He might have the oddest name in Hollywood, but Cobra Kai actor Han Soto has been working his way across the movie scene for a few years. This past year his career catapulted with his appearance as Pham Minh Thao, the solider that kept John Kreese prisoner during the war in the third season of the Karate Kid Netflix series Cobra Kai. His character may have also had something to do with inadvertently coining the name “Cobra Kai”.
During our conversation, we talk to the actor about his role in the series, what he brought to the show and some exciting past experiencing on blockbuster movie sets.
I want to start with something very simple. Your name. I noticed you’re credited by a different name for your first couple productions. When did you adopt the name Han Soto and why?
I had to figure out what would be something that stuck. It was just one of those moments – my name is translated to John Smith in Vietnamese, so I had to find something that that was memorable and Sci-fi was kind of where it was at and I’m a Star Wars fan.
So Han Soto was the closest to Han Solo without being so, obvious. So, Soto it was. It had a Japanese feel to it because I started learning Japanese for some roles and it stuck. Actually, it started as a joke, quite frankly, and it just stuck and when I landed that role with Harrison Ford, that was it. It cemented my name.
That’s the most ironic thing ever. I mean, here you are in the movie with Han Solo, and you’re actually playing Lieutenant Soto. So that’s even crazier. That’s my trivia for today.
Yeah, the production was awesome. They gave me my name tag and they let me pick my name and I was like, man, why not put my name on that tag. So they were very gracious.
Most actors would kill for a part like that. So what was it like being on the set with a legend?
It started off amazing. I was sitting in the chair and he came over to introduce himself. That was my first interaction with him. On set with many of the cast members, he came over, he stuck his hand out and said, “I’m Harrison”. I said, “Listen, I know who you are” and put my hand out. I said, “I’m Han”, he goes, “Oh, I know” and then he walks away and he just turns around and goes, “Han Soto? Really? Great”. He has his crafty thing. He’s eating his crackers and carrots. It was cool. It’s a fun moment. Like, wait, did he? Did he just like, vet me? Or did he just shun me from any compensation? It was awesome.
I would imagine you learned a few things from being on that set. Because that’s probably the biggest thing you were ever on.
The longest, I was on set for four or five months. When you’re not filming, I like walking around and watching how things are being done; how productive productions are going and what the producers are doing. I lived at video village just watching everything and it was one big masterclass for me and I got paid for it.
Lately, all the talk is, of course, Cobra Kai. How did you get involved in that?
Same thing, I got a call from my agent saying that the casting director at this point already cast me in multiple projects prior. So they said, hey, we got a roll for Cobra Kai and I just finished watching seasons one and two and I got kind of giddy because I tried to de-compartmentalize my emotions when I get something in. So I spent a little bit of time doing that and then when I was ready, I just threw myself on tape and most of it was improv and riffing it in Vietnamese, as I speak four different dialects of Vietnamese. So I felt very comfortable in doing so. But yes, I sent the tape in and they moved me on to the next stage and the next thing I get the call saying that I booked the role.
I did a crazy happy dance that I didn’t even know I knew how to do. One may never see that ever, but that was in the privacy of my own home. (laughter)
It’s lucky you’re sitting in a vehicle or I would tell you to do it.
Yeah, exactly. I did that on purpose…(Laughter)
The group involved in that, they seem like a pretty tight knit community. You were kind of just in the flashback scenes, but it was still a very vital part to the overall story. Does it now feel like you’re part of that group? You’re definitely part of The Karate Kid folklore now.
They did a great job making everyone feel at home. I chose to not engage in a lot of banter when I was there, obviously, because I played a very evil character. So that was my choice. But I did have a chance to talk to John, Josh and Hayden. Those three alone are a super tight group and I don’t know if you knew this, but they grew up together in college, or they went to college together. So they’re really tight buddies.
Everyone had their own responsibility. Everything was coming together and all three of those guys had their hand on the steering wheel and in the car never really swerved. So it was nice being led by a group of guys like that and as far as the cast is concerned, most of the main cast, they created their bond with the prior seasons. But they did show up to set when this set was being shot, because it was one of the most elaborate sets that they built in all the seasons. So it was cool. They were very cool and just engaged in conversation. I tried to keep the chatter to a minimum just because I was in that headspace, and I wanted to stay in it.
The flashback scenes ended with the bombs and the fire, but your character might have escaped. So is there a potential for him to maybe return and confront John at some point?
Anything’s possible. But I’ll tell you, ain’t no bomb gonna catch me. (Laughing) No napalm is going to get me… (laughing) I’m just kidding.
It looks like there were real snakes on that set. If so, did you ever work with snakes before and did you have an experience with them?
