Susan Park
The talented Korean-American actress Susan Park was born on 19th March 1984, in the USA, and is known for a plethora of roles, such as her portrayal of Christine Russell in “Vice Principals” and her short but sweet depiction of Linda Park in “Fargo”.
Raised as an only child by Korean immigrants, Susan went on to graduate from Drama Centre London and began acting at 25 years old when she performed the one-woman show “Diaries of a K-Town Diva”.
Career
In the same year, Susan had her first short film roles in “The Lifeboat”, “The Film You Did Not See”, and “Clubophobia”, and played Dr. Monica Crumb in four episodes of “The Unusuals”.
Over the next few years, she had guest-starring spots in “Three Rivers”, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, and “Law & Order: LA” to name a few. At the same time, the actress had minor recurring roles in beloved series such as “The Bold and the Beautiful”, and “1600 Penn”.
Many cinephiles are unfamiliar with Susan’s movie roles as she has mainly participated in low-budget or indie projects that have suffered from little to no promotion. However, in 2013 she appeared in the short film “Cleaner” and would go on to have roles in “Electric Slide”, “Phantom Halo”, and “Ghostbusters”. The latter project was moderately successful, bringing in $229 million against a $144 million budget and receiving positive critic and fan reviews; however, Susan’s role was small enough to go unnoticed.
In 2014, Susan embarked on one of her most recurring roles to date, as Linda Park in the black comedy crime drama series “Fargo”. Despite only appearing in five episodes, writers provided Linda with an ample backstory, as viewers learned that she came to the USA at the age of three, and began working at the family motel at a young age.
“Fargo” fans were introduced to Linda in the season one episode “The Crocodile’s Dilemma”, as she was working at Bo Munk Insurance Shop, and interacted with main character Lester Nygaard. At the time, Lester was mourning the loss of his wife and unaware that Linda was romantically interested in him. In the span of a few episodes, Susan’s character went from making him soup and complimenting his work clothes to becoming his spouse, thanks to a one-year time jump.
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Although viewers liked Linda and felt sorry for her when it became clear that Lester was pursuing other women, she was killed off in the episode “A Fox, A Rabbit, and A Cabbage” after being mistaken for her husband and shot by the show’s main antagonist, Malvo.
After “Fargo”, Susan continued to work steadily on TV with a guest-starring appearance in “Castle”, and a recurring character role in the Justin Adler sitcom “Life in Pieces”. From 2015 to 2017, the Korean-American actress portrayed Connie Chen in a handful of episodes of “Fresh Off the Boat”, a lighthearted comedy based on the life of celebrity chef and foodie Eddie Huang and his 2013 autobiography of the same name.
In 2017, Susan had her biggest movie role yet as Angie in the Netflix comedy-drama “Unicorn Store”, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to a mixed bag of reviews. Some critics felt that the screenplay was too immature and whimsical, whereas others praised director Brie Larson’s potential as a filmmaker.
In the same year, Susan had a recurring role as Liz in “The Mick”, which was cancelled by Fox after two seasons for unspecified reasons. Her next prominent project was a main role as Jinju in “Snowpiercer”, a post-apocalyptic dystopian thriller that premiered on TNT in May 2020, and was based on the 2013 movie of the same name.
During the press run for “Snowpiercer”, Susan gave a rare interview in which she shared that she was a huge fan of the original film and its director, Bong Joon-ho. ‘I’ve been following him for a really long time. I’m Korean-American, and his movies are just magic to me,’ she declared.
Mickey Sumner, Susan Park Lesbian, Butt Scene in Snowpiercer https://t.co/WqwBZQnDJ7 Nice kissing scene.
— Luis Landa (@1570_landa) June 6, 2020
The actress also revealed that she felt ‘honored’, ‘happy’, and ‘pretty lucky’ to be a part of the TV adaptation, especially as her character, Jinju, did not appear in the movie, and was written in especially. Despite having limited screentime in the pilot, Jinju became more important as the series developed, not only as a love interest but as an integral part of the “Snowpiercer” universe.
Preparing for the role wasn’t that challenging, but Susan did have to train for one of the scenes in which Jinju dived underwater and had to hold her breath for over a minute. ‘When I first started, I could do maybe 30 seconds,’ the actress quipped. ‘By the end of the maybe a week, I could start holding it up for 90 seconds.’
Viewers of “Snowpiercer” were disappointed when Susan’s character was written out of the show, after she broke up with her girlfriend Bess (played by Mickey Summer) during season one. The series ran for two more years and received mainly positive reviews; however, the network ultimately decided not to air the fourth season, despite it already being filmed and completed at the time of cancellation.
Since then, Susan has had just one TV role, that of Daphne Owens in a few episodes of “Briarpatch”. Meanwhile, her last two movies, “Always Be My Maybe” and “William”, were both released in 2019.
The actress’s lengthy hiatus has led to some retirement rumors, as many of her longtime fans expected her career to go from strength to strength following the success of “Always Be My Maybe”, which boasts a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and other review-aggregation websites. With that said, Susan’s role in the movie was a minor one, and her character wasn’t allowed enough screentime to let her talent shine through.
As Susan has no social media profiles – her only fan page has just 62 followers at time of writing and she hasn’t posted in months – viewers will possibly have to wait a while to learn anything about her upcoming projects.
One of the most frequently-asked questions about Susan is whether she’s single or in a relationship. Despite her many years in showbiz, the actress has managed to keep a low profile, and has yet to be romantically linked to anyone. Regarding the “Fargo” star’s height, weight, and appearance, she’s 5ft 4ins (165cm) tall and weighs about 120lbs (55kgs), with a slim and youthful physique.
