One on One: Susane Lee

I am all in. Oh, I'll kiss you.

I Am all in with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.

Okay, we're going to talk to Suzanne Lee, who played the role of Kean for five episodes in two thousand and three two thousand and four. First appearance was in season four, episode nineteen After Boom. Last appearance was in season six, episode nineteen, I Get a sidekick out of You. Kean is a Korean exchange student who for a lot of the time finds American customs odd or foreign. She

I was always well, I got I minored in theater as well there, so it was kind of a pre med route but always and then splitting off to choosing acting ultimately.

But it was a bad It was a battle between.

Myself and my parents and expectations and trying to meet every like, trying to find my place. And it was only till I finally got to college. While I was away and I was actually taking theater classes acting got to do a summer program in London, and I was like, this is it, this is what I want to do, right, And.

That was it. Tell us about London a little bit that that part really fascinates me. Did you go to the Royal Academy? Where were you?

You know? It was affili date through Duke, so we stayed at other but we were really basically watching nightly theater, talking about it, discussing. It was just like theater camp doing scenes. And I actually saw Clive Owen there before he did the movie version. But it was a play first Closer and it was a small black box performance and it was so raw, so edgy, and it was like, oh my god, this is it.

Yeah, isn't he great? Yeah?

Phenomenal, mind blowing and I.

Was he's the real deal. That guy is just like, so, when did you move to Los Angeles?

Right after I graduated early I got out, I was like, I'm moving to LA right away, and I think I tell my parents that I got into like some I think it was a documentary USC summer program and I kind of used that to get me out there. And then I was just scouting, like Okay, where am I going to live? The girl who was in the documented program was like I want to stay too.

She was from Turkey. So we're like we're going to just do it.

And I didn't know anyone, and and then you know, doubt, self doubt kicks in and it's like you're doing everything but acting, you know. And I did like this theater behind the scenes, I'm in the raptors like pulling down whatever they need and I'm just sitting up there going, oh my gosh. And then my my roommate then her name was Hava, was like, what are you doing? You came on here to be an actor?

What are you? You know?

You're doing everything butt and I was like, you're right, You're right. So I pivoted and then did a couple years at LACC they had a theater Academy program, and then from there I did a play saw someone saw me in that and referred me to a manager, and then I was just getting.

Out there.

Fantastic. So what was the hardest part for you trying to break into Hollywood?

I would say, you know, it's I didn't have a real connected community, you know, coming out here. It was very like I'm just trying to figure it out myself. And that's when my parents also were like when they finally were like do it. But I just don't have any advice for you in this world. And it's just kind of like I had to figure it out. I had to find my own people, you know. Went to a Meisner program where my closest friends are still from

How do I get through?

Still I still feel like it's it's still challenging in its own right. I feel like now with time, I just feel a lot more confident than I did back then.

You know, yeah, yeah, it's like knowing when it's like hard to know when your skill set is ready to walk into the room and get the job, because that's it's it's a skill set, right, but you can't you can't get it. I mean, some people can just walk right in their first audition and nail it because they don't know any better to be right.

Yeah.

Yeah, and then they sort of like if they don't get the first couple of things, and then they go, oh, yeah, this is how it has to do. So then they get in their heads and they try to figure out how to be in the room and yeah, and then

That makes sense.

And I tried it, and I made a complete ass out of myself. So I never I forgot the order.

That because he gave himself that permission to really completely escape, like into his imagination and boom and then just go and then this is it, you know, and bring it to life.

And then it's like take it or leave it.

But I did right because there's so many you know, you get all this advice from your manager, your agents, whoever, and it's like, well, go in and be yourself and then transform into the character or just go in and take over the room, you know what it is. I got Gilmore because I was so busy. I didn't care if I got it. I didn't need it, or at least I convinced myself that I didn't need it. I really did need it, but I convinced myself because I was so busy. I had too many auditions. You know,

I started just started teaching too.

No, I was back time.

He was.

Like nineteen ninety eight I started, So you're doing it now, Yeah, I.

Just like I start.

I taught like a year ago at idsa Identity School of Acting. It's a multicultural school. I think they started in London with I guess John Boego Letitia right, and they opened up a Hollywood branch. But I was coaching first, and I started teaching, and I found it's thrilling.

Yes, that's how I started the same way, coaching people for auditions, and then people were getting to producers and some people got offers. So you should teach a class, So I sort of organic. It all organically happened. Yeah, that's that's great. It's very satisfying.

It is.

It's really really great to do it. You should continue doing it. It's wonderful.

Yeah, it is very it's inspiring. Like I feel like it's like a full circle, like the things I'm saying to them is like the things I'm utilizing, and it's just making me.

A stronger actor too. It's amazing, it's great.

