Joel Kim Booster on Being the Unofficial Face of Pride and Bringing Queer Joy to the Screen (Exclusive)

etonline.com:

Joel Kim Booster jokes with ET about the fact that several major projects of his have debuted in June.In fact, the month first kicked off with the celebrated release of the Hulu film, which he wrote and starred in, followed by two Netflix standup specials, and, before closing out with the debut of the hilarious Apple TV+ series , in which he plays a devoted assistant to Maya Rudolph’s character, Molly.

Considering June is the month when so much LGBTQ-related content is released, Booster has been a part of some of the biggest, most notable and historic ones, more or less making him the unofficial face of Pride in 2022. “No one wanted it, but everyone’s getting it,” he jokes. “I guess that is sort of my lot in life this year.

But I’m very, very happy and honored and proud to be a part of all these great projects.” And he should be, especially as a 34-year-old openly gay Korean man who went from being afraid and ashamed of who he was growing up (“It took a lot of work and a lot of energy to live proudly”) to being at a major cornerstone in his career in large part by celebrating exactly who he is now. “I have fought for this and I’m gonna enjoy it,” Booster says.

When it comes to the largely positive reception surrounding, a queer modern adaptation of Jane Austen’s written and directed by as well as starring gay Asian men, Booster never expected it to land with audiences the way it did. “Before it came out, I just was like, ‘Oh my god, everyone’s gonna hate it,’” he admits. “I never in a million years would have thought that this would be the reception for my little movie.