Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park Leave "Hawaii Five-0"

[JamesG]

Two "Hawaii Five-0" Stars Will Not Return for Season 8
by Lindsay Macdonald
June 30, 2017


"Hawaii Five-0" Season 8 is going to look a lot different thanks to the news that Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park will not be returning.

This is a bold move for the CBS series, considering both Kim and Park are original cast members, so there's no telling how their absence with shake up the dynamics of the show.



"We are so appreciative of Daniel and Grace's enormous talents, professional excellence and the aloha spirit they brought to each and every one of our 168 episodes. They've helped us build an exciting new Hawaii Five-0, and we wish them all the best and much success in their next chapters. Mahalo and a hui hou until we meet again," CBS said in a statement.



It sounds like an amicable split as far as CBS is concerned, but according to Variety, both actors were seeking deals for equal pay, but were unable to make those deals work. Kim and Park were believed to be making 10-15 percent less than co-stars Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan.

Season 7 ended in a way that will make both Kim and Park's exits fairly easy to write in. Kim's character Chin ended the season by getting an offer to join a San Francisco task force and Kono left off on a plane, jetting off to investigate a child sex trafficking ring. According to The Hollywood Reporter, we'll get an update on both their fates in the Season 8 premiere.

http://www.tvguide.com/news/two-hawa...ting-season-8/

[JamesG]

Daniel Dae Kim Opens Up about "Sad" Exit, "Honor" of Playing Chin Ho
by Matt Webb Mitovich
July 5, 2017


Playing "Hawaii Five-0‘s" Chin Ho Kelly for seven seasons was “nothing short of an honor,” Daniel Dae Kim said in a heartfelt message to fans, days after his exit from the CBS series was announced.

Kim, along with TV cousin Grace Park, reportedly sought but failed to acquire pay parity with fellow original cast members Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan, and thus both parted ways with the show. Viewers will learn what became of Chin Ho Kelly (recently wooed to head up a San Francisco Five-0 unit) and Kono Kalakaua (who in the May finale went “rogue” to chase sex traffickers) in the Season 8 premiere, airing Friday, Sept. 29.





“I’m sad to say it is true. I will not be returning to Hawaii Five-0 when production starts next week,” the actor shared in a 500-word Facebook post. “Though I made myself available to come back, CBS and I weren’t able to agree to terms on a new contract, so I made the difficult choice not to continue.”

Kim said that while leaving the show is sad, “what I feel most is gratitude… to our crew, writers and everyone associated with the show – and especially the cast, who have been nothing but supportive through this entire process. They and the crew have been my second family for seven years and I wish them nothing but success for Season 8 — and beyond.”





Kim thanked executive producers Peter M. Lenkov, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, “and everyone at CBS… for their faith in me to bring Chin Ho Kelly to life. As an Asian-American actor, I know first-hand how difficult it is to find opportunities at all, let alone play a well-developed, three-dimensional character like Chin Ho. I will miss him sincerely.”

“What made him even more special is that he was a representative of a place my family and I so dearly love,” added Kim, who has been working in Hawaii since his Lost days. “It has been nothing short of an honor to be able to showcase the beauty and people of Hawaii every week, and I couldn’t be prouder to call these islands home. To my local community, mahalo nui loa.”





In an apparent nod to his contract talks, he said to fans/peers:

“I encourage us all to look beyond the disappointment of this moment to the bigger picture. The path to equality is rarely easy. But I hope you can be excited for the future.”

http://tvline.com/2017/07/05/hawaii-...ving-season-8/

[JamesG]

UPDATE: CBS has issued a response to Kim’s Facebook post, per our sister site Deadline:

“Daniel and Grace have been important and valued members of Hawaii Five-0 for seven seasons. We did not want to lose them and tried very hard to keep them with offers for large and significant salary increases. While we could not reach an agreement, we part ways with tremendous respect for their talents on screen, as well as their roles as ambassadors for the show off screen, and with hopes to work with them again in the near future.”

http://tvline.com/2017/07/05/hawaii-...ving-season-8/

[Mr. Television]

Even though I had stopped watching the show those 2 were an integral part of the show's success and they're going to be missed.

[AB]

Really hate to see them go.

[JamesG]

"Hawaii Five-0" Boss: Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim "Chose to Move On" Despite "Unprecedented Raises"
by Michael Ausiello
July 6, 2017


"Hawaii Five-0" boss Peter M. Lenkov has issued a second statement regarding Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park’s controversial exit from the CBS drama.

On the heels of Kim’s apparent confirmation that he and Park walked away from the series after failing to secure pay parity with fellow original cast members Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan, Lenkov issued an open letter to the “H50 Community” via Instagram in which he corroborated CBS’ earlier assertion that the actors were offered “unprecedented raises” to stick around.



