Daniel Dae Kim has opened up about his decision to leave the show Hawaii Five-0 in 2017, citing the “drastic” pay cut he took to do the show and the “significant” pay disparity between him and his white co-stars.
Speaking to Vulture, Kim, who portrayed Chin Ho Kelly on the CBS procedural drama for seven years, said he had hoped that Hawaii Five-0 would be an ensemble show, much like Lost, where he portrayed Jin-too Kwon from 2004 to 2010.
That ended up not being the case, according to Kim.
When asked how big the difference in pay was when the show first aired between him and his white co-stars, Kim said the disparity was “significant”.
What’s more, Kim noted that “one thing that has never really properly been reported” was the pay cut he took to do Hawaii Five-0, coming off of Lost. “It was drastic, and it was never made up,” said Kim.
“Early marketing and promotion for the show” appeared to show he and fellow Korean American actor Grace Park would be “featured equally as prominently as anyone else" on Hawaii Five-0. He went on to say, however, that he was “proven to be wrong”.
Kim said that the goal was originally to “make us all the ensemble” and “get me back to where I was with Lost”.
“I didn’t think that was an unreasonable position to take,” he continued. “And the thing is, it wasn’t a source of conflict for me. It was very clear and simple. I was very transparent about it with my castmates, with my showrunner, with the studio from the start. It became much more dramatic because of the way that it didn’t come together.”
In 2017, Kim and Park announced that they would not be returning to Hawaii Five-0. Variety reported that CBS offered Kim and Park “10-15% lower than what [co-stars] Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan” made in salary.
