Interview with Moon Bloodgood

Moon Bloodgood is an actress currently starring in TNT’s acclaimed science fiction drama series Falling Skies.

Moon has found success in all aspects of her entertainment career beginning with dancing which lead to modeling and then to film and television acting.

The third season of Falling Skies began airing in June and features a pregnancy for Moon’s character, Dr. Anne Glass, which was revealed in the second season finale. In an interesting coincidence where life imitates art, Moon discovered that she was pregnant shortly after season two had concluded.

As the current season of Falling Skies features a pregnant Dr. Glass, in real-life, Moon and her husband welcomed their baby daughter at the end of 2012.

We were able to discuss Moon’s background and entertainment career and are pleased to present this interview.

Please note that HalfKorean.com comments/questions are in BOLD.

Background: The Basics on Moon

Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Nebraska and was there until I was about two and a half. I came to southern California after that and was primarily raised there. My sister was born in Korea and then I was born in Nebraska. We had gone to Nebraska because my father was a train engineer and that was where his job was. We were in the newspaper because there were 11 family members living in a one bedroom house. He helped a lot of my mom’s family find a place to live, find jobs and get established in America. Their first experience was flying into northern California, where my dad was from, and then they drove to Nebraska. They thought they were going to see what they saw in the movies but they were settling in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska. They were shell-shocked for sure.

How did your parents meet?
They met in Korea. My father was in the military and stationed in Korea. He was a military mechanic.

I know you mentioned a sister, do you have any other siblings?
I have a sister who is older than me and a half brother from my father and a different marriage.

You have a unique name, is their a special meaning to it?
Moon is my middle name. My mom told me that when she was a child growing up in Korea, she would use the light of the moon to guide her home at night. There was no electricity at that time. When I was born my face was round like the moon so she gave me that middle name.

How good is your Korean?
My cousins would say that my Korean is embarrassing. My Korean is very informal and I sound like a child. I think that after having my baby that my Korean has actually gotten better. I’ve been singing Korean nursery rhymes to my kid. I think that since my mom has been speaking Korean to the baby that my Korean has gotten better. I’m actually just very insecure about my ability to speak Korean because I speak it so informally. You know, being half Korean yourself, that if you speak informally to someone older than you, its rude. I oftentimes will refrain from speaking Korean because I don’t want to offend anyone because I only really know it well informally. In English it is fine but in Korean it is disrespectful to speak to someone older than you in an informal way. It is almost like there are two different kinds of Korean and then you have the whole slang which is a whole other thing. I can kind of read Korean.

What is your favorite Korean food?
My favorites are bibim naengmyun (비빔 냉면), jjajangmyun (짜장면), kimchi jigae (김치찌개) and bibimbap (비빔밥). I love it all. I could eat Korean food everyday. In fact, when I was doing the show Daybreak with Taye Diggs, there was a caterer who was Korean and he would offer to make me Korean side dishes. I mean now it is everywhere but back in the day, nobody knew what kimchi was, you know?

I’ve been cooking some and using gochukaru (고추가루) and gochujang (고추장). One day, my mom and I made some chicken and marinated it in mirin and the put gochujang in it with some lemon juice and made this really cool dish. I was really proud of both of us. My mom is an incredible cook and everything is homemade.

Did you grow up around other mixed Koreans or people of mixed heritage?
I grew up with all of my Korean side and a lot of my cousins are mixed. I have a African American/Korean cousin who was actually the first grandchild of our whole family. I have a Hispanic/Korean cousin, a Native American/Korean and an Italian/Korean cousin. The Italian/Korean cousin, Paul, is actually fluent in Korean because he was raised by my grandmother.

So, I grew up around a lot of Koreans in that sense with my family but when I ventured out, I’m sure a lot of us felt this way, but there weren’t a lot of mixed kids. You didn’t meet a lot of half Korean kids unless maybe if you lived in Hawaii.

What do people who meet/see you think your ethnicity is?
They always think I’m Hawaiian or Native American. I’ve rarely ever had someone ask me if I was Korean. When I tell them that I’m Korean, they are so surprised. Oftentimes when I go with my mom to the Korean grocery store, my mom will start speaking to them in Korean and then I guess my mom doesn’t look Korean either, because people are so surprised. They’ll think I’m Latin, Hawaiian or Native American and never think I’m Korean. I don’t even get Korean roles. I’m usually playing someone who is Hispanic or Filipina. It’s funny because I feel so Korean and am so proud of my culture and would never be ashamed of where I’m from.

