South Korean pistol shooter Kim Yeji, who won a silver medal and the internet’s adoration at the Summer Olympics, has landed her first acting role.
She will play an assassin, a fitting gig for the athlete whose icy attitude has already earned her comparisons to action heroes like James Bond and John Wick.
Kim’s fashionable street style (a black tracksuit and baseball cap, sometimes worn backward), plus her cyborg-esque shooting glasses and casual-yet-confident stance (she fired with one hand on her hip, just above the plush elephant hanging from her waistband) made her a “main character” of the Games.
Many of her online admirers said at the time that Kim reminded them of an action movie star, and some even called for her to become one.
“She should be cast in an action movie,” Elon Musk tweeted. “No acting required!”
It looks like their wishes are coming true.
Indian influencer and actress Anushka Sen wrote on Instagram last week that she is working with Kim on an upcoming “global project,” using hashtags including #Crush and #Moviecrush.
In the accompanying video, Sen is wearing a leather outfit and struggling to wield a pistol when Kim, in her trademark black hoodie, strolls over and adjusts Sen’s stance with a coy smile. A second clip shows them standing back-to-back, lifting a pair of pistols into the camera.
“So happy to collaborate with [Kim], Olympics silver medalist; the most popular Korean shooting player in the world,” Sen wrote to her 39 million followers.
A spokesperson for the Seoul-based entertainment firm Asia Lab confirmed to AFP that Kim will play an assassin in Crush, which they described as a “spinoff short-form series of the global film project ‘Asia.’”
Lee JungSub, the screenwriter, producer, and director of the film and series, told NPR over email that Asia revolves around "intertwined human stories dealing with racial hatred and discrimination," featuring stars from the U.S. and seven Asian countries. The spinoff series will range from two-minute clips to 30-minute short films and 120-minute feature films, he added.
"[Yeji's] casting as a global Korean assassin was a natural choice given her precision and performance at the Olympics — particularly her shooting skills, which even caught the attention of figures like Elon Musk," he wrote. "The moment I saw that, I was convinced we had to cast her as the killer — it brings unparalleled credibility to the character."
While this is Kim’s first acting role, her social media virality has opened up other real-life opportunities in recent weeks.
She signed with a talent agency, whose spokesperson told the Korea Herald in August that “nearly 20 brands want to use her in advertisements, and over 10 TV shows are interested in featuring her.”
Kim, 32, has since done a number of photoshoots with fashion brands, including a Louis Vuitton shoot for the magazine W Korea, a collaboration with MLB Korea featured in Vogue and a campaign with Givenchy and the magazine Singles, as seen on her Instagram.
Kim’s agency told the Herald that her athletic career remains her top priority.
In addition to winning silver in the Olympic 10 meter air pistol women’s event, Kim also won gold — and set a new world record — in the 25 meter pistol at the International Shooting Sport Federation World (ISSF) Shooting Championships earlier this year. Videos of her winning shot also went viral during her Olympic debut.
In an August interview with the ISSF, Kim said she appreciates the attention — especially a meme showing her alongside iconic action movie stars — but hopes more of it will go towards the sport itself.
“I am very thankful that the general public and the internet is loving me on social media, but I am not like an influencer, I am a shooting sport athlete,” she said through a translator. “I wish this love and interest is not just for me and this will go to the shooting sports.”
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