“The truth is this: Both actors chose not to extend their contracts,” the EP wrote. “CBS was extremely generous and proactive in their renegotiation talks. So much so, the actors were getting unprecedented raises, but in the end they chose to move on. No one wanted to see them go — they are irreplaceable.”

Lenkov also revealed that an effort was underway to have Park return “for a handful of episodes” next season, but “for several reasons that didn’t work out.”

http://tvline.com/2017/07/06/daniel-...n-ho-season-8/

[EricIdlefan]

It would be a lot of things. As really think that they were supporting but integral parts of the show. Alex and Scott are the main characters.
Even though Scott appears in five episodes less to be in LA with his young daughter and girlfriend.
But despite the new additions, IMHO the show will likely be the last. Will give it a shot though.

[king of comedy]

It just won't be the same without them. Great characters who will be missed.

[JamesG]

Daniel Dae Kim Grateful for "Hawaii Five-O", Says “Sense Of Self Worth” Led to Exit – TCA
by Lisa de Moraes
August 6, 2017


"Hawaii Five-O" “was a really important part of my life for seven years, and I’m grateful to CBS and everyone involved with the show for giving me the opportunity,” Daniel Dae Kim said at TCA this morning during a Q&A for ABC’s new "The Good Doctor", on which he is EP.

“I’ve known [CBS Entertainment President] Kelly [Kahl] and [CBS SEVP Programming] Thom [Sherman] for a while…I know them, and like them, and am grateful to them for the words they said on their panel the other day.”

“That said, it’s possible to be grateful and respectful, and still maintain a steadfast sense of your self worth,” Kim said, pointedly.





Days earlier at TCA, Kahl and Sherman took multiple questions about the controversial exits of "Hawaii Five-0‘s" two Asian co-stars, Kim and Grace Park, who sought parity with the show’s leads, Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan, and left after not getting equal pay.

“We never like to lose characters audiences love but that happens on long-running series,” Kahl had said that morning. “We made very lucrative offers to those actors,” he added, while declining to name the dollar amount or how it compared to the salaries of series stars O’Loughlin and Caan.

Kim and Park, whose roles had been conceived as supporting, had made less from the get-go; sources said they were offered salaries close to, but not equal to, that of the leads.

http://deadline.com/2017/08/daniel-d...ca-1202143562/

[TMC]

Here's an article about Grace Park's departure from Hawaii Five-0, which rumor has it was due as much to her desire to be part of this misogynistic sex cult as it was to monetary disputes. Apparently she was already in the orbit of the cult when on the show and as a result was behaving erratically.

[JamesG]

Grace Park Breaks her Silence on "Hawaii Five-0" Exit: "I'm Still Figuring Stuff Out"
by Shirley Li
Sept. 14, 2018


Growing up, Grace Park learned that if she didn’t have anything nice to say, then she shouldn’t say anything at all. “Sometimes it’s better not to talk,” the actress, 44, says. “I’m not interested in airing out dirty laundry.”

Especially not about what happened last year.




In June 2017, Park and her "Hawaii Five-0" costar Daniel Dae Kim departed the CBS series ahead of its eighth season after failed salary negotiations. Their exits became highly publicized — fans questioned why, after 168 episodes, the network didn’t pay the pair the same amount as their white costars Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan.

According to Variety, Kim and Park had been offered 10 to 15 percent less than their costars’ salaries and had not negotiated as a unit, with Park seeking a deal for less than half a full season’s worth of episodes the next year.




The headlines also fueled the ongoing conversation around Asian representation in Hollywood.

As Vanity Fair writer Laura Bradley pointed out at the time, Park and Kim were “arguably the most prominent actors out of the four when the show launched in 2010,” with both coming off hits — Park from "Battlestar Galactica" and Kim from "Lost".

“In this case,” Bradley wrote, “it’s also worth asking why Park and Kim were ever cast in supporting roles in the first place.”







Amid the controversy, CBS said it had tried offering Kim and Park “significant salary increases.” Executive producer Peter M. Lenkov tweeted that Park had been “away from her family for seven years,” implying she’d left to reunite with them.

Kim wrote in a Facebook post that “the path to equality is rarely easy.” But through it all, Park remained silent.



“The whole situation was just a bit too charged for me,” she tells EW, though she notes that she did call Lenkov after reading his tweet.

“I let him know, ‘That wasn’t cool that you made a statement on my behalf.’… I know he did it to be helpful, and I care about Peter as a person, but I didn’t leave for that reason.”





That said, she’s not about to reveal her actual reason. “There were a number of factors spanning the show that affected the non-renewal of my contract,” she says slowly, carefully choosing her words. “I’m grateful for the lessons learned, but I chose what was best for my integrity.”

