Avengers 2: Claudia Kim’s career breakout, Marvel’s hit success in Korea
Unknown to the mainstream audience until a few months ago, Claudia Soohyun Kim’s role in Avengers: Age of Ultron may skyrocket her career to international fame.
As the movie is opening in 62 countries in April and 18 in May, Disney is certainly looking at doing even better than the prequel – in other words, over 1.5 billion dollars at the global box office!
Being part of such an all-star cast blockbuster movie is an incredible opportunity for Kim to be recognized by an audience unlikely to be familiar with neither Korean dramas nor Asian culture (Netflix’s Marco Polo) – bringing her from a niche to a mainstream arena.
The Korean actress made a remarked appearance at the Dolby Theatre on Monday April 13th, for the world premiere of the Marvel blockbuster. She was seen rubbing shoulders with the legendary Stan Lee as well as lead actors Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye).
Her role of world-renowned geneticist Dr. Helen Cho, developing cutting-edge technology for the Avengers from her office in Seoul and lab in New York, allowed her to work with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and James Spader too!
The fact that Avengers 2 was partly shot in Seoul is also an incredible opportunity for her to act as an ambassador of Korean culture and promote the Korean wave beyond its natural reach, within the heart of Hollywood.
Both the presence of Claudia Kim and the scenes in Korea will allow the Avengers sequel to fare better in the ‘Land of the Morning Calm’, where Marvel movies are not always well received. Indeed, the rise of homegrown productions at the Korean box office over the past few years and traditional rejection of Marvel movies seen as embodiments of American imperialism (Paramount had to change the title of ‘Captain America’) have made it difficult for them to compete.
Besides the ongoing social media buzz around the popular Korean drama actress, coverage by local mainstream media will certainly help the film in its absolute domination of the Marvel blockbuster at the Korean box office over the next few weeks. Soohyun Kim was, for instance, interviewed by YTN – the main Korean international news channel – on April 22 (right) and SBS Power FM’s Cultwo Show – arguably, the most popular radio show in South Korea, presented by Jung Chan-woo and Kim Tae-gyun – on April 23 (left).
As the movie rolls out around the world, her schedule is certainly already fully booked. Although the movie was partially shot at the Pinewood and Shepperton Studios near London, we have yet to see any British media outlet’s interview of the Korean star.
In the meantime, you can check out Avengers: Age of Ultron in almost any of your local movie theatre(s) since Thursday April 23rd and look at her short video interview by Android TV.