{"id":185732,"date":"2025-12-11T00:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T00:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185732\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T00:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T00:24:10","slug":"arden-cho-wanted-to-quit-before-kpop-demon-hunters-golden-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185732\/","title":{"rendered":"Arden Cho wanted to quit before ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ golden moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Three years ago, Arden Cho was ready to walk away from acting. She\u2019d landed her first lead role in the Netflix series \u201cPartner Track,\u201d<\/a> only to see it canceled after one season. She was heartbroken.<\/p>\n

Her agent wouldn\u2019t let her go. \u201cShe refused to say \u2018You\u2019re done.\u2019 She just kept sending me things,\u201d Cho said. \u201cShe just keep being like, \u2018Look, I know you\u2019re not auditioning. I know you\u2019re done, but I think you\u2019d like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Cho is juggling multiple projects after voicing the lead character Rumi in Netflix\u2019s animated summertime sensation \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d which has become the all-time most-streamed movie on the platform<\/a> \u2014 and spawned inescapable earworms \u201cGolden\u201d and \u201cSoda Pop\u201d as its soundtrack dominated pop charts.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Arden Cho was ready to walk away from acting. She\u2019d landed her first lead role in the Netflix series \u201cPartner Track\u201d only to see it canceled after one season. Now, Cho is one of The AP\u2019s Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025 after voicing the lead character Rumi in Netflix\u2019s animated summertime hit \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d (Dec. 10)<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so ready,\u201d Cho said. \u201cIt feels like it is my golden moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, Cho is among The Associated Press\u2019 Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025.<\/a> The timing feels almost cosmic. Netflix announced that \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d was its most-watched movie on Aug. 26 \u2014 exactly three years after it began streaming \u201cPartner Track.\u201d \u201cIt was kind of like a gift from God of, hey, you lost something, but I\u2019ve given you something better,\u201d Cho said.<\/p>\n

Cho \u2014 who doesn\u2019t sing in the movie \u2014 says she sees her own insecurities in the character, a K-pop idol and demon hunter who loses her voice. And she\u2019s ready to join in more stories in the world created by Maggie Kang. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Arden<\/p>\n

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\u201cI hope there are sequels, I hope there\u2019s prequels, I hope that every little Asian girl and boy feels so seen and feels like they deserve to be the main character. I hope this opens doors for more Korean and American collaborated projects,\u201d she says. \u201cI hope that … Rumi gets to find out a little bit more about her mom and dad. I hope to know how HUNTR\/X became HUNTR\/X. And I kind of hope to go save Jinu.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie has led a fresh wave of worldwide interest in Korean food, culture and K-pop idol life, which Cho, her co-stars and the singer-songwriters behind HUNTR\/X have leaned into as the film\u2019s publicity tour grinds into Hollywood\u2019s awards season. <\/a><\/p>\n

GET TO KNOW ARDEN CHO<\/p>\n

AGE: 40<\/p>\n

HOMETOWN: Amarillo, Texas<\/p>\n

FIRST ROLE: An uncredited part in 2006\u2019s \u201cThe Break-Up.\u201d Otherwise, 2008\u2019s \u201cHoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors\u201d<\/p>\n

YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: Besides Rumi? Netflix\u2019s \u201cPartner Track\u201d and MTV\u2019s \u201cTeen Wolf\u201d<\/p>\n

2025 IN REVIEW: \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d<\/p>\n

WHAT\u2019S NEXT: Three film projects: \u201cCheap AF,\u201d \u201cJoon\u201d and \u201cPerfect Girl.\u201d A \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d sequel is slated for 2029.<\/p>\n

ONE PAST PROJECT SHE WANTS YOU TO REVISIT: \u201cPartner Track\u201d (\u201cI feel like that was a really fun, fun show that, again, we do get a glimpse at what it\u2019s like being an Asian woman in a white man\u2019s world.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Want to know more about Arden and our other Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025? Read our survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel so blessed to be able to have these conversations because I am so proud to be, obviously, to be American, but at the same time, I\u2019m also so proud to be Korean,\u201d Cho said. <\/p>\n

Growing up in Texas and Minnesota,<\/a> she hadn\u2019t thought much about racial identity. But while attending college at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, something shifted. \u201cI realized that was the first time when I was like, oh, people look at me and don\u2019t think that I\u2019m an American,\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd it was interesting because I realized at that time, there are two ways to look at it. You can just be mad and say, \u2018Oh, I hate that we don\u2019t have representation, I hate people that don\u2019t see us, I hate that people don\u2019t see our stories,\u2019 or you can say, \u2018I\u2019m going to try.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So she tried. In 2007, she moved to Los Angeles. \u201cIt was tough to leave my friends and family behind, it was tough to stay positive and to have thick skin. I still don\u2019t have thick skin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Actor<\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello<\/p>\n

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\"Actor<\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello<\/p>\n

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She found success as superpowered Kira Yukimura on MTV\u2019s \u201cTeen Wolf\u201d series starting in 2014 but otherwise struggled to find meaty roles before \u201cPartner Track.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the legal drama, she was finally No. 1 on the call sheet. But she says, \u201cI blinked and it was done and I was devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m such a \u2018I want to take care of everything and everyone\u2019 type of personality. And I want to do it all. And so I think that whole experience sort of went by in a way where it was over before it began,\u201d Cho said. \u201cI missed my moment because I was so busy trying to make it perfect, trying to fix it all by myself. And in a weird way, like, it reminds me so much of Rumi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liam McEwan<\/a> has been on the K-pop beat since 2017, when he first interviewed BTS \u2014 the first of what would become 10 conversations with the group. These days, his coverage spans both real and fictional acts, like the animated idols of HUNTR\/X.<\/p>\n

Then \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d came her way. The film\u2019s producer Michelle Wong said she and other filmmakers narrowed finalists down to six actors, then did a blind \u201clisten test\u201d to pick the voice of Rumi. Cho was the unanimous choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur movie is dramatic, it\u2019s action, it\u2019s comedy, it\u2019s everything. The talent needs to be at the highest level, which you know, Arden obviously encapsulates all of that. She has a great range,\u201d Wong said. \u201cI hope this opens doors for her because she deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cho celebrated her 40th birthday in August as \u201cDemon Hunters\u201d was peaking in popularity. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think for women, sometimes people get shy to say that because they kind of think 40 is old,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I have never felt younger and better about myself. I\u2019ve never felt more comfortable in my skin. And I kind of want to run around and tell everyone that because I hope that it gives people hope that age is really just a number.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

For more on AP\u2019s 2025 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-breakthrough-entertainers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Three years ago, Arden Cho was ready to walk away from acting. She\u2019d landed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[100588,5601,34823,11195,93,1595,61,173,60,100589,85018,116,27019,9073,100587,270,278,1868,904,9904,49148,268,92113],"class_list":["post-185732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ap-breakthrough-entertainers","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-associated-press","tag-domestic-news","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-ie","tag-inc","tag-ireland","tag-kira-yukimura","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-los-angeles","tag-maggie-kang","tag-minnesota","tag-mn-state-wire","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-netflix","tag-television","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-world-news","tag-year-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}