Falling Skies and Acting

With Falling Skies season three currently airing, is there anything you can share about your character for the rest of the season?
Well, you know I had to leave to go have my baby so they had to figure out a way to get me out of the show so I could really go and have my baby as I was pregnant during the shooting of the season. It was a great time for me but unfortunately my character is not as relevant in this season because I had to go and have a baby. It’s still a great season and I’m enjoying it so far.

Being of mixed race and Asian-American, have you found there to be any additional difficulty within the entertainment industry?
I think I’m lucky that because I’m mixed that I’m sort of put in the category of ambiguously ethnic so I don’t have to just play Asian roles. I think if I looked really, really Asian I would be limited to those roles. It is certainly hard but things are so much better than they have ever been. We have so many more opportunities now and I certainly can’t complain. At the same time, you are still going to be competing for Caucasian roles and primarily those are the leading roles and it is still challenging. I don’t feel like I’ve ever felt racism but I’ve definitely felt like we’re all trying to fight for a small piece of cheese, if you are ethnic. It’s sometimes frustrating and definitely more challenging but it seems to get better every year being mixed or Asian and seems to be cooler. But, you know, when we were growing up we were not the cool kids.

Random

Congratulations on the arrival of your baby daughter last December! Are you planning on passing on/celebrating Korean traditions and customs such as the dol/first birthday (돌), etc.?
Thank you! I don’t have a choice in the matter. My husband is white and from the Midwest and feels like kids don’t need to be spoiled. But, I was like listen, you don’t get a choice. The one year birthday is a big deal. This is like a bar mitzvah. We can’t miss the one year. That’s definitely happening. My mom right now isn’t speaking English when taking care of my baby. She refers to herself as halmoni (할머니). She’s so bad ass because she’s so warm. Korean halmonis are always great. We are trying to keep the traditions with her Korean doll in her room and she has Korean nicknames. My mom speaks to my daughter in Korean. We very much want to keep the spirit of my Korean ethnicity. My baby is 25% Korean and she looks straight Caucasian. I don’t know what happened!

Do you like soju?
That’s moonshine basically. Soju is like the devil’s liquor. I’ve seen plenty of friends who can handle booze and have tried soju and gone down a dark path. It’s really good and really cheap but it’s just so potent! I mean, it makes you crazy!

Any words that you would like to pass on to the mixed Korean community?
I think that being mixed in itself is always a confusing thing growing up. Usually those that are half Korean are first or second generation so there is culture clash. I oftentimes felt really pulled, and still do sometimes, between my American heritage and my Korean heritage. Which am I loyal to and how do I be loyal to both. My mother’s very Korean and speaks broken English.

If I can say anything, it would be that I feel that they feel as I do as oftentimes you are living in two cultures and it gets confusing at times and sometimes you don’t have a lot of people to explain that to. That is what is so nice about HalfKorean.com because there must be some common thread that brings us all together other than just being half Korean, the fact that we are two very different cultures that oftentimes aren’t always in alignment. If I could express anything, its that I hear you brothers and sisters. It’s confusing at times. Even when it comes to raising my child or customs and not wanting to offend your Korean side but also wanting to be true to the fact that you were raised in America so you have so many American traits. I always thought I was living in two worlds and never really sure which was my primary culture.

We want to thank Moon for spending time with us for this interview and wish her continued success and happiness.

Be sure to watch the rest of Falling Skies season three on TNT airing on Sundays at 10PM EST. For more info on the show check out the official website, Facebook and Twitter. It has also been reported that TNT has already ordered a season four of the show, so we look forward to seeing more of Moon on Falling Skies!

In addition, thank you to Lindsey Jones at TNT Public Relations for all of her assistance in setting up this interview with Moon.

Interview by: David Lee Sanders

Posted: 7/26/2013

Back to Interviews


Moon Bloodgood
 

Moon Bloodgood and Noah Wyle in Falling Skies “On Thin Ice”
Photo by James Dittiger

 

Moon Bloodgood and Seychelle Gabriel in Falling Skies “The Price of Greatness”
Photo by Cate Cameron

 

Moon with her husband Grady Hall
Photo courtesy JB Lacroix/WireImage/eonline.com

 

Moon with some of her cousins (left to right, Jason Chong, Moon, James Chong and Paul Chong)

 
(Pictures courtesy of Moon Bloodgood/TNT)

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