Soo Hugh

PACHINKO is a completely different genre compared to your other projects. What was it like working on this multi-generational family drama in contrast to a horror piece?
I can totally see how on the surface, PACHINKO would feel different from other shows I’ve worked on, especially from Season 1 of The Terror [a horror anthology featuring the Franklin Arctic expedition]. But I actually feel like there’s a common thread between The Terror and PACHINKO—they’re stories of people who have to survive at all costs when faced with extreme circumstances, and end up keeping their humanity through it all. The Terror, with what those men faced on the ice, is a story of resilience. And clearly, Sunja’s immigrant experience is a story of resilience. So even though tonally PACHINKO isn’t a horror story, the experience of being an outsider and marginalized in a foreign land has horror elements.

After you read the book, you felt responsible to bring it to screens. How come?
It was a complex feeling. I was really nervous and scared about tackling a book that confronts heavy themes. And I knew that if I was going to dive into this world, I had to be really honest with myself, which meant confronting where I came from. I’ve never had the experience of creating reflections of my own identity on screen.

That must have been emotional for you.
[Laughing]. The reason I laugh is because there’s an inside joke with the casting crew that the way they knew if something was working was to see if I was crying at the monitor. I cried a lot on this show. Not just tears of sadness, but tears of happiness, tears of grief, tears in all forms. So yeah, this was emotional.

Were there any changes made for the final adaptation?
One big structural change was the book being told chronologically and the television adaptation jumping time periods. I made that decision because I was interested in seeing the ramifications of one generation’s decision upon the other. I wanted to show the larger conversation of what it means to see sacrifice bear fruit in the 3rd generation.

Is there a character you relate to the most?
All of them, and I don’t mean for that to be a cop-out answer. I only write characters I love, even characters who are so-called villains, though I don’t believe in villains. Even characters who do things that go against what I consider a moral barometer—I have to love them. And in order for me to love them, I have to feel like they’re part of me. But one of the characters that was really satisfying to write was Naomi. She’s a Japanese career woman who has ambitions of climbing the corporate ladder. How could I not investigate my own career through that character? There have been many times I’ve been on the outside looking in just because I’m a woman or because I’m Asian.

You’re starting a writing program known as the “Thousand Miles Project.” What is it?
When I signed my deal at UCP, the cable arm of Universal, one of the things we discussed was launching incubator programs. I wanted to be a filmmaker at such a young age, but didn’t know how to do that because I was from Towson, Maryland—so far away emotionally and culturally from New York and LA. I might as well have been on the moon. So we want to offer lessons about how the industry works to people who are not in the mainstream or within that traditional media fold. And hopefully, it will inspire more storytellers to say, “Wait a minute, I can do this.”

And you’re accepting applications (right here!) until March 31st?
Yes, please apply! You just have to have a sample and a voice. There are so many people who tell me, “At night when I come home, I write poetry,” or, “On the weekends, I’ll write an essay.” As humans, creativity runs in our bones. So hopefully this program allows people to really mine into that.