SANDRA MY OH MY
Killing Eve Season 3 + Upcoming Series, The Chair
Sandra Oh has graced our screens for three decades. Does that surprise you? Because it has surprised me to realize this talent known for Killing Eve went unrecognized for the first half of her career. What set her on her path now was a little show called Grey’s Anatomy.
The role was for Cristina Yang, a sarcastic, quick-witted, multi-dimensional surgeon on the Shonda Rhimes network hit. She played Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo)’s “person” and confidant, but she wasn’t riddled with stereotypes — she was a dynamic burst of energy in a multi-story show.
“Young Asian people who come up to me have a certain vibration, and I receive it, and I understand it, and I feel emotional just talking about it,” Oh told Vanity Fair in 2018. “I’m here for you. And I’ll continue doing everything I can to fill something that I know you need right now, that we don’t yet have as a community.”
When she left Grey’s Anatomy in 2014 (hands-down the most I’ve ever cried watching a TV show), she expected the scripts and offers to flood her inbox. That didn’t happen. Instead, she picked up small lead and supporting roles. Nothing that got her the recognition she attained through Grey’s Anatomy. (That earned her five Emmy nominations.)
But four years later, she received the script for Killing Eve.
The BBC hit is based on a book series by Luke Jennings, in which Eve Polastri is a white woman. In her interview with Vanity Fair, Oh said she searched the script looking for the role the casting director wanted her to play. Then she was told it was for the protagonist. An Asian-American actress playing a role that was written as a white woman in a novel. That’s not usually how this goes. Typically, people of color are washed from the pages when adapted for the screen. That wasn’t the case here, and man are we glad.
Sandra Oh has set records following the success of the Phoebe Waller-Bridge drama. Eve, a smart, sexy, quirky MI5 agent, earned Oh a Golden Globe win, the first woman of Asian descent to win multiple Golden Globes. She also hosted alongside Andy Samberg that year, making her the first Asian to host the awards show. Then it led her to an Emmy nomination and she became the first Asian to be nominated for Lead Actress. She didn’t win, but she didn’t care. Her response to the nomination was this: “Thank you. But it’s an honor just to be Asian.”
With Killing Eve season three set to debut in April, Oh shows no signs of slowing down. Despite what goes down with her on-screen frenemy Villanelle (Jodie Comer) at the end of season two, Oh will reprise her role as Eve. But that’s not all she has in the pipeline. She recently signed onto the upcoming Netflix series The Chair.
The six-episode dramedy stars Sandra Oh as the chair of an English department at a major university. The series hails from creator Amanda Peet and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Not much is known about the show, but with credentials like that and Oh on as an executive producer, we know it will be good.
30 years is a long career. 15 years is a long time to get a career off the ground. But Sandra Oh did it. And though Villanelle might try to kill Eve, one thing is for sure — nothing can kill Sandra Oh’s momentum.
