Dear Gossips,
For the last few weeks, we’ve all been thirsting for the least thirsty person – which is probably why we can’t get enough of her. You know who I’m talking about: it’s Sharon Choi, the filmmaker and interpreter who’s been showing the sh-t of her work this award season alongside Bong Joon-ho during Parasite’s Oscar-winning run.
First of all, it’s already been well-documented how elegantly proficient Sharon is at translation. Anyone who’s ever done this for a family member understands that there’s the practical side of translation purely for basic information extraction purposes (I am often my ma’s translator for medical reasons) and then there are times when translation requires artistry. This is what Sharon has been bringing pretty much every day for the last couple of months – with efficiency. Our girl is spitting bars with no turnaround time! There’s never an “um” or an “ah” or a stumble. Her translations flow out of her immediately, gracefully, articulately.
But to go back to the thirst thing, what we also appreciate about Sharon is that she hasn’t been about anything other than doing her job. That is, even though, yes, she is a filmmaker in her own right and is planning on telling her own stories, when she’s with Bong, when she’s with the Parasite team, she’s there for one reason and one reason only - to support them and not to elevate herself. You’ll note, she’s worn pretty much the same outfit at every award show (black pants, black blazer, sensible heels) and she’s done her hair the same way every time too. It’s her uniform. It’s her work wardrobe. It’s unremarkable. And because it’s unremarkable, she became remarkable. Which is the best way to get attention: by doing the f-cking work, that’s it.
And that must feel so f-cking good. To know that she’s getting all this shine for being great at her job, for showing her work.
To Sharon Choi, the Show Your Work patron saint of 2020.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
