Sandra Oh Says The UK Is Behind With Diversity In TV

The Killing Eve star told of her on-set experiences during a chat with Kerry Washington for Variety’s Actors On Actors series.

Sandra Oh has said the UK is behind when it comes to diversity in the TV industry. 

The Killing Eve star told Variety’s Actors On Actors series that it would “sometimes it would be me and 75 white people” on the set of the hit BBC drama. 

Speaking with Little Fires Everywhere star Kerry Washington via video link, Sandra said it was different to other projects she had worked on in the US.

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Sandra Oh
SIPA USA/PA Images

“The UK, I’m not afraid to say, is behind,” she said. 

“I am not only the only Asian person on set, sometimes it changes, very exciting when that does and someones comes on set, but the development of people behind the camera is very slow in the UK, I don’t know about the rest of Europe.

“Sometimes it would be me and 75 white people and I have not come from that.”

Sandra, who plays former MI6 agent Eve Polastri in Killing Eve, continued: “I’ve not come from that in my film career which has been much more independent, mostly working with women and women of colour.

“And my relationship with television, and in the United States has not always been all white. Being the sole Asian person is a very familiar place for me.”

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Sandra plays Eve Polastri on Killing Eve
BBC

She added: “I’ve got to tell you. Even more than that, I think being the only American on that set [for Killing Eve], in Europe, informed me more than the physicality. I’ve not even really talked about this, but there is something about constantly feeling like the observer or the outsider.”

Watch Sandra and Kerry’s full chat on Actors On Actors below...