‘XO, Kitty’ Star Minyeong Choi on His Character Dae “Discovering Himself” in Season 2
In season one of Netflix’s coming-of-age series XO, Kitty, Minyeong Choi won the internet’s heart by playing Dae, a hardworking and sweet first boyfriend to the show’s titular main character.
“Kitty was always his first priority,” Choi tells The Hollywood Reporter about his character’s season one motivation. “I feel like for this season, he’s discovering himself a little bit more and trying to figure out what he actually likes and what he wants.”
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After a breakup between Dae and Kitty (Anna Cathcart) in the show’s season one finale, Dae’s path has ventured out from the love interest story to one of his own, focusing on family, friendships and, most notably, music. His character’s love of singing is thrust into the spotlight this season — it even allowed Choi to deliver a fun performance of BTS member Jungkook’s summer hit, “Seven.”
Below, Choi chats with THR about getting to bring his musical experience to the show, the unique environment of working on a U.S. show in his hometown of Seoul and how he’s feeling after playing the character for two seasons.
You’ve starred in musicals in the past, what was it like to bring that experience to season two of XO, Kitty?
To be honest, I think it was kind of a weird feeling because it felt really special, but at the same time, it was not really special because if it were a musical movie or a musical episode, I feel like that could be meaningful in some way. In this context, in season two, I’m not acting by singing. I’m just singing as a character, so it just felt like another scene and I just had to sing. Which I’m pretty comfortable with. It wasn’t that stressful. But at the same time, I feel like it’s one of my first moments as an actor to sing in front of a large audience. That was definitely special.
Your character’s arc this season revolves around many relationships that are not Dae and Kitty, which, as you said, is different from the first season. Dae’s story is very tied to his relationship with Minho and the tension that develops between the friends. What was it like to lean into a different kind of tension throughout the season?
It was definitely different and it was really fun to focus on different parts [of his character] because I had to figure out the relationship between Kitty and Dae, mostly for season one, and maybe his family. But this time, it’s more about the relationship between my friends — like Q and Minho — and my new love Interest, Eunice (Han Bi Ryu). And about my dream. I had to focus on a totally different thing, so I had to do the work again. But that’s what makes it interesting and makes the character [come] alive.
XO, Kitty is presumably an interesting experience for someone like you who had exclusively worked on Korean television shows before this role. You’re still working in Korea but on an American TV show. Do you find many differences there?
It is definitely a unique environment and production to work [on], but I don’t know, I think I only saw the good parts because it felt like the good parts were mixed. I got to have the chance to experience a new environment and a new way of running a production, which was really fun and interesting. But at the same time, I was pretty comfortable because I was in my hometown, so it wasn’t that stressful. Even though everything was new, it kind of felt familiar at the same time. I think it was a really good mixture for me.
XO, Kitty has a large cast of young actors, what was the environment like as a young actor yourself?
I am pretty sure that for season one, everyone got maybe too close [Laughs], and I always get help a lot from Sang Heon [Lee], Gia [Kim], Anna [Cathcart] and Anthony [Keyvan]. They helped me a lot, and I wanted to help them a lot at the same time. If they helped me with English, I can help them with figuring out how to catch an Uber or how to find a restaurant or things like that. We spent a lot of time [together], we got really close. For season two, since we became really close, I feel like we relied on each other a lot for season two. That was really helpful and comfortable at the same time.
Now that you’re done with season two, how are you feeling about your character Dae?
That’s a really interesting question. I think, I don’t know why, but for season one, I feel like I was more connected with the character. But for season two, I feel like I got to know him more and see him from a little bit of distance in a good way. When you’re living life, it’s really hard to know who you are because you’re facing too many things and you don’t know what you’re doing. I feel like that was what I was like in season one, and for season two, now, I have more space, and I feel like I can see him not stumble around everywhere.
I feel like Dae most of his scenes and connections were with Kitty for season one, and now as we talked about, he’s trying to find his dream and his relationships with his friends and discovering different parts [of himself]. I feel like it changed a lot and that was one of my favorite parts from for season two for Dae because that’s what actually happens in life. [For a] few years, you’re into something and you’re just crazy about that and you feel like you’re never going to change. But at some point, you don’t even know, but you change a lot, and I think that’s what happened to Dae.
Season two of XO, Kitty is currently streaming on Netflix.
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