I like snakes. I’m not scared. I’m scared of rats and the movie I did called Don’t Look Back, I had to play dead with six rats on me. So just imagine your biggest fear and you have to sit still through the whole thing for four different takes. Snakes were not so bad for me. I mean, they seem pretty tame. They had a few boa constrictors there and they had lot of fake ones and then they added in the real ones in the pit, it was amazing. I’ve never seen it. Yeah, it is as deep as one would think.
The character is just so evil. I mean, it seems like such a stretch for such a nice, calm, cool, collected family man.
The way I study characters is by actually creating them. I come up with characters, certain guys have certain personalities, they have specific cigarettes and different types of food. This particular character I’ve worked on for a year or so, it was on New Year’s in 2019 and he was a diamond militia leader, like in the diamond trade in Sierra Leone. So he was a Vietnamese guy who found his way to Africa and that’s what he did. That’s how he hustled his money. So basically, this guy is evil. The one I worked on had a machete and he ran crews in the mining towns, right? So I plucked him out of the Sierra Leone and threw him in Vietnam and put a gun and took the machete out of his hands. So I’ve already done the work, it’s just a matter of tying a couple pieces together to make this guy who they want me to be.
So you said you speak a couple of different dialects. What dialect did you choose for that and why?
This one is more of a Southern dialect, just because the North Vietnamese Army came into the South, there are a lot of guys in the South who, instead of being captured, they switch sides, right, and this is kind of like the backstory of how I chose to do Pham. He’s a trader, so when he switched sides, he’s like, Oh, it’s kind of nice to be on the side where the power is – this is what it feels like not to run. So that’s why he does what he does, because he’s really just abusing this newfound power that he just got. I mixed a dialect in there with broken English. Just because there’s a hint of sinister in that they like to tease the American soldiers by trying to speak their language. It was like the ultimate finger, “F you”. But it was almost a playful tease even – it was evil.
The series centers around karate, of course, do you yourself know karate?
I practice Wing Chun in my basement and I started with two weeks of Taekwondo, didn’t like it, and I jumped over to Kung Fu. I did about eight years of Kung Fu when I was about eight years old. I did it all the way till I was 16 and I stopped practicing and then I picked up Wing Chun later in life, it’s more to keep my body conditioned than anything.
Is there a part of you that wanted to maybe kick out some of that karate in the show?
100%. I wanted to grab one of the boa constrictors and show them my nun chuck skills. (laughter)
“Karate Kid” is a very fun movie series, were you ever a fan of them?
Absolutely, I never even dreamed of being a part of this franchise. All the vision boarding and manifestation I do, it never hit me to put this on my vision board and so with that being said, it just kind of came to me.
When I was younger, “Karate Kid” was my roadmap to not being bullied because I was getting bullied in middle school every day for two years – sixth and seventh grade. So I just didn’t know how to deal with that and depression was a thing for me. The movie really showed a false sense of reality, but you can crane kick your bullies and everything’s done right now. That wasn’t the case in real life though. I wasn’t in a position to crane kick anybody, but it did give me hope. That’s what movies do. It helps. It just helps the spirits.
You’ve been in a couple epic movies. So I want to just ask what you remember about them. First is “Logan”.
I remember being in a green room with Sir Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman and it was just us three. We’re sitting there without scripts and I looked around, and I went, holy shit. This is amazing. I had great conversation with Hugh and Sir Patrick.
What’s it like being on a green screen set compared to what you did with “Karate Kid” or with “Cobra Kai”?
“Ender’s Game” was more green screen, blue screen, if you will, and anytime you get to be in the environment and not have to pretend, it’s more fun to me. Of course, depending what the green screen is, if you’re in a crazy situation, that could be more fun too. But I don’t know. I’ve never really had the pleasure of always being on a set.
“Fantastic Four”, another comic book movie.
Yeah, that was fun. That was my first Marvel movie, actually and I mean, Miles was amazing. Watching your colleagues act, when you’re not in the scene with them is a masterclass. So, anytime I get the spitballs I’m using scientific formulas and dosages. I love that fast, rapid fire speaking. That was fun.
“Olympus Has Fallen”.
I was the only good Asian character in that movie (laughter) and I play a doctor. Surprise!! Anton, joked with me, he’s like, you are the only good Asian character in this movie. Everyone else is a bad character. So I thought that was funny.
The last one, “Looper”.
I got on there as a stunt person. I broke the bar that I was throwing my guy on and I think that bar cost $15,000. You can see it, I picked them up really high from his chest and we did an arc and it was just bam and I heard a crack sound and then my next thought was, Oh shit, this is not good.
