
Born in the USA, Yoon who is a Canadian actress of Korean descent said that the lack of Korean female writers in the team made her experience on the show ‘painful’ and ‘difficult’.
Check out the tweet here
Dear sir, as an Asian Canadian woman, a Korean-Canadian woman w more experience and knowledge of the world of my characters, the lack of Asian female, especially Korean writers in the writers room of Kims made my life VERY DIFFICULT & the experience of working on the show painful
— Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
She also said that Doyle attacking Liu in defense of Choi is neither helpful nor merited. Yoon further said that although Choi created the TV show, the showrunner was his co-creator Kevin White who was also setting the parameters. The 59-year-old actress also said that when they received the script of season five, the cast discovered that it was ‘overtly racist’ and ‘culturally inaccurate’. She concludes her tweet by saying that the cast of Kim’s Convenience came together to express concerns about the same.
Your attack on my cast mate @SimuLiu, in the defense of my fellow Korean artist Ins Choi is neither helpful nor merited. Mr. Choi wrote the play, I was in in. He created the TV show, but his co-creator Mr. Kevin White was the showrunner, and clearly set the parameters. — Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
The cast received drafts of all S5 scripts in advance of shooting BECAUSE of Covid, at which time we discovered storylines that were OVERTLY RACIST, and so extremely culturally inaccurate that the cast came together and expressed concerns collectively.
— Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) June 6, 2021
The show ended on 13 April last year after running for five seasons on CBC. Its last episode streamed recently on Netflix. In his Facebook post, Liu addressed the issue and said the show was not cancelled in a traditional manner. Liu also shared that he remains ‘resentful’ of the circumstances that led to the one non-Asian character (Shannon Ross played by Nicole Power) getting her spin-off.