'Past Lives' star talks about bringing unexpected humanity to 'Tron: Ares,' being franchise's first Korean lead
At Monday's press event in Seoul for "Tron: Ares," Greta Lee couldn't hide her amazement at launching the global press tour in Korea.
"I can't believe I'm here promoting a movie like this," the Korean American actor told reporters at CGV Yongsan, still processing her rise from indie darling to franchise star. "For a Hollywood movie to have a Korean protagonist for the first time, possibly, it's unbelievable."
After decades of memorable supporting roles and scene-stealing turns in everything from "Russian Doll" to "The Morning Show," Lee has vaulted into blockbuster territory with Disney's $150 million next edition in the sci-fi franchise. Her character Eve Kim, a CEO programmer who teams up with Jared Leto's AI-powered humanoid, marks the first time a Korean actor has anchored a "Tron" film since the franchise launched in 1982 -- though Lee seemed just as eager to talk about mastering her motorcycle stunts as making history.
"The director and I didn't realize how much running I'd have to do," she said, laughing about the six-week nighttime shooting schedule that had her racing through Vancouver streets until 1 a.m., then catching a flight to the Oscars the next morning. "Olympic athletes don't have to do 20 takes running like their life depended on it."
Such physical demands were a deliberate about-face from the quiet devastation in "Past Lives." Where Celine Song's romantic drama dwelled in stolen glances and unspoken longing, "Ares" throws Lee into full-throttle motorcycle chases and lightcycle battles.
"After something so intimate and naturalistic, it felt good to do something this physical," she said.
Director Joachim Ronning ("Maleficent: Mistress of Evil") couldn't have picked a better moment for his artificial intelligence invasion story.
In an age when tech giants warn that AI could spell the end of humanity and every other news cycle tracks another chatbot gone rogue, the film's premise -- a superintelligent AI breaking into our world through an expendable synthetic body -- hits uncomfortably close to home.
The relevance wasn't lost on Lee.
"AI is something we're all dealing with daily now," Lee said. "Not every movie gets to be this connected to the here and now -- both the good and potentially the bad."
Ask Lee about the weight of representation as a Korean American actor leading a Hollywood blockbuster and she pivots to something more fundamental. "I try to think about the humanity and the person before anything else," she said. "Before being Korean, Korean American, or a woman -- I'm thinking about the human being I'm trying to connect the audience to."
If anything, the global embrace of Korean culture these days feels validating on multiple levels. "It's something we as Koreans have known all along," she said. "In a lot of ways it feels like this is just the beginning -- the world doesn't even know what else is coming."