You touched on this, when we were talking about “Olympus Has Fallen”, but we often hear about minority actors and equality in the film industry. That’s one experience. Have you had other experiences where you felt like, “I’m the token Asian guy”?
Oh, yeah. When I first started, I was only getting, “die American pig die” rolls, the militia in the Vietnam War, speak broken English, do martial arts, you own a dry cleaner, you own a corner store. So it got to a point, I think the a-ha moment for me was it was on “Heist”. The one I did with Robert De Niro. That character was a high roller and it was written as broken English, and I said to the director, “right after rehearsal, do you mind if I just prepare something, I’ll throw it out on the wall and it sticks it sticks” and he looked at me, he’s like, “man, I trust you just do what you think is good for Mr. Tao” and I said, “alright, done” and I did it. I did my English. It’s the cadence of the way I was speaking, it was powerful. I mean, I had to be because I was across De Niro, right? So we did one take, and he came over, and he just grabbed my head. He’s like, yes, that’s it, dude.
It made me realize, okay, these rules are written in a way that the writers sometimes don’t understand the culture. But you do have control over it. I think it just takes asking but don’t change the script. I mean, don’t try to speak fluent English in a land where there is no English, but there is a time when you can go, “Hey, let me try something” and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Don’t ever be scared of asking.
What is your favorite moment that you’ve ever had on screen?
Wow. I have so many. There’s a memorable moment, very noteworthy moment where I was in Focus with Will Smith and what he’d been doing for a week, with his cast mates is once they get the scene in the bag, he’ll come back on the last take and then during the scene, he’ll take their lines and reiterate it back to them and you can see a lot of people were like, what’s going on? Why is he saying my Line?
So anyway, when he did that to me, I knew we already got into camp because I heard the directors say, all right, that’s the one and I figured something was happening and he did it to me and I reenacted his scene in I Am Legend, when he found that dummy when it moved. I even got to the point where I started crying. Tears started rolling down and when the director yelled cut, Will just gave me a hug. I thought that was awesome because he was like, dude, it was so cool. I mean, anytime Will Smith says you did something cool. You’ve kind of done it, right?
What would be your ultimate role? What do you think would be the thing that you would kind of be the crowning moment?
I like Goodwill Hunting type characters. Like a prodigy, a prodigy kid, super genius. But also play that soft spot in the Battle of like, depression, everything that comes with that, too. So I don’t want to just play a smart character and be like, this character knows everything. I want to show how that character battles with the side effects of being a super genius. I might just write that script and produce it.
You’re not afraid to produce obviously.
I think that’s why we produce – to create our own content.
You go above and beyond when it comes to relief and charity work. What are some of the efforts that you’ve made and why are you so passionate to help them?
I did come from humble beginnings and I just like giving kids opportunity to be creative and have almost the same opportunity. Kids should not have access to clean water or the essentials. I just think if you’re in a position that comes across your plate, you have an obligation to do everything you can to help out and I have a really soft spot in my heart for kids and the elderly.
Was it always that way with kids for you or did that change when you had your own?
I think it got elevated once I had my own child. Especially issues of sex trafficking. I just can’t fathom the idea of being a victim of that. So, anytime I see that, I’m all in, just tell me what you need me to do.
What’s ahead for you in 2021?
We have a distribution label that distributes two films a month through our partnership with Gravitas and the labels called Kamikaze Dogfight and if you want, you can follow us on Instagram. We’re inadvertently building a very tight knit group of filmmakers, because it’s kind of my way of giving back to the community as well. The film community is to distribute films for filmmakers, and really give it that care and attention it deserves. Instead of just monitoring films and throwing them into a system and letting it get lost because it’s our value as a company seeing the marketing through and making sure we go to bat for all filmmakers. Haymaker is a movie that we just distributed and dropped. We’ve got a couple more coming out: Death Trip, Clapboard Jungle. They’re all great films, and amazing filmmakers behind that.
You’re busy even though we’re in a pandemic, is it different doing all this stuff during the pandemic?
Yeah, it’s kind of a blessing really, because the other day, I jumped on a phone call with a filmmaker in Ireland at 3:30 in the morning and by 6:00 in the morning, I was chatting with somebody in Australia – then 9, 10am in the UK and I was making myself a tuna sandwich in Colorado by noon. If you do the math, that’s about $8-10,000 in travel expenses with time spent on two flights to each location. This Zoom stuff being the norm, kind of sucks, but then it’s also good for thing like that. It’s good in the sense that it saves on expenses. We just love film-making and I think we’ve been blessed with 2020 though. We had a really good year, and we’re building some really good connections.
