Exclusive Interview: Peter Thurnwald Talks XO, Kitty, His Close Ties with His Character, and What He’d Like to Explore in Season 2

Peter Thurnwald is an emerging storyteller who acts, directs, and produces. This year, he made his talents known on an international scale with his breakout performance as Alex Finnerty in Netflix’s XO, Kitty.

A spinoff of To All the Boys I Loved Before, XO, Kitty follows teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey who thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. But when she moves halfway across the world to reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she’ll soon realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it’s your own heart on the line. Peter shines with his nuanced portrayal as Alex, a young professor who is trying to prove himself to his colleagues while also searching for his long-lost birth parents.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Peter about XO, Kitty, his close ties with his character, and what he’d like to see in Season 2!

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling?
Peter: I got into acting relatively late in the game. I’m 25, turning 26, but I only started acting when I was 18. I did a play in my final year of high school. At that play, there was an extras casting director who was like, “You’d be great doing some extras work.” Plus, I was like one of only a handful of tall Asians on the Gold Coast. She was like, “Perfect. Go do all this extras stuff.” I was like, “Cool, this is a great way to earn money.” But then once I stepped onto a film set, I was like, “This is where I want to be.”

Then for the rest of my time, before I got into drama school, which was roughly two years, I was just doing acting classes with my coach. Then, I got into drama school. But yeah, I really fell into it in the sense that I randomly did a play because it was my final year of high school and I was like, “Screw it. I’ll go and do it!” I ended up really loving it.

PC: And now you’re on a Netflix series! In addition to acting, you’re also a producer and director. How have your experiences behind the camera impacted the way that you approach your work on screen and vice versa?
Peter: I really like that question. My acting has gone a lot further than my directing and producing, in terms of my public presence. But acting is very centralized on the character and the individual, whereas I really enjoy the directorial role of zooming out and looking at someone’s entire life or the entire area in which they are. That has really, really helped my acting because it gives a more holistic view of, “Why are they choosing this shot? Why are they lighting it this way? Why is it so essential in this scene that I have to hit this line or angle?” That’s been an invaluable help as an actor and the other way as well and knowing how to manage expectations.

PC: You’re one of the stars of XO, Kitty. Alex is a character who hits very close to home for you. When you’re playing a character who you share so many similarities with, is that more or less challenging for you as an actor?
Peter: That’s another good question. In the show, I confront my birth parents. There’s a conversation that I have on screen with Jina (Yunjin Kim) and Professor Lee (Michael K. Lee) off screen. That parallels my actual life, not that I’ve done that yet, but I’ve had dreams of that happening because I’m an adopted Korean, for those that don’t know. I’m adopted by two Australian parents, so when Alex gets rejected by Professor Lee halfway through the series, there’s something inside me that has always been like, “Yes, I want to find my parents, but I’m also deathly afraid that if I do find them, there will be rejection.” That fear of rejection has always constricted me from like going and flying over there and searching for her.

I’ve done most of the things that I can online, but the problem is that I was only given a first name. My last name Kim isn’t probably my real last name. My mom didn’t leave any notes. She didn’t leave anything. I was basically a doorstep baby. Doing that in the show and onto a platform and bringing those emotions onto the screen was difficult in a different way that I’m used to. Usually, I’m struggling to find the character and struggling to go deeper, but in this case, it was trying to go to a place that was safe and not an open wound that could be picked at.

It was definitely an interesting challenge for me, especially since I’ve done a lot of theater, to have scenes that I could actually see happening to myself in the future.

PC: Alex and Kitty are able to bond over the fact that they’re both two fishes out of water. They have quite the journey throughout the series. What was it like getting to collaborate with Anna [Cathcart] as you brought that dynamic to life?
Peter: It was so much fun. We became really, really good friends. The dynamic between us off screen really helped on screen. It felt like that big brother, little sister kind of thing. Anna is such an experienced actor, even though she’s only 19. She brought this maturity to set. She brought choices that were really interesting and fun to play off of as an actor.

We were both in Korea. I hadn’t been there in a very long time. She was only there briefly for To All the Boys. It was also exploring Korea together and having that shared experience, which again, we could bring onto the screen. It was the culmination of us getting to know each other as well as being able to explore an environment which both of us weren’t aware of at the time.

