Korean-American Actors Quit TV Show Because of Unequal Pay
I saw this the other day in the US media and now it has hit the Korean media as well:
Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, two of the main actors in U.S. TV drama “Hawaii Five-O,” are quitting the show over unequal pay, according to Variety, a U.S. entertainment news outlet.
Park and Kim had been seeking pay equality with the show’s other main actors, Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan, but were unable to reach a satisfactory deal with the producer CBS Television Studios.
The final offer is known to have been 10 to 15 percent lower than the other two actors. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but for those that have not seen the show Alex O’laughlin is the lead character with Scott Caan playing his sidekick. The characters played by Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park are supporting actors. Is it normal for studios to pay supporting actors as much as lead actors? If not why would CBS pay more money to actors who have less screen time then the lead actors?
Plus this show has about run its course any way, I will be surprised if it survives another season.
It was an ensemble cast, with no leads. The Scott Caan character received less airtime and less episodes than the Grace Park/Daniel Dae Kim characters. But, GP and DDK were wanting to leave regardless of salary, as GP grew bored of the role and wanted to do other primetime shows, and DDK is executive producer of a new ABC show. They were going to do the last season if only the price was right.
@Denny, I watched this show until Season 5 when it got too ridiculous to watch and the main storyline was centered on Alex O’laughlin’s character. Caan’s character was always with him. Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim were always supporting actors with supporting storylines. If they made the argument they wanted equal pay with Caan’s character I could see that because he is basically a sidekick, but O’laughlin is the main character in the show.
What I find interesting is that O’laughlin and Caan are also the two worst actors on the show and are the star characters.
Fight for your rights, just like DPRK. A slave has nothing to loose, So when you got the chance slit the master neck.
A quick peek on IMDB refute your first two sentences but who knows how they list the actors. If they have something else lined up they should quit and move on to better opportunities. It’s always worth arguing to improve your job if you like doing it and do it at a level beyond the current compensation but you should always keep in mind, that’s the job and the company might not want it to evolve beyond what you agreed to. This story has cowardly racial undertones and F that.
Oh an by the way, Park’s Canadian-American and Kim’s just plain American so calling them Korean-American is fake news. 😛
Neither GP nor DDK brought up race. They simply stated they were leaving. The racial element is from media speculation. Scott Caan, the shortest of the four actors at 5’5″, lives in LA and not Hawaii where the show is filmed. He is absent in about 20% of the episodes (5 of a 25 episode season), which the IMDB page does not show.
Caan would be an assistant manager at a parts store right now if it wasn’t for his dad.
I didn’t mean to imply they were saying it was about race; news media playing up an angle for clicks & views!? Say it isn’t so. 😥
Where are you reading that Caan isn’t in as many episodes as the main IMDB page claims? I’m not saying you’re lying, I’m wondering who’s scooping IMDB and where I should maybe look up movie info that’s accurate.
Slaves don’t get paid….. Acrtors do…, nicely.
From Scott Caan himself:
“I do five episodes less than [series star] Alex [O’Loughlin],” said Caan, who lives in Los Angeles while the show shoots in Hawaii. “I just do a couple episodes less so I can come home to see my family and stuff. They were cool about it so we just all came to that.”
http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/tuned-in/item/39426-tv-q-a-hawaii-five-0-pennsylvania-ems-tests-and-weather-on-local-news
LIMERICK
The pay gap is nothing but lies.
Star staus never applies.
Before you attack,
read the contract.
They get paid by the size of their eyes.