XO, Kitty's Sang Heon Lee on How He 'Lived Life' Before First Major Acting Role, Minho and Kitty's Relationship, and Climbing

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for XO, Kitty. Read at your own risk!]

3:26

Watch Now

Sang Heon Lee remembers the moment he knew he wanted to become an actor. Yes, the Korean-born, Hong Kong-raised star had taken drama classes in high school. But it was a filming experience from after he graduated that solidified his aspirations. Around five or six years ago, Lee starred in a documentary as a background character. "It's been like 13 hours since I got to set, but I haven't done much," Lee recalls thinking that day. "That's when I realized, I love this because I don't really care if I didn't do much — this is fun." 

Now, Lee is no longer in the background. He plays a leading character in Netflix's XO, Kitty, and is undeniably the breakout star — look no further than the more than 1 million Instagram followers he's amassed within 5 days of the show's premiere. In the To All The Boys spin-off from Jenny Han, the 27-year-old stars as the standoffish Minho who immediately develops a dislike toward Anna Cathcart's Kitty. But as the pair spends more time together, a classic enemies-to-lovers story unfolds (well, lovers on Minho's side, at least).

"I'm so glad that I chose this path," Lee tells TV Guide of his choice to pursue acting. And his first major project is made all the more special by the fact that his sister Gia Kim was also in the main cast. "She uses a stage name, and that's why the last name's different," Lee explains.) In fact, it was Kim — who plays chaebol heiress Yuri — that shared an open casting call for XO, Kitty via Instagram with him. "She said, I just got pinned, you should go for it as well," Lee remembers. "At the beginning, I didn't really think much of it. Because I thought, what are the chances?" It turns out the chances were good, because the team behind the series soon expressed their interest. "After I sent three tapes, I got pinned as well," he says.

Lee talks to TV Guide about how he "lived life" before landing this role, the evolution of Minho and Kitty's relationship, and the types of genres he wants to explore next. We also asked about his climbing account that, just like his main Instagram, is quickly gaining followers.

Had you done many auditions before XO, Kitty?
Sang Heon Lee: This was my first official audition. I did a few background, or those stuff in documentaries where they reenact and I was one of those actors. And after that, I never really had an audition. I would say XO, Kitty was my first gig and first official audition.

Wow. So you landed the role for your first audition.
Lee: It's not something that I'm flaunting about. I get very cautious when I say this, because I know for a fact that people out there — and even for my friends — they're trying, years of work, and they put so much effort into it. I'm gonna say I'm incredibly lucky and very grateful for what happened to me.

Did you know from the start that you wanted to audition for Minho? Were there other characters that caught your eye?
Lee: No, not really. As soon as I saw the list, I was like, okay, not much of a teacher role. And then Dae, I was like, no he's too innocent. Even in the character list description, it says, Dae was Kitty's boyfriend, the pen pal. And I was like, yeah sure that might be a really huge role but just by looking I'm like, I'm not that person. I cannot pull that innocent off. And I saw Minho, I was like, you know what, he seems fun. Korean expat, Australian or British accent. I was like, yeah, I can do that. 

What are the biggest similarities you share with Minho?
Lee: The scene where Minho goes like, I'm friendly to my friends. I'm definitely that sort of person. I'm loyal to my friends. Most of the times, if someone says oh, let's meet up next week, I'm the type of person to be like, alright, then next week it is. And then when it becomes next week, I'm like, so when are we meeting?

How long have you been interested in acting?
Lee: I would go back to my high school times. We had to choose a career path, and think about what we wanted to do with university. And I thought to myself, what am I good at? Let's think about what I love to do. It was Year 12, Year 13 I was taking drama classes. And then for university, I took drama as well. For university, I was supposed to be taking TV and acting, but I was quite naive and stupid and lazy, too. Because I was supposed to change it to TV and acting. I didn't know drama wasn't really about TV and film, it was more about the theory, children's theater, teaching kids how to do drama. So it didn't really help me, I'm not gonna lie. It didn't really help me but at the end of the day, I was in a very positive mood. I don't think acting — yeah, sure, it always comes from years of training — but honestly, from what I believe is, training gets you somewhere. But if you live your life in the most adventurous and the most entertaining way, then I feel like that will be such a useful resource and even better, such a vital resource than just training. So yeah, I think I just lived life. And then I was like, okay, now I think I'm ready. 

I love that. So between university and now is when you would say you mostly lived life?
Lee: During high school, after high school, university and then military, I did military in Korea. And then a year-and-a-half of modeling. I went through relationships, I fell in love, I broke up with someone. I had the weirdest adventures, met some great people.

I feel like that is rarer these days as more young people go directly into the entertainment industry.
Lee: It is a shame that some people, especially actors who started out young, they've done that their whole career. It's definitely useful. But then I feel bad for them because they haven't exactly lived their teenage life, you know? There are a lot of childhood memories that I would never swap with my career. Like no, those are my memories and that is why this is me. 

