Fresh Off The Boat’s Randall Park Talks Cheesy Sitcom Dads and Being on North Korea’s Naughty List

SCENE STEALER: Actor Randall Park

HE PLAYS Louis Huang, the chipper patriarch of Fresh Off the Boat, ABC’s new fish-out-of-water hit about a Taiwanese-American clan in 1990s Orlando. “Depictions of immigrant parents–especially fathers–tend to be stoic and serious,” Park says. “I love that Louis is more of a classic sitcom dad who’s cheesy and embarrassing.” On tonight’s episode, Louis buys a billboard to advertise his struggling country-and-Western steak house, only to see the sign vandalized. Still, Park promises that Louis will lasso the culinary zeitgeist eventually: “He is going to jump on the ’90s fajitas craze!”

WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HIM BEFORE Playing Minnesota Governor Danny Chung on HBO’s Veep and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in the controversial comedy film The Interview. (As for potentially being on the Supreme Leader’s naughty list? “Everyone around me says I should be in hiding,” Park says with a laugh. “But I don’t feel like anybody’s after me…. I don’t think.”)

WHY WE LOVE HIM Park infuses Louis with a gung-ho optimism that’s infectious yet never paints him as a fool. According to showrunner Nahnatchka Khan, Park’s ability to endear himself to viewers was the reason he was the first actor hired for the show. “We didn’t even have a script,” says Khan. “Randall makes you want to root for him.”

HE’S NOT A TAIWANESE IMMIGRANT… but he plays one on TV. Park’s ethnicity–he was born and raised in L.A. to Korean parents–made him question his involvement. “After the pilot got picked up, I realized how important it was to have a show about Asian-Americans, and I felt like it should be accurate,” Park says. A chat with celeb chef Eddie Huang, whose memoir is the basis for the series, changed his mind. “He told me I was the only one who could play Louis, and that’s what I needed to hear.”

Fresh Off The Boat, Tuesday, March 3, 8/7c, ABC

From TV Guide Magazine

What to Expect From 'The Hunting Party's Love Triangle and Mystery

Manifest alum Melissa Roxburgh and the showrunner of NBC’s Hunting Party tease TV Guide Magazine about what’s ahead for the “government conspiracy that just keeps unfolding” — plus, the series’ “good” love triangle. Read the story now on TV Insider.