Lost's Yunjin Kim Reveals She Auditioned & Was Almost Cast As A Lead Character On This Hit ABC Series
Yunjin Kim is opening up about a role that just wasn’t meant to be for her.
The actress, 48, opened up to Entertainment Weekly about going out for a main role in another ABC show around the same time a character was created for her on Lost.
Click inside to read what Yunjin shared…
Turns out, Yunjin almost played Izzie Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy!
While she was starting her acting career in America, transitioning from Korea, she had a holding deal with ABC, which meant that she was only able to audition for shows on that network.
“They actually paid me to bring me out in L.A. to wait around and audition for their shows; it was such a sweet deal,” she shared. “Lost was one of my first auditions, but Grey’s Anatomy was my [actual] first. I did not audition for Sandra Oh’s character [Cristina Yang], it was for Izzie. And I got a callback.”
All at the same time, she was also up for the role of Kate in Lost, all while still holding out hope for Grey’s as well.
“My character was written after my audition; Sun became Sun after my audition,” Yunjin went on. “They [the casting department] were like, ‘You’re so good but you’re not right for Kate.’ I thought, ‘Great, I had a great audition with J.J. Abrams, I’m happy with that,’ and kind of closed the chapter on that. I got a call a couple hours later from my agent, and they were super excited. They’re like, ‘They’re going to write a role for you.’ I had a phone call with J.J. for about 40 minutes [after that].”
She had every intention of going back for the callback for Grey’s, too.
“When this whole thing went down with Lost as far as J.J. is going to write me a role and how amazing that was, that day or the next day, I had a callback,” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘I’m going to go and do this callback.’ My agents were like, ‘Why? You got cast on an amazing show. You should pack up and try to find a place in Hawaii.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, I might like Grey’s Anatomy more.’” She laughs before continuing, “I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. What if this falls out, you know? I had no guarantee.”
Yunjin didn’t end up going, and played Sun on Lost for six seasons. Izzie was played by Katherine Heigl.
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