Definitely. Besides modeling, did you work other jobs between then and now?
Lee: I've worked in a club in the U.K. — club/bar. I was collecting cups. You know how in the bar, people leave drinks anywhere like tables, toilet, wherever. I was the one collecting all the cups, putting it back to the kitchen, and washing everything. I worked at a Korean barbecue once in Korea. I used to work in this warehouse in Hong Kong. 

It sounds like you've lived many different lives. I also wanted to ask about the very last scene of the show. What was your reaction when you read the script for the plane moment between Minho and Kitty?
Lee: Yeah, I didn't expect that. We were like, whoa, this is how it ends? What's happening? This is such a cliffhanger. People ask me, how do you think things are going to turn out, the next scene if there was a next scene. Honestly, I have no idea because, Kitty's been through a lot —with herself and discovering her sexuality. Minho also at the same time, going through a lot. His own relationship goes through a break up, where now he finds out that he wants a relationship. He's just trying to find the right person.  

What would you say are the primary reasons that his f--kboy era has ended?
Lee: I think during the time when he was going through these emotions when he really disliked this person, so in this case, Kitty. He really disliked Kitty because she was disrupting his calm pond. And she was the one throwing the pebble and making waves and disrupting the whole pond. But then that hatred emotion became something lovable. And I thought, that's such a classic way to do it. I see the attractiveness of it. I think because of that whole wave of emotion, he thought, maybe it's time to settle down or maybe I need some experience of having a good relationship. Because everyone had their own f--kboy or f--kgirl series and they now want something real or got tired of it.

On the plane Minho says, "I fell in love with you." This was said in the past tense but, is he still in love with her? 
Lee: He did fall for her. I would say the scene where he was looking at Kitty, the most romantic and the most differently than he ever saw her was the scene, it was in the club in the Minho Madness Party. He saw Kitty and Dae talking and he was like, damn, I wonder what that feels like. And in a way, I'm very envious of Dae and of Kitty. He definitely fell for but he just didn't know himself. The fact that he managed to sit in a coach, economy seat in the plane, and taking his time to be there next to Kitty is something else. You got to go through a lot of process to do that. Think about it, realistically! Going through flight tickets, making sure everything's all right. It's mad. I would say he's still in love with her.

I also wanted to ask about the LGBTQ stories in XO, Kitty. What do you think is the significance of that representation being in this show?
Lee: I loved how they involve that in this teen rom-com because usually love, or the way you discover yourself, is through high school. I think that's when you know, oh, I might be straight, or I might be bi — that's when you discover a lot of things. And I think that's the beginning, and you grow from that. So I think they portrayed that so well, and especially because it's a collaboration between K-drama and Hollywood. They couldn't have done it better. If it was a K-drama or K-film, not going to lie, I wouldn't see a lot of LGBTQ community portrayed in a K-drama or Korean film because there's not a lot going on in Korea for that. Even if there was, they're very discreet about it. But I'm so glad that they could [show] it this time because Korean people will be loving it and at the same time realizing and having more knowledge that oh, there is this community that's going out more globally and more publicly.

Definitely, it's still very rare to see that in K-dramas and most projects produced in Asia. Switching gears now, what types of roles are you looking for next? 
Lee: When people ask, did you imagine yourself starting as a rom-com character? I didn't really think anything about that in general. Whatever comes to my plate, that's my opportunity to grab it. I would take it, I don't care if it was thriller, crime, or action, or rom-com. I'm actually glad that I did this as my first gig because I love rom-com films and series. Plus, I think I'm quite confident with comedy. I have good knowledge or I think I have a good sense [of] how to make the audience laugh. Not through live. I can't make someone laugh too much when we're just speaking together. But I think I have a good sense when it comes to camera or TV acting in a way for comedy. In the future, I'm down for anything. I don't mind doing comedy again, I don't mind doing action. But there's one genre that I would love to do, which is noir. And that's something so heavily influenced in Korea. People love noir films, and I think it's doing so well there, and I really want to be a part of it, especially in Korean films.

And then finally, I do have to ask about your climbing account! Are you planning to grow it?
Lee: For that account, it's not like I'm trying to build that up, it's more like I'm just posting videos of me climbing. Also throughout the climbing community, people love to watch their own videos or share their videos. And it's something that I would love to remember, and also record something that I'm really passionate about. So that's why I keep it as like a log, a journal basically — not something that I'm trying to, let this account grow and let's see what it becomes. I wanted to let people know that I have a climbing account because then if there's a fellow climber, they can contact me and be like, let's climb together, which I'm so down for. It's such a great environment to get friendly with, and it's a great sport. I usually expect that people who do climb would be the ones following my climbing account, not people who don't climb [laughs.] But it's their choice of following it, and I really do appreciate and love the fact that they watch my videos.

XO, Kitty is available to stream on Netflix.