“I know that people are always trying their best, and everyone’s coming from their own backgrounds,” she continues. “Throughout the whole series, I kept trying to see the best in everybody.” She pauses. “Would I do it all over again? I wouldn’t be so quick to say yes.… I’m still figuring stuff out. Sometimes people are just really good at burying stuff, and I think I’m like that.”





In other words, Park wants to move on — and she has, at least on the small screen.

This fall, she stars as Katherine, an ambitious lawyer whose marriage has begun to fall apart, on ABC’s "A Million Little Things", a tearjerking, heartstring-tugging ensemble drama about a group of friends who rethink their lives after one of them dies unexpectedly.



She found freedom in playing a character like Katherine, who’s not exactly part of the friends’ inner circle, yet tethered to it all the same.

“She doesn’t need to be likable,” Park explains. “She’s just doing the things she needs to get done. Not everyone might like her, and I thought that was actually quite a relief of pressure, that you didn’t need to make your character funny or likable or cool or sexy or the lead.”





Besides, she says, she was “moved” by the character-driven story.

“These characters weren’t really living the lives they needed to live,” she says of the series, which also stars David Giuntoli and Ron Livingston. “That struck a strong chord with me. From the outside, people may think, ‘Oh, she’s really living the life she wants!’” she says, laughing.

“I feel like I’m so far away from doing that.”





Well, maybe not that far away anymore. On "A Million Little Things", Park has noticed an effort in working toward building a group mentality for every member of the lead cast.

“They’re going through a lot of steps to make sure we have the ensemble vibe,” she says of the production. “We all have the same trailers, the same treatment. We don’t necessarily have the same salaries, because people came from all different places, but maybe we’ll be at parity in a few years. If everyone’s bringing their A-games and being a team, those are the things that are more important.”



“I’m good leaving the boys’ club, and I’m hopeful for the future,” Park concludes. “I just look at this time as something that I went through. I didn’t understand it while I was going through it, but…. You can’t always get back what you lost, but if you made it through, right now is the best time to watch the old structures fall.”

On screen and off.

https://ew.com/tv/2018/09/14/grace-p...little-things/

[TMC]

Daniel Dae Kim: Since I still live in Hawaii, I've flown 200,000 miles over the past year

The former Lost and Hawaii Five-0 star has made Hawaii his home for the past 15 years, even though he has a lot of work to do in Hollywood, including as executive producer of The Good Doctor. "It’s very difficult," he says. "I think I’ve gotten platinum status on two different airlines in the past year. I literally flew 200,000 miles in the last calendar year."

[TMC]

Daniel Dae Kim on the pay cut he took going from Lost to Hawaii Five-0: "It was drastic, and it was never made up"

In an in-depth interview with Vulture, Kim spoke frankly about the contract negotiations that led him and Grace Park to exit Hawaii Five-0 in 2017. Kim says he it wasn't his first renegotiation. In fact, he credits CBS with a previous renegotiation that gave him his own production company, 3AD, which paved the way for him executive producing The Good Doctor. But when his contract was up in 2017, Kim says he wanted pay parity with his co-stars after initially being misled into believing he had signed on for an ensemble drama. "Let me put it this way: One thing that has never really properly been reported is the amount of pay cut I took to do Hawaii Five-0 from Lost," he says. "It was drastic, and it was never made up." How big was his pay cut? "Significant," he says. So what was the goal at the negotiating table? "Make us all equal," he says. "Make us all the ensemble that I thought we always were, and get me back to where I was with Lost. And I didn’t think that was an unreasonable position to take." Kim says he was transparent about wanting a pay bump with his castmates, including Park. "I was transparent with Grace about my goals, and Grace had her own goals," he said. "And in some ways they coincided with mine, and in some ways they didn’t. But the two things we had in common were that our contracts were up at the same time and we were both Asian American on a show in Hawaii, where the Asian American population is significant. And I would also say I was proud of the fact that we as a show hired a lot of Asian Americans. I think we need to talk about the good with the bad. In terms of representation, we probably hired more Asian American actors than any other show over the same time span." Kim adds it was intentional for him and Park to walk away at the same time. "I think that was definitely a part of the decision process," he says. "If people like Grace and I cannot make those kinds of decisions, how can we expect anyone else to? We had the luxury of being able to say no." Did he feel like your castmates were allies with him in his renegotiation? "I think any time you have an ensemble of actors, everyone’s objectives are unique and individual," he says. "So it’s hard for me to collectively say whether they were allies in this. And I do know that the way things got spun by the end changed my relationships with them." ALSO: Kim recalls talking to Lost's Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams about the pilot's Asian stereotypes that were like "a land mine."