Alberto Jo Lee He was born in Barcelona and speaks Catalan fluently, but his slanted eyes are the culprits that he almost always plays oriental in the films and series in which he participates: ‘Tapas’, ‘Pelotas’, ‘Xtremo’, ‘Anclados’, ‘Paella today’, ‘El barco’, ‘Nobody wants the night’ … The actor who now appears in the new TV-3 comedy ‘The last night of karaoke’ He has played Chinese, Japanese, North and South Korean (where his parents are from), Vietnamese, Eskimo … He is, unofficially, the Asian of Spanish cinema and the small screen.
“I believe that 75% of my artistic career has been making different types of accents. I have had to study a lot and put the emotion and colors that they required,” acknowledges the 42-year-old interpreter. “Lately, I have finally made characters who speak perfect Spanish and, in the case of this TV-3 series, perfect Catalan. That is the path we have to follow so that the viewer can normalize it,” claims the actor, who She had the support of a linguist to refine details such as the pronunciation of open vowels, which she confesses that they always resist her.
“We have to stop identifying Asian characters with bazaars, with restaurants, even if it is a reality, because we have already shown it. And there is another reality that we are not representing, which are the Asians who are doctors, lawyers, architects … The same happens with blacks, “he claims. “We live in a country where it is difficult for us to give them that visibility with that position,” he says, recalling that Marvel already has its first Asian hero with the recent release of ‘Shang-Chi and the legend of the ten rings‘.
“In our country it is difficult for an Asian to star in a story unless he is a fighter, which is a hot topic. In my case it is true, because I dedicated myself professionally to the taekwondo, but there are many Asians who have no idea of martial arts, “says the actor, who values so much that in the Amazon Prime Video series ‘Three ways’ the Korean origin of his character was almost anecdotal.
More than 100 medals
Because before making a living with acting, Alberto Jo Lee was a star on the tatami. He has more than a hundred medals, and it is five times Spain champion, two runners-up in Europe and two times bronze in the world championship. “My father was a pioneer in taekwondo in Spain when he arrived in 1973. My sister has been a coach, she is a European champion and a world bronze champion, my nephew is a Catalan champion and my cousin is a university European champion,” he lists.
The worldwide success of Korean fiction, with the Netflix phenomenon ‘The squid game’ As a banner, he has not been caught by surprise. “We come from ‘Parasites’ and ‘Minari’, two great films that received their Oscars. It seems to me that Koreans know how to tell stories very well and take incredible psychological portraits,” he says. “They also make great films where there is not only suffering, but also pain and blood. And then there are the dramas, whiter and very successful in the Philippines, Japan and China,” he emphasizes.
The success of Korean fiction
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He confesses that he devoured the pull ‘The squid game’, not only for sentimental reasons due to their origins, but also professional ones. It features a character from North Korea, the rebel Kang Sae-byeok (played by Jung Ho Yeon), and Alberto is preparing a role of the same nationality for the new film of Eduardo Casanova, ‘Piety’. “The accent, the construction and the syntax are a little different. It is as if he were an exaggerated Andalusian. There are many words that are still used in the north that are obsolete in the south and many Anglicisms in the south that, logically, are not they use in the north “, illustrates the interpreter, who jokes that he talks to his parents in ‘Korean’. He translates it: “With them I use some words in Spanish that I can’t say in Korean.”
About working in Korea on something that he has in mind and has already done some test to get a role. “But apparently I have a little weird accent, which they do not identify as either American or Australian. I’m working to get rid of that, “he says.” In the end, I’m not from anywhere, neither Spanish nor Korean, and I always play an immigrant in any country “confesses the interpreter, who has been left with the thorn of being the only protagonist of ‘Lúltima nit del karaoke’ who has not gone on stage to sing.” The director has promised me that if there is another season I will be the one first to do it, “he consoles himself with a laugh.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com