PC: You were less familiar with the To All the Boys franchise before signing onto this project. Did that alleviate some of the pressure, just given how big this franchise is? Now that the series is out, have you been able to see the social media response to your character and what he means to everybody?
Peter: I was really shocked that To All the Boys was so big. I’d heard of it before, but I never watched it. When the audition came in, it said spinoff of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, I didn’t think too much of it. It was another role that came across my desk.

Seeing the response now from the fans on Instagram and all the social media platforms, it’s nuts. I couldn’t have expected any of it. It’s a blessing to have happened.

PC: In one of the episodes, the students and faculty celebrate the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving and honor the past and the future. Who are the people in your own past who have shaped the storyteller that you are today?
Peter: The obvious answer is my friends and family. My family has been a combination of supportive and not supportive. They weren’t really supportive at the beginning when I wanted to go on this acting journey, but now that I’ve cemented myself in this industry, they’re really, really supportive.

I also have to say my friends that I went through drama school with at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. They were really great in helping me foster that as well as a lot of directors that went through there.

Then most of all, my first acting coach, who I still work with now. His name is Gareth Harris. I love questioning and digging—that’s my favorite part of the character and justifying whatever they’re going through and being able to portray that in a way that you might not expect. He says that in such a beautiful way that I can’t not love it. Plus, he was the first person to really believe in me. He was like, “No, no, no, you can do this. You’re Asian on the Gold Coast. Yes, you’re a minority, but that’s going to be your strength.”

That sentiment was then echoed by my managers, Stephen [Harmon] and James [Prier]. They also believed in me from day one. As soon as I had that meeting with them, they were like, “We’re going to make this work.” I have to thank those three people because without them, I’d be nowhere.

PC: You’re such a standout in this show. Was there a particular scene that you were really excited for audiences to see?
Peter: There are two scenes that come to mind. I really love the scene in the night market with Kitty when I save her from the hospital. We’re walking and weaving through the streets of Seoul. That was phenomenal to film. It seriously felt like a massive movie and did not feel like a television series at all in the way that it was shot and the way that Jeff [Chan] directed it…also, I got to talk to Anna a bit more about that. It was great because it wasn’t actually in Seoul; it was shot in Sejong.

The second scene was with Jina in Episode 9 when I admit that I’m her son. Yunjin is such a phenomenal actor. I had to stop myself from crying multiple times because her delivery was heartbreaking. Those are the two that come to mind.

PC: The series ends very open-ended. Have there been any early conversations about a potential Season 2? If we’re lucky enough to get a Season 2, what else do you want to explore with Alex?
Peter: We’re super happy with what we’ve got in Season 1. We don’t know if there’s going to be Season 2 like most shows these days. But if I was given the opportunity, I would expand that relationship with Alex and Yuri because they didn’t interact almost at all through the entire season. It’ll be an interesting dynamic because they’re quite different people. Alex is very goofy and doesn’t know where his head is at most of the time. Yuri seems to know what she wants but is torn between two things.

But also, I’d like to see many funny scenes with Alex and Professor Lee. I want to have a scene where Alex is trying to teach Professor Lee how to play cricket or something like that. That would be so fun and ridiculous. Hopefully, we can tackle a few more things if we do get a Season 2.

PC: As you look ahead, is there a dream role that you’d love to bring to life, either in front of or behind the camera?
Peter: That’s the hardest question for me. I only know the role that I want when it comes across and when I can see it. Like when I read a script and I go, “Wow. I want to play this,” or when I read a book.

Most of my dream roles that I want to play are ones that I want to create. I’m in the early development stages of a dark comedy series. It centers around two Korean adoptive siblings. To me, that’s a dream role because not only am I inhabiting a different character that’s similar to me, but it’s also like I get to create the story and work collaboratively with a bunch of other people to make that happen.

I wouldn’t say there’s one dream role. I’m not like, “I want to play Spider-Man. I want to be in Game of Thrones.” Although now that I mention it, a big sci-fi would be nice.

To keep up with Peter, follow him on Instagram. Watch Season 1 of XO, Kitty on Netflix today!

Photo Credit: Ryan Marais