Another talented asian that has taken the small screen by storm: Shannon Kook-Chun!! Yes. This old guy watches the show Degrassi High and so what! My niece hates me for it but I don't complain when she's watching NeNe and all those bitches yelling and howling out obscenities! I guess it just reminds me of my high school years which actually weren't horrible as others have reported. television has grown up a bit to give us storylines that are actually prevalent to today's world.
I'm glad that Degrassi has given us a genuine gay storyline of pain, acceptance, guilt and self hate all in one. Unlike GLEE where the father totally and wonderfully accepts his son Kurt. Here we have a tortured young football star "Riley" who has been in pain to be who he truly is. So it's a breath of fresh air when you are introduced to another young actor of chinese and south african descent that is not traditionally beautiful But BEAUTIFUL Period. And has a self awareness about himself that makes him a genuine prescence on the small screen!!: SHANNON KOOK-CHUN!!!
Another fascinating thing about Shannon is the fact that he plays the part of "Zane" as just a cool young dude. He's not effeminate. He doesn't have girly mannerisms. He's just a gay in touch with who he is. Well. There is one thing and it's not a bad thing at all. He has a great sense of style! Not one bad outfit. Clothes perfectly fitted.If that's a stereotype, then that's one I do like! And to hear him speak out of character is sheer delight to hear that beautiful south african accent.
My friend has a bad habit of calling mixed races "Mutts". I myself call them "Rainbow Children".To see these beautiful creations of GOD ridiculed by others is just a fault that human nature shouldn't have fostered. Shannon is like a strawberry margarita. The mix of tequila and strawberries along with the crushed ice. The mix of Chinese, with the South African and the beautiful accent. Let's just say that they are both beautiful Concoctions!!!
BELOW AN ARTICLE BY ANDREW D. LANGFORD:
From "DeGrassi" to "Verona": Shannon Degrassi has always done a great job telling the stories of gay and lesbian teens, and that tradition has continued recently with the coming out drama of football player Riley Stavros (Argiris Karras). This season, the show brought on Zane Park, played by Shannon Kook-Chun, as a new character as a love interest for Riley. So far viewers have watched Zane help the still closeted Riley continue to do with his anger issues and worries over how coming it will affect his life.
We talked to Kook-Chun about his role, his views on gays on television, his own struggles to fit in in a world where he’s perceived as diKook-Chun on Playing Gay, Fitting in and More!
After Elton.com: How did you get started in acting?Posted by
Degrassi has always done a great job telling the stories of gay and lesbian teens, and that tradition has continued recently with the coming out drama of football player Riley Stavros (Argiris Karras). This season, the show brought on Zane Park, played by Shannon Kook-Chun, as a new character as a love interest for Riley. So far viewers have watched Zane help the still closeted Riley continue to do with his anger issues and worries over how coming it will affect his life.
We talked to Kook-Chun about his role, his views on gays on television, his own struggles to fit in in a world where he’s perceived as different, his short film Verona and a lot more.
Degrassi has always done a great job telling the stories of gay and lesbian teens, and that tradition has continued recently with the coming out drama of football player Riley Stavros (Argiris Karras). This season, the show brought on Zane Park, played by Shannon Kook-Chun, as a new character as a love interest for Riley. So far viewers have watched Zane help the still closeted Riley continue to do with his anger issues and worries over how coming it will affect his life.
We talked to Kook-Chun about his role, his views on gays on television, his own struggles to fit in in a world where he’s perceived as different, his short film Verona and a lot more.
Shannon Kook-Chun: I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. I was doing acting in school as an extramural [activity], but never really thought of myself as someone who could actually do it. But then one day I had a wake-up call and I moved to Canada. At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through an agent or whether I should go to classes or theater school, so I just took it step by step.
I decided to just go for what I want now. You always try to act like you know what you want to do like going to university, but you never really know why you’re doing it. I’m not the type of person who does something just for the sake of doing it so I decide to just roll with it and see how it goes. That’s pretty much how it happened.
AE: How’d you get the job on Degrassi?
SK-C: I’d been auditioning for a little while and I went to theater school and the casting director saw my work. I knew a lot of the cast before. I’d hang out with a bunch of the Degrassi kids. I was good buddies with Argiris. We hung out a lot last summer. He was crashing on my couch for like three weeks. But they didn’t know I was friends with Argiris until I came to audition.
AE: What appeals to you about Zane?
SK-C: He’s a lot more bold than I am. I’ve dealt with my own issues being a mixed race guy who comes from South Africa and moving around the world. I’ve dealt with issues of belonging and identity and what makes me who I am. You can often tailor what you are or should be by what’s around you and behave in what you think is the right or cool way to behave. I’ve dealt with that a lot and have my own questions about who I am and where I belong.
With Zane, he’s very okay with himself which I find a very hard thing to be. I don’t know that many people who are okay with themselves. What I love about him is the way he stood up to people who were ridiculing him and people who were telling him who he should and shouldn’t be. I’ve dealt a lot with that myself, but I’ve been in situations where I haven’t handled it as well. And I just really admire the way he stood up for himself.
