Hawaii Five O: Grace Park Interview


Grace Park of Hawaii Five O looks back on her favorite moments on the show.

In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Grace Park opens up on her favorite moments, the key to delivery of exposition, and other things. The following is an abridged version of the interview.

Entertainment Weekly asked what Grace Park, the actress who plays Kono Kalakaua on Hawaii Five O, thought when the show was asking the viewers to pick the killer.

Grace Park replied:

“I thought two things simultaneously: that it was very current and a real savvy way to get the audience participation in, and at the same time, I thought ‘Oh, here we go.’ I guess I’m a bit of a snob in that I feel that it’s like that baseball movie with Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams – ‘build it and they will come.'”

Entertainment Weekly asked Grace Park if she had seen the original series version of the “Hookman” episode, which the new series had just re-imagined. She said she hadn’t:

“But I heard there were certain things we were doing shot-for-shot what it was. Certain backdrops and who it cut to.”

Entertainment Weekly posed the question to Grace Park as to what she was most proud of:

“I’d say the storyline that I was most satisfied with was the beginning of season 2 when Kono appears to go rogue. It was a delight because for five episodes, the only time I showed up was to do character stuff. That was kind of a dream for me. That’s how I feel, as an actor, like I’m built more not to do procedural exposition. … On the other side – the leaps and bounds I’ve been able to do in exposition because I’m terrible at that usually. It’s not fun and it’s not easy, so I’ve gotten a lot better at it. … [One] episode was flipped where he was like Kono in a way and downloading everyone at the table, and he kept stumbling and tripping, and he finally looked at me and said, ‘You make this look easy.’ And I was like, ‘Yo, bro, I’ve been doing this for two and a half years.'”

Entertainment Weekly offered the opinion that the characters Kono and Catherine Rollins should work together on some action scenes eventually. Grace Park responded:

“I would love for us to. I think it’s long overdue. I could see us buddying up and kicking somebody’s butt together, but I haven’t read it so far. Maybe next season.”

How do you feel about what Grace Park said about Hawaii Five O?

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