I think that's why I got Gilmore. Oh wow, because because I was just so much more relaxed in auditions, because I was giving all this advice to people all the time, and maybe I just like I'm stupid or something, and I finally just that it had to take that kind of like hammering away at myself, yes, yes, to get it so it's finally sung. Anyway, I don't know throusmosis. I told myself it was speaking of audition. Do you remember the audition for Kirn Is that how you say k k k K?

Yes?

I remember there was one audition I went previously, but I didn't get it, and then this one came around, and I do remember.

I remember getting my.

Mom's help because of the Korean exchange because I'm like, I would say, conversational, I understand more.

Than I can speak it. And I was like, oh man, it's a rapid fire. So I had to get my mom to help me.

And I remember I do remember going into the room, and I think I was first because I was so like.

Oh man, I gotta go first.

I think I like to like just relax, and but it was just like boom, you're up, and I just remember it was super fun, like all I remember. It was just I remember the room was very welcoming. I do remember laughter and in not throwing me because I was just kind of in it and having fun. And then walking out and that was it.

But who was there? Who was there?

The room was full, like I don't even know. I just remember it was packed. It seemed like a very packed room.

Was it a Warner brother?

Yeah?

Yeah? And was Amy there? Do you remember Amy being there?

I don't remember.

Just a lot of people.

Oh, I just that's all. It is a lot of people coming in here.

Right here we go, here we go.

I would imagine she would have been in the room. I don't know. It seemed like a very packed house.

A great role, great roll it.

Was so fun.

So you you really didn't seem to struggle at all with the pace. I mean you were just super speedy and on it, and I guess you have that ability that's very rare. Did did you find it to be easier than you thought to keep that pace up? Did they give you a lot of notes like hey, go faster because it didn't seem like they had to.

I don't remember that.

I think I just naturally, like I even remember like an acting like slow down, slow down, And I think that's just my natural like was just to.

Go boom, boom, bom, boom, to rush. So I think it just was like perfectly matched for like Gilmore speed, it was like boom.

The pacing was not a real issue for me because it was just natural my.

Natural go is just because those scenes, those scenes with with Keko or just it just fly. I mean it's just like the back and forth is as good as it gets.

Yeah, so fun.

Were you familiar with the show, but for you audition, I.

Was familiar, but I wasn't watching it. I think at that time it was I feel like there's a period where I really went was watching. All I was more normally watching was films like watching feature films, and then I think, yeah, I was aware of it, but I wasn't like a like a daily tune in and yeah, so I wasn't that familiar with it right right when I jumped in.

This is from Emily from Tallahassee, Florida. This was your first TV show you book. Do you remember your first day on set?

Oh?

My first day.

I just remember everyone was just like so lovely, so so nice, and I just remember everyone was just being like I was like, wow, it felt like the energy felt like family. I just felt like very welcomed and it was just That's why I feel like I really kind of looked into this being my first experience, and I feel like by that point, I felt like everything was just a well oiled machine. I felt like you

Two thousand and three, I think it.

Was that season five. I think season four four.

Okay, season three or four yeah, so you played that foreign exchange shoes and Kian who lived with missus Kim.

Give us his kill.

Did you like the progression of the character my character? Yeahs as it changed.

I really I'm really so happy that we didn't. It shifted into We're gonna come together and I'm going to take you under my wings, and I was like, oh, I hope this isn't just going.

To be like us, like at each other's throat. And I really thought it was a lovely shift to come together.

I thought that was really beautiful versus us always like, oh, she's trying to take over my life or take up my place.

But I thought that was a really.

Nice way of like showing out, you know, people can become friends under the most unusual situation.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, And that was really at the time when when Layne was starting to show some real backbone. Yeah, you know, with with her mother making demands on her and setting the tone which was compelling to watch. Uh okay, this is from Richard from UH Seattle. What was your favorite part about being part of the Gilmore Girls cast.

Oh, you know, I would have to say the Gilmore Girl fail are like the best. It's like amazing. Like people will run.

Into and they're just they're hardcore. They love it, and it's just like.

This this super love you know. I mean, people are so committed to the show, and uh, I really love that I'm just being part of the family. It's it's like, wow, it's really special, like something was specially created.

Did you did you get recognized right away after after it aired?

I feel like it was later just on and off throughout. Even if I'd be like putting on glasses or not or without glasses, people would recognize me and I was like, oh, it's really great. Or I would get uh fan mail and people like, uh, I guess like little images or created things and it was really lovely. I was like, wow, I love that they had such a spirit.

Uh yeah, I've never had a bad encounter with with all. Every encounter I have with Gilmore fans in the last twenty some odd years have been all pleasant. It's amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're not Yeah, they're not strange. They're just lovely and they they're filled with excitement and emotion and they want to share, you know, the deeper meanings of what what the show did for them and their dag right family and it's just it's really quaint. It's something.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

We were part of something one day.

