Meet the new girl on the ‘Avengers’ block: Claudia Kim

 

There are plenty of new characters in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but when it comes to the actors themselves, names like “Elizabeth Olsen”, “Aaron Taylor-Johnson” and “James Spader” are nothing new to us.

There is one truly new face that has caught the attention of the globe, however, and that is South Korean actress Claudia Kim. The 30-year-old plays Dr. Helen Cho, the resident healer-slash-geneticist of the vigilante group, and her Hollywood debut is as high profile as it can get.

Since we might very well be seeing more of her in the future, here are five facts about Claudia Kim to add to your celebrity trivia book.

1. She is battle-ready

Considering that Kim’s character is a brilliant geneticist tasked with healing The Avengers, the actress did not have many action scenes in the movie. However, if the opportunity to kick some robotic butt ever presented itself, Kim would be more than capable of getting the job done.

She had a fair share of action scenes as Mi-rae in 7th Grade Civil Servant, and played a secratary who risked her life to save Daniel Henney’s character in The Fugitive: Plan B. She currently has a recurring role in the Netflix series Marco Polo as Khutulun, who certainly fits the “warrior princess” archetype.

If future Marvel movies ever need Kim to get down and dirty, no problemo.

2. She did not know who or what she was auditioning for… until the very last moment

As previous Marvel movies have shown us, the road to joining The Avengers is a long and secretive one. This was unsurprisingly so for the audition process as well.

According to allkpop, Kim revealed that she was selected to audition for the character by “Disney or Marvel”, as opposed to attending an open audition. The initial scripts she auditioned with gave her virtually no information about her eventual character, such that she did not even know “what the role was for”. In fact, Kim only realised that she was auditioning for Age of Ultron during the last audition, when she was going through the altered names in the script and was told to “Add ‘Thor’ into that”.

It is also rumoured that the studio went as far as to hire security to ensure that the actresses under consideration for Cho would not meet each other at the audition.

3. She was motivated to join The Avengers because of Buffy.

Yes, Buffy. As in, ‘the Vampire Slayer’.

While growing up, Kim was an enormous fan of Joss Whedon, who created and produced the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The fact that Whedon was directing Age of Ultron (he had also directed the first Avengers movie) only made Kim’s casting into the Marvel film even more special for the actress.

Kim told KDrama Stars, “I was so beyond thrilled when I found out that I was cast to work alongside Joss Whedon and the incredible cast of the film,.”

Not that being cast in Age of Ultron was not a source of excitement in itself.

4. Her favourite co-star is the Hulk.

Kim loved working with the entire cast, but if she “had to pick one” whom she most enjoyed working with, she would choose Mark Ruffalo (who plays The Hulk). Kim described Ruffalo, who filmed certain scenes with her on location in Korea, as “first and foremost a great person with a heart of gold. He was so supportive and patient, I learned so much from him.”

You hear that, folks? The Hulk is actually supportive and patient.

5. She has beauty and brains.

And that certainly makes her the perfect choice to play Dr. Cho.

The 177cm tall actress began her entertainment career by winning the Korea-China Supermodel Contest in 2005.

She is also reportedly a graduate of the prestigious Ewha Womans University, where she read International Studies.

Cue slow whistle.