Blair Waldorf. Chanel Oberlin. Quinn Fabray. Sharpay Evans. A great television queen bee often encompasses three things: They are as captivating as they are ruthless, have enviable style, and, of course, experience a worthy redemption arc. Who doesn’t love that? But as we’ve learned over the years, not all queen bees are the same, and that’s certainly the case with XO, Kitty‘s Yuri Han.
When actor Gia Kim came across the open casting for the Netflix series—a spin-off of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy created by Jenny Han—she was surprised to see so many interesting and individually unique characters set in high school. “I was like, ‘Wait, Yuri is a Korean queen bee who is queer? I have never seen that yet,'” she tells me from her Los Angeles apartment. It didn’t matter if she got the role. Kim was just excited to see a character like Yuri come to life on-screen.
When XO, Kitty premiered in May of 2023, it was a fast hit, which was not surprising considering Han’s secret sauce of perfectly capturing the innocence and vulnerability of young love. The show, which releases its second season today, centers on the youngest Covey sister Kitty (reprised by Anna Cathcart), who receives a full scholarship to attend the Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS), where her mother once studied. It’s at her new school that Kitty embarks on a journey of self-discovery and meets a new group of friends and complicated love interests along the way.
When we first meet Yuri, she immediately stands out as one of KISS’s most popular students. The daughter of the school’s principal, she is well-connected and well-dressed, and in a surprising turn of events, she also happens to be dating Kitty’s long-distance boyfriend Dae, making her enemy number one. Yuri seemingly has it all, but in actuality, she is hiding her true self and her actual relationship with classmate Juliana out of fear of disappointing her conservative family until she finally comes out toward the end of season one.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Kim saw the impact of Yuri’s coming-out story soon after season one premiered. Fans started reaching out to the actor to share stories of how the show helped them on a personal level. “Some of them had gone through dark things, to say the least, and then they told me the show brought them out of that. … That meant so much to me,” Kim says. “This is why I do my job as an actor. It gave me all the fulfillment and validation I needed from doing my job.”
Stripping back the essence of who Yuri is as a person, it was easy for Kim to find common ground with the teen early on. She, too, attended an international school in Korea (unlike Yuri, she was much more of a Goody Two-shoes back then) and experienced the trials and tribulations that come with young love. The biggest connection for Kim probably was Yuri’s complicated relationship with her mother. “Korean or Asian moms, in general, definitely carry this energy as a generation that’s raised by a war-ridden generation. All of that comes with a certain kind of thing, and I now obviously have privileges my mom didn’t have, and that leads to different sorts of problems between us,” Kim says.
While Yuri’s biggest external conflict in season one was her mom, we come into season two seeing a more confident version of the high schooler. She is back together with Juliana, her relationship with her mother is on the mend, and she’s finally at a good point in her friendship with Kitty. The big question is, Now what? “Now that I’ve fought for something and I have it closer to me, what do I do with it?” Kim says of Yuri. “I think that her journey in season two is having something she fought for in Juliana, and now, she has to confront real-life relationship problems that other people have.” For example, she contends with how her relationship is impacted by Yuri and Kitty’s blossoming friendship and underlying romantic feelings.
Kitty and Yuri’s relationship is your classic “enemies to lovers” story, and their “will they, won’t they” dynamic will surely have fans on the edge of their seats this season. When I ask how it was working with Cathcart on the high-stakes scenes between Yuri and Kitty, Kim starts gushing about how much she adores the Canadian actress as a person. Working together, she tells me, has always been easy because they genuinely like each other as people. “I loved the one-on-one scenes we had this season as well as last season because you just have to focus on that one person and that one circumstance and all the things that come with it. Everything is just so easy with [Anna],” she says.
As for whether season two will also bring more noteworthy fashion moments for KISS’s queen bee, Kim happily confirms. “The one thing I will always say is [that] I don’t know what will happen to Yuri, but I never want her to lose her clothes. Please, let her have the full range of wardrobe choices because that would be so sad if she has to go to basic stuff,” she laughs. Pink may have been Yuri’s color du jour in season one, but this season, she says we can expect to see her wearing the whole spectrum of colors while also playing around with a more punk-rock energy in the form of leather jackets and mixed textures. Be on the lookout for a rogue Comme des Garçons corset-and-skirt number, as it’s one of Kim’s favorites from the season.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Before wrapping up our call, I’m eager to learn what the breakout actress has on the horizon beyond XO, Kitty. She tells me there’s a project on the way that she can’t speak about yet, but she’s also in the thick of producing a play that is expected later this year. It’s called Closer and is based on the 1997 Patrick Marber stage production that was later adapted into a 2004 film starring Julia Roberts and Jude Law. Her eyes light up just talking about it. Although she initially set out to be a film director, Kim got her acting start in theater, and working on Closer reminds her of the times she and a bunch of friends poured their heart, souls, and money into putting on plays in Korea. “I’m excited for it to have my creative input and vision, and I already have a director on board. I’m thinking about casting now, so it’s fun to put on a different hat than an actor right now,” Kim says.
This queen bee has all the right ambition.
XO, Kitty season two is now streaming on Netflix.
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