Yes, and also having like the Asian storyline. I don't think that was like happening at that time.

You know, it was very.

Ahead of its time that miss Him and this uh with Lane and that relationship being on TV.

You know, it was powerful.

You know, it's you know, I may we just we just did a we just did a recap on on that particular episode where you do come in the diner and have that scene with Lane and she takes you under her wing. Now you're now you're you know, your buddy now, so she's going to help you out. But I always thought that that show could have spun off, you know, a Missus Kim, Lane and Kean side its own show. I thought I thought the Rory Logan Huntsburger Yale thing could have been its own show. You know,

Within the Gilm or like in my life or is this particular to Gilmore.

Girls, I think you better keep it Gilmore Ye.

Okay, okay, great.

Favorite suggestions.

I would say I think the the the diner scene was super fun with coming in and it's like the flax seeds and everything that's happening, and then she's like, here have this, you know, she me a plate of fries.

See fried snicker bars.

I remember I was like, oh god, the writing was phenomenal.

Yeah when that, when the writing was on, it was really quite special. Yeah. So what kind of opportunities sprang up for you when once that showed there? Did it? Did you notice the difference?

I don't know if I did.

Honestly, I feel like I did go out for uh things here and there, but it's like I feel like I was still in self maybe self doubt mode of like oh I got that, and it's like what what now?

You know what I mean? And then it's like the second guessing yourself.

And.

Uh, other other things happened, like uh, really great roles, you know, like I did the Shield, you know, grades Anatomy and they're all like these more ground like the drama side, you know, it was I don't think I went back to comedy. It was more like, oh, yeah, so interesting. I feel like the other future bookings were definitely drama, so yeah, yes interesting. It was a different, a different stretch.

I found it very odd going from the show to anything else, Yeah, because I still hadn't made the adjustment to slow down and act right.

Yeah.

They had to tell me like why you like, can you slow down? Take your time? I'm like, really, I can do that. So tell us about this comedy series, uh, Susanne Land that you created.

Oh yes, so dark comedy. So going back to some roots. Uh yeah.

My partner and I at that time we were doing some improv and that was one of my biggest fears. So I was like, I'm going to jump in and do it. And we started running a show and then we're like, let's start writing, and so we're like starting writing, and then we were like, hey, let's we were doing short.

Films at that time. We're like, we haven't done like a little series. Let's try a series.

So it was our biggest like, Oh, we're gonna hire people actually and try to like get this thing like professionally as close to professionally made. So we did like a crowd funder funding for it. Yes, yes, the first one failed.

My heart was like shat.

I was like, yeah, it's all or all. You get it all or you don't get anything. We didn't hit it, and so they're like fire right away, and that's a lesson which one was it is it go fund.

Me where you hit it all or you don't get it.

And then so I was like indie indie go go is where you landed, and that's where we got the funding and then we moved forward. But yeah, it was just uh and it really zero expectations.

It was just to do it, to have fun. We're going to get together and create these We had ended up with five. And then when we blasted it out, it was like a shock.

When Sundance was like we're gonna we're gonna kind of featured in the Indian eiotic category, it was like whoa, it's like wow.

So you took that all the way to the Sundance Film Festival.

Yeah, it was, and.

They and it was it was a TV show.

It was a web series.

It was a web series.

Yeah, and it was the first time where they had opened it up to indie. It was indie episodic category and so yeah, and so then it was like the hustle of like, oh my god, we need a post. And it was happening during the holidays, you know, like when there's Thanksgiving.

That's when when we figured it out.

And I remember telling We're sitting around telling her we have great news.

We're great news in my family.

My sisters like, oh, she's she's she's getting married, she's she's pregnant.

And I look at my partner. We're like, no, we we got into sundance and they're like it was like, oh gosh. Yeah. So it was a trip though. It was it was like a dream come true because it was on my list and it was like a I just set it off without thinking.

You know, So was it in competition? Was it some kind of in competition or I don't I.

Don't think so, I think, okay, a screening. You know, that was the first year they're doing it.

Not bad, not bad? So what happened to So? What happened to it? So it was so it was a web series. How many episodes did you do it?

It was five? Five?

Five short their micro like micro shorts. And then we have now written the pilot for it and our goal is to see it as a TV. You know, a half hour comedy, but it's that in itself. In the writing was such a journey too, because you get people saying you got to do this, You've got to do this, and it changes then your your writing starts shifting. And then it got to a place where it was like, oh, this is not the show that we wanted to make, you know, it was so far away.

From what we started.

And then we're like, got to go back, got to go back to the you know, the original thing, Like what are we wanting to do here? And so now I feel like we're back roll circle and we actually got it to a place where we're like, oh, I think this is what we want to do.

