Hawaii Five-0 actor Daniel Dae Kim confirmed in a Facebook post addressed to fans on Wednesday that he was leaving the show after he and CBS weren’t able to agree on the terms of a new contract. Kim’s announcement follows Variety‘s report last week that he and co-star Grace Park were seeking pay parity with their white co-stars Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. Sources told Variety that they believed Kim and Park had been offered 10 to 15 percent less than what O’Loughlin and Caan make per season from the show, and that the latter two stars also make a percentage of the film’s back-end earnings, which Kim and Park do not.
Kim did not confirm in his Facebook post whether the contractual conflict was about pay parity, but he did acknowledge the difficulty he might face as an Asian-American actor to find another major role. “I’ll end by saying that though transitions can be difficult, I encourage us all to look beyond the disappointment of this moment to the bigger picture. The path to equality is rarely easy. But I hope you can be excited for the future,” Kim wrote in his post.
Like O’Loughlin and Caan, Kim and Park have starred on the show since it premiered in 2010. At the end of last season, Park’s character, Kono Kalakaua, was about to begin investigating a child sex trafficking ring and Kim’s character, Lieutenant Chin Ho Kelly, had been offered a spot on a task force in San Francisco. These storylines didn’t require Kim or Park to return for an eighth season, Cinemablend notes.
Kim assured fans in his post that he has acting opportunities “on the horizon.” He additionally urged them to watch a show that his production company, 3AD, will premiere on ABC this fall: The Good Doctor, based on a South Korean television series of the same name.
