Jin Ha Is Looking For Levity

Jin Ha has already seen the second season of Pachinko — twice. Yes, he knows it's “weird” for actors to watch themselves on screen, but the first time, he focused on which takes were chosen and wondered if he should’ve relaxed his face more. “In the second pass, I found that I'm a lot more available to following the story and paying attention to the emotional life of these characters,” the Brooklyn-based actor tells Bustle. “It takes me for a ride.” (He doesn’t always view things twice; more on that below.)

Pachinko, based on Min Jin Lee’s award-winning 2017 novel, follows three generations of a Korean family as they navigate the prejudiced politics of pre- and post-war Japan. Ha plays the youngest member, Solomon, who loses his job at a prominent investment firm, gets blacklisted, and spirals down a path of revenge.

“I abide by the adage that says holding onto anger is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies,” Ha says. “When you have someone who's got nothing to lose, their first reaction may be, ‘Well, let me exact revenge on the person who's taken everything from me.’”

Fortunately for humanity, he “[doesn’t] relate to Solomon in that sense,” but he does share commonalities with his character. For instance, he studied East Asian languages and cultures at Columbia University, which came in handy for playing Solomon, who speaks Korean, Japanese, and English on-screen, sometimes mixing up languages in a single sentence. It’s one of the most challenging parts of Ha’s job, but that doesn’t stop him from calling it “the greatest role” he’s ever had — and he’s starred in Alex Garland’s Devs and performed in Broadway productions of Hamilton and M. Butterfly.

“The opportunity the show gives me as an audience member is actually [getting to see] what ‘my grandmother experienced,’” says Ha, who was born in Seoul and moved to Hong Kong when he was 3 before moving stateside at 8 years old. “I'm getting to witness her childhood and her young adulthood growing up in Japan, and that's life-changing.”

His character also has a softhearted bond with his grandmother, played by Oscar-winner Yuh-Jung Youn, which is similarly reflected off-screen. “I love that woman so deeply,” Ha says of his co-star. “When I'm in front of her, I try so hard not to forget my lines that I'm acting with her because I could just watch her work.” (They’re particularly charming in Season 2’s new opening credits, in which the entire cast dances together to The Grass Roots’ 1969 song “Wait A Million Years.” “You are just seeing unbridled, improvised joy being recorded,” he says.)

This month he joins another star-studded project, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, opposite Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, and Martin Short. In Season 4, which premiered Aug. 27, the titular podcast gets adapted into a movie, and Ha plays the budding screenwriter who penned the script. He can’t divulge too many details — it’s a murder mystery, after all, which affected how he’s been watching it.

“I've only seen the first episode because they screened a cut of it on the last day of our shoot, which is really such a delightful surprise,” Ha says. “But I intentionally told showrunner John Hoffman that I didn't want to see anything more from the show, because my partner and I had been fans, and we want to experience the show as it's coming out on TV.”

Whether he’s performing or watching his work, Ha says it’s less about being critical and more about finding joy in what he does. “Our work is important because art is important, but at the end of the day, we're just playing pretend for work. How lucky are we? It's like, don't take this sh*t too seriously.”

Learn more about Ha in the Bustle Booth questionnaire below.

In The Bustle Booth

What's your coffee order?

Black coffee, hot.

What are the saved weather locations on your phone?

My location, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seoul, and New York.

What’s your sign?

Gemini.

Favorite overused movie quote?

“Milk was a bad choice.”

What was your favorite cartoon as a kid?

Dragonball Z and Dexter’s Laboratory.

What’s one movie or TV show you're currently obsessed with?

Bilal Baig’s Sort Of on HBO.

Who is your celeb idol?

André 3000.

If you had to be on a reality TV show, what would it be?

The Devil’s Plan. It’s so good. It's like Physical: 100, but mind games. And maybe The Mole.

Go-to karaoke song?

“Bohemian Rhapsody.” Or anything by Billy Joel or John Legend.

What’s something that’s inspiring you lately?

The Olympics. All the commitment, dedication, heartbreak, and joy, that's pretty f*cking inspiring.

What is something you would want people to say about you?

I thought he was taller than that.