From theatre kid to TV star to theatre again
Written By: Demi Guo
The actor’s agency
“When I first came to the States, the thing that kept me sane was taking acting classes from an after-school program,” Yeena Sung said. Moving is difficult for all children, especially when it’s from South Korea all the way to the United States on the other side of the globe. Acting became Sung’s security and freedom of expression.
She kept it going. Sung moved back to Korea to study acting in an arts high school. After that, she entered the industry. That’s when things took a turn. Acting became more about crowd-pleasing than personal expression.
“Whether it’s Korea or the U.S., the actor’s agency is at the bottom of the food chain,” Sung said. There were times when she couldn’t feel the character she played, or had to interpret the character in a way that the directors wanted. “There are people who say it’s more important for the audience to have the theatrical experience as opposed to the actor having a realistic experience in the character. It’s about what they read in my facial expression rather than whether I’m feeling it or not.”
Sung quickly fell into the pattern of auditioning for roles and never expecting to hear a call back. It’s a typical experience in the industry, Sung explained. It feels like pursuing a goal without knowing what the goal is. “People are trying to catch up to that answer as opposed to paving their own path,” she said. “I’m more focused on doing something ‘right’ as opposed to what feels right to me.”
‘Happy Cleaners’
Sung landed her first lead role in the Flushing, New York-made indie feature, “Happy Cleaners.” In “Happy Cleaners,” she appears as the older sister in a Korean American family. “Playing Hyunny was my first experience of playing someone who’s close to who I am,” she said.
Sung recounted: “It just so happened that I was the last person to audition for Hyunny, and I almost didn’t go to the audition. I was at that stage in my life where I would audition, get to the final round, and get rejected.”
Thirty seconds later, producer and writer Kat Kim asked Sung to come in and do an improv session with the other actors. “It instantly felt like we were a family,” Sung said. “It just all came so easily. It’s like a dream story, right?” The feeling lasted throughout production. Sung put herself in the shoes of her own older sister to play Hyunny, but often drew from her own experience of putting her parents before herself.
“Happy Cleaners” changed the game for her not just in terms of acting, but in how she looked at representation as well. “At school, I had Black friends who talked about how African American idols really inspired them to tell their own stories,” she said. “I understood that logically but never thought too deeply into it.”
“Happy Cleaners” was screened in Flushing Town Hall during the 42nd annual Asian American Film Festival in 2019, where the audience had an open floor to comment on the film afterwards. “Seeing all those Asian Americans being touched by it taught me a lot about being in a production or film I personally really care about, as opposed to doing it to bump up my resume.”
Stepping out of a character after wrap usually comes easily to Sung. But when the pandemic began, so did hard times for everybody in the entertainment industry — and she began to think of what Hyunny of all people would do. “Hyunny, despite all the difficulties she experienced, chose to move forward,” she said.
The tides have since turned for her. Sung is set to make her TV debut on Paramount+’s final season of “Younger.”
On top of that, she will appear as a guest star, Dylan Park, alongside main lead Sutton Foster, whom Sung idolized in high school. “I can’t complain.”
“I don’t know if it’ll be a breakout role because my career is still happening, but it was definitely a pivotal role for me,” Sung said. “When you make a TV debut you usually play a smaller role.”
After all, it was her ninth audition for a big hit film and television role, which is considered a short amount of time to land a spot in a major network. “It’s an auditioning game,” she said. “We just need to be patient and hang in there.”
‘It was always my passion to create theatre where you create music.’
Even as she anticipates her television debut going live, she continues to pursue personal expression. During the pandemic, Sung continued to create.
“I just hosted stage readings with a couple of my friends, just to keep up and hone our skills over Zoom,” she said. What came out of their small gatherings is “The Strange Familiar” — a Tiny Desk-esque theatre co-written by Sung and her friends. The production will be showing at The Tank in October.
“I will be playing piano, and I will be singing all the songs that I wrote,” Sung said. It is an intimate experience where her friend will be acting and dancing. It is also the kind of collaborative, partially-improvised theatre that she wants to continue exploring — otherwise known as devised theatre.
In the past, she had been in experimental productions that combined multimedia with live performance geared towards what she calls a “neurodiverse audience.” In other words, not your typical Broadway musical.
“You want something to happen in your career and you get carried away,” Sung said. “It was always my passion to create theatre where you create music. It’s just a matter of opportunity and time.”
Visit Yeena Sung’s website and Instagram to learn more about her upcoming projects.