Sandra Oh is glowing, just two days after wrapping the fourth and final season of herEmmy-winning thriller series,Killing Eve.
“You’re catching me at such a special moment. I’m still in this magical place of finishing a show, and I’m just so happy,” Oh, 50, told PEOPLE over Zoom in early November after wrapping her cover shoot.
It’s also a reflective time for the actress, who received critical acclaim for her work earlier this year onNetflix’s comedy-dramaThe Chair.
Aside from playing Professor Ji-Yoon Kim — the first woman of color to lead a struggling English department at a prestigious university — Oh also executive produced the show alongside showrunner Amanda Peet.
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“You see Professor Kim enter into the upper echelons of power and what that does to her and how difficult it is,” says Oh, adding that Peet was “so open to collaborating” during production. “Growing throughKilling Eveand then taking on the E.P. responsibilities, I’ve learned a lot.”
Since thestart of her career in Hollywoodin the mid-’90s, Oh has been fighting for more representation onscreen — and Ji-Yoon has been one of themost fulfilling rolesshe’s taken on.
“Progress is not just sticking a bunch of people of color [into a show] and having them speak like everyone else,” she says. “The thing that I’m most proud about withThe Chairis how it’s translated to people of color who are living and working in mostly white spaces. What I hope is that anyone who’s watching it can say, ‘That could easily be me.’ "
While Oh was filming the show in Pittsburgh this past spring, a gunman targeted Asian-run spas in Atlanta, killing eight people.
Days later, Oh attended aStop Asian Hate rallyand her passionate, impromptu speech went viral.
RELATED VIDEO: Sandra Oh Opens Up About Having ‘Hard-Won Confidence’ Even in Times of Doubt
Looking back on her successes, Oh says her biggest hope is that she helpsyoung people who may be strugglingfeel less alone.
“It means so much to me to be on this cover. When I was growing up, I never saw my face on the cover,” she says. “To be asked to be on the cover is a great privilege, because it normalizes things for my nephews and nieces. Hopefully, they’re not missing something that I feel like I was always missing.”
Sandra Oh, Dolly Parton, Simone Biles and America’s Teachers are PEOPLE’s People of the Year! Look for all four covers on newsstands this week and read their revealing interviews in the new issue.
source: people.com