So so the goal is to get a deal.

Yes, that would be the deal, to get someone attached, a producer, production company, UH, sell the pilot and UH hopefully make the show.

Where can I Where can I see this? I might? I might jump on board here? Oh great, well, where where can I see this? Can I see it? Can I just see it online? Can I go?

You can find Suzanne land dot com and you can watch that. And and then we've had We've written the pilot, the half hour pilot, and it won many like quarter Stummie, Finalist, Finalists one competitions, and then we did another final rewrite from some.

Of those notes.

And we haven't officially taken it out. We haven't officially pitched it anywhere.

That's interesting.

Yeah, so we're we're excited. I mean like, I feel like now is the time?

All right? So you have a script? I can read a script.

Oh yeah, you totally can.

All right. Tell when we're done here, Tell the producers how I get in touch with you because I want to. I'll get We'll exchange emails or something. I want to read this thing. I do well, I do a lot of this now all producing.

Are you on that side too?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, fantastic.

Yeah. I would love to find it your sounds.

I want to see it. I want to read it. I'm fascinated. So so that's what you're working on right now?

Yes, that is uh, that's what you're doing.

That's your jam, that's what we're doing.

That's my dream.

That's my dream TV serious right yeah, like as that's HBO Netflix.

I see it. It's there, I see it. Other than that, I would like to continue making shorts. You know, there's a.

Lot of other like ideas that I have that I would just like to keep making things, you know, and theater. I've gone back to my roots of theater and God, it's like it's powerful.

Like sharing the knowledge sharing. So we're gonna do a little section now called rapid Fire. And it doesn't mean it's going to be fast. There's no requirement that you'll be fast. But I'm gonna ask you a series of questions. You're ready, They're all Gilmore related, So here we go. How do you How do you like your coffee decaf? Okay, yeah, you don't really you don't need caffeine? Do you?

No?

No?

Are you logan Team Jess or Team Dean.

Jess?

What is your favorite Gilmour girls couple? Luke and Laurel, Lane and Zach, Emily and Richard, Suki and Jackson.

H Well, I see, I feel like you.

You guys are the obvious choice because you guys are the heart of the show. So I'm gonna go that, given I would say Lane, I'm gonna go with them.

Gotcha? What would you order at Luke Steiner.

Devil stotchy fingers.

Fingers Jackson or Taylor for town selectmen? Jackson, everybody says Jackson, and he just he just doesn't He doesn't want the job.

But that's why, you know how when you don't want it, you get it. I think that reinforces that lesson.

Yeah, but he sucks at it, he's not going to be good at it. Tail Tailor Taylor's a pain in the ass, but he's actually good at it. I don't mean to influence your decision anyway, shape or form. What would you rather listen to? Hep Alien or the Troubadour's cover songs?

I'm biased, so hep Alien? Okay, they come on, Brie was in it?

Come on Harvard or Yale?

Yale?

Why?

Because I feel like a lot of this is a different one. But it's because, uh, I feel like a lot of great actors come out of the Yale.

Well they got the they got the theater program.

Yeah, the strong theater.

Yeah, yep, they got it. They got that. They're going on. Man, I'm not saying Harvard doesn't, but I think Yale has the you know, Bobby Bobby Lewis designed their program, the great Robert Lewis. What's Rory's bigger mistake? Crashing the car her boyfriend built for her or sleeping with her ex who is married. Bigger mistake. There you go. Who from Gilmour? Would you not want to be stuck on a desert island with.

Missus?

Can you know what that's? That really is the obvious choice, and you the first one to mention her. Are you serious to me?

It's a no brainer. Oh yeah, no life like straighted with her? Oh my god.

Can you imagine something in your life that you are all in on?

Storytelling? Story telling amazing stories.

It has been a pleasure. Yeah, it's so good to see you. I never I never met you. I don't think we ever know.

You were had a little bit and then it was boom, So we never had any scenes together.

It was just diner.

There was a little uh bit that you had with Laura and okay, you're in that scene at the top.

Of it, and then we moved.

Was I nice? Was I nice?

You were very nice?

All right?

All right? Sometimes sometimes I was tired and anyway, Susan, thank you so much for your time. This was a lot of fun. Love to have you back. There's so much more to talk about. And please make sure leave your contact information with producers and I'll get in touch with you. Okay, thank you so much and good luck with everything.

Thank you.

I'm looking forward to seeing your show and reading your script.

Love it, love it. Thank you again, appreciate it.

Are you too?

Bye?

Do Hey everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com. Oh you're Gilmore friends. If you're looking for the best cup of coffee in the world, go to my website from my company Scottip dot com s C O T T y P dot com, Scottip dot com Grade one Specialty Coffee