AE: In what way have you had to deal with these issues?
SK-C: Well, I don’t look like my cousins so I kind of stick out. Sometimes, back home, when I go down the street people would yell ‘ching, chong’ at me. There one time when this guy jumped me from behind and there were like six or seven guys. They surrounded me with some poles and tried to beat me up. They chased me down the street. And I remember guys would be yelling at me ‘Moffie’, which in South African means faggot. So I had to deal with that kind of stuff. I don’t quite look like my mom’s side of the family. She’s what they would call colored. And I was a bit too extroverted for my Asian side.
…I’m very proud of being South African. I’m not Canadian so I don’t quite fit in there and when you go back home and home isn’t really home anymore. There’s always that consistent questioning of what you hold onto and what you evolve into. You don’t want to forget where you came from, but you want to grow at the same time. I went home in January after six years, I hadn’t seen my mom in that time. It was very interesting to see everyone. It sort of makes you re-evaluate yourself.
AE: Do you think the fact you were friends with Argiris factors into why you work as an on screen couple?
SK-C: It does but at the same time it can also be a barrier because we’re such buddies. There’s a level of friendship and then there’s the love relationship. You don’t want the friendship level to override the love relationship so at the same time that can get in the way. I have to remember that he’s not my buddy, he’s the guy that I’m in love with. Even though there’s a layer of friendship that’s not what we are.
AE: What does it mean to you to play a gay character?
SK-C: For me it’s more than just being a gay character. What’s really going on in the storyline for me is dealing with difference in our lives. We all have different things in our lives, like me with my racial experiences. The life that you live and the path that you choose should not be prescribed by what other people want for you. For us that is the gay storyline, but that can speak to many aspects of people’s lives and how they deal with certain things about themselves.
AE: There’s not a lot of gay characters of color, especially here in the States. Do you think about being one of the few on television?
SK-C: I feel that gay Asians tend to be depicted as effeminate like Lloyd on Entourage. But I haven’t really thought about it to be honest and that doesn’t really sound right.
AE: How do you like being on Degrassi?
SK-C: I’m loving it. I feel so privileged and I love the cast. I just have a lot of love for them. They’re all really great people. And I feel so privileged to be able to be part of the gay story. And it’s a big responsibility because I know it means a lot to a lot of people. …And it’s great to be able to play the love scenes. I don’t get to have those kind of ups and downs in my life with romance so to get to do it on screen with all the lights and the stories is great, especially when you know you’re touching people.
AE: So far all the stories have been about Riley. Are we doing to get any stories from Zane’s point of view or focused on him?
SK-C: I’m really not sure because we only get the scripts two or three weeks before we shoot it. I’m completely in the dark as to what is going on. We do have a table discussion with the producers where we sit down and talk about the story and what’s happening and how we feel about it. So we’re quite involved in that respect. But I don’t know what’s to come for Zane, besides what I’ve shot, and I can’t talk about that. [laughs]
Kook-Chun with Verona co-star John Bregar
SK-C: Verona is a spin-off of Romeo and Juliet, but it’s about two Romeos. It’s based in a fraternity and there are two warring frat houses. My character is a guy who is very promiscuous and does a lot of drugs and parties, and there’s one day when I miss a rugby game because I’m frolicking with the character who is called “the Jock.” I see him and for the first time I feel like I’ve fallen in love. I totally fall in love with him and they have to deal with the fraternity houses because their relationship is a big problem that causes a lot of chaos. It’s the war of the two lovers trying to be together when they’re not supposed to be.
AE: Are they going to make it into a full length film?
SK-C: There is a full script and we shot an abridged version of the script. We shot a 25 minute trailer and the hope to find people to fund the project. Right now that’s what is going on, trying to find more people to produce the show. I’m not sure exactly where things are at right now, but there’s been a lovely response so far. I’m surprised there aren’t more slanderous comments, especially because of the nature of the content. People can be really rude and say all sorts of things, but maybe people’s minds are little more open.
SK-C: We’re involved in a project called ‘Free The Children’ so we’re going to be building a school there. We all paid for it individually so it was our decision to go. So we’ll be there for two weeks laying down bricks and interacting with the community. Where it is in India, they’re kind of lower class and outcasts so they only have one school for 200 students. There’s really no room for all of them. People here tend to really moan about things, but we don’t have a lot to moan about. I think going there is really going to open our eyes.
I feel so privileged being on the show so you really want to try and do something to give back to other people. Hopefully we won’t get sick. The last group of people wound up in the hospital for a week. But I’m really excited about it. We’ll get to touch other people’s lives and it’ll be a great bonding experience. To go there and leave a school behind will make me feel pretty good.
AE: Your bio says you like to sing and dance. Any plans to pursue those avenues?
SK-C: I love to sing and dance. I was dancing on a show called Baxter. I’ve been dancing all my life so I’d like to do more of that. I want to do more musicals cause I did one last year. And I’m into photography so I’d like to direct my own work sometime. I have many stories in my mind that I’d like to put out there. But we’ll see what happens. I take things day by day.
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