We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Karen Fukuhara has had a particularly fine career, particularly in recent years. Setting aside credits in “Bullet Train” and Cartoon Network’s much-beloved animated series “Craig of the Creek,” Fukuhara has made a name for herself as fan-favorite Kimiko on Amazon Prime Video’s violent superhero series “The Boys.” Given that show’s continued success, it seems more than likely we’ll be seeing more from the actress in the years to come. But her start in the business wasn’t actually as an actress. Rather, it was as a celebrity interviewer for the Disney Channel.
In an interview with Collider to promote “The Boys” season 4, Fukuhara dove into her past on Disney’s “Movie Surfers” show. The series featured kids interviewing celebrities and highlighting upcoming movies for their audience. Fukuhara was, for a time in the early 2000s, one of the kids putting in time as a young entertainment journalist of sorts.
“I used to be an interviewer. I worked for a show called Disney’s ‘Movie Surfers’ when I was in middle school and I was the one interviewing people on the red carpet and at press junkets. I went to the Pixar lot and got to see what the animation process was like and interview directors and actors.”
It’s not exactly a conventional way to get into the business, but plenty of former Disney stars have gone on to have massive careers. Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake are just a few examples. Fukuhara also recalled her first red carpet, which was for Disney’s huge hit ride-turned-movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” Though it wasn’t exactly a great experience.
“My first red carpet was for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ and it was the scariest thing that I have ever done in my entire life because it’s crazy. We had to hunt people down and say, like, ‘Hi, Jerry Bruckheimer . Would you be willing to talk to us, please?’ And you’re shouting their names, like, ‘Johnny! Johnny, please!’ If they like you, they come up to you, but if they don’t, then you don’t get your interview and I felt like I failed my entire team, and I was in middle school. It was so hard!”
Disney’s Movie Surfers made Karen Fukuhara want to be an actor
It would be quite a while before Fukuhara would make the transition to acting, with her first role coming in 2016’s massive DC hit “Suicide Squad,” starring alongside superstar Will Smith. From there, things took off with roles in “She-Ra and the Princess of Power” and eventually she appeared in the Oscar-winning “The Boy and the Heron,” among other projects while landing her signature role on “The Boys.” But it was through “Movie Surfers” that she learned that acting — or at the very least the movie and TV business — was something she wanted to be a part of.
“Throughout that show I got to see what the film and TV business was like in terms of the creative side of it, the magical side of it. I think getting a glimpse of that made me really want to be a part of it.”
Things have worked out well, it’s safe to say. “The Boys” season 5 has already been ordered by Prime Video, meaning Fukuhara will have one last go-around as Kimiko before moving on to other movies and/or TV shows. One imagines she’ll have plenty of opportunities beyond this show.
“The Boys” is streaming now on Prime Video, or you can grab the first two seasons on Blu-ray on Amazon.
