Arzen Rose Dulzura

How portraying Rumi in ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ became healing for Arden Cho

Article (news)

E. Kristhoff Cagape

Push Team

<p><em>KPop Demon Hunters</em> voice actress Arden Cho opened up how playing Rumi in the hit Netflix animated film helped her heal.</p><p>In an interview on the <em>The Kelly Clarkson Show</em>, Arden opened up about her journey growing up as a Korean-American born in Texas and the identity struggles that shaped her early life.</p><p>&quot;Growing up with this confusion of identity, feeling like there&#x27;s not a place for me. I&#x27;m Korean, Korean-American, I&#x27;m Asian, I think I&#x27;m American. I&#x27;m born in Texas, I thought I was Texan and then you know, when people ask where are you from, that&#x27;s not what they are looking for, right? So I think it was this thing when I felt, then when I started as an actor I felt it was really hard to find my identity and who I was, and it was almost like sometimes I wasn&#x27;t Asian enough, sometimes I was too Asian, or I wasn&#x27;t the kind of Asian people expected me to be,&quot; she relayed.</p><p>The actress admitted that in her younger years, she felt pressured to conform to societal expectations before eventually embracing her heritage. &quot;I think the early part of my like 20s and 30s I just kept trying to be just perfect, or maybe who I wasn&#x27;t and then in my 30s, I really just embraced my Korean culture and who I was,&quot; she remarked. &quot;And I feel like that has helped me figure out who I am and become the woman I am supposed to be.&quot;</p><div><iframe class="instagram-media" id="instagram-embed-20" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DP9WNbjCR1u/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=768&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A20%2C%22os%22%3A19432003.8%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="0" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-20" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px;min-width:326px;padding:0px;position:absolute"></iframe></div><blockquote class=" instagram-media-registered" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/DP9WNbjCR1u/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" id="instagram-media-payload-20" style="background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15);margin:1px;max-width:540px;min-width:326px;padding:0;width:calc(100% - 2px)"><div style="padding:16px"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DP9WNbjCR1u/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="background:#FFFFFF;line-height:0;padding:0 0;text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:100%" target="_blank"><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:row;align-items:center"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;flex-grow:0;height:40px;margin-right:14px;width:40px"><br/></div><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex-grow:1;justify-content:center"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;margin-bottom:6px;width:100px"><br/></div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:60px"><br/></div></div></div><div style="padding:19% 0"><br/></div><div style="display:block;height:50px;margin:0 auto 12px;width:50px"><br/></div><div style="padding-top:8px"><div style="color:#3897f0;line-height:18px">View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding:12.5% 0"><br/></div><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:row;margin-bottom:14px;align-items:center"><div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;height:12.5px;width:12.5px;transform:translateX(0px) translateY(7px)"><br/></div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;height:12.5px;transform:rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px);width:12.5px;flex-grow:0;margin-right:14px;margin-left:2px"><br/></div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;height:12.5px;width:12.5px;transform:translateX(9px) translateY(-18px)"><br/></div></div><div style="margin-left:8px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;flex-grow:0;height:20px;width:20px"><br/></div><div style="width:0;height:0;border-top:2px solid transparent;border-left:6px solid #f4f4f4;border-bottom:2px solid transparent;transform:translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"><br/></div></div><div style="margin-left:auto"><div style="width:0px;border-top:8px solid #F4F4F4;border-right:8px solid transparent;transform:translateY(16px)"><br/></div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;flex-grow:0;height:12px;width:16px;transform:translateY(-4px)"><br/></div><div style="width:0;height:0;border-top:8px solid #F4F4F4;border-left:8px solid transparent;transform:translateY(-4px) translateX(8px)"><br/></div></div></div><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex-grow:1;justify-content:center;margin-bottom:24px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;margin-bottom:6px;width:224px"><br/></div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:144px"><br/></div></div></a><div style="color:#c9c8cd;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DP9WNbjCR1u/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color:#c9c8cd;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by Arden Cho 아덴 조 (@arden_cho)</a></div></div></blockquote><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><p>She pointed out that Rumi&#x27;s journey closely mirrors her own. &quot;And I feel like Rumi goes through that as she sort of battles hiding who she is, and then when she comes to Celine (adoptive mother of Rumi) and it is like, &#x27;why can&#x27;t you love me?&#x27;&quot; she stated.</p><p>Arden added that portraying Rumi allowed her to process her own experiences and find healing through the character’s vulnerability.</p><p>&quot;So many of us trying to to figure out who we want to be and I think as woman we just have so many pressures to be perfect, to be beautiful, to be bold but not too bold, strong but not too strong, and I feel like I just related with [Rumi] so much and I love that again her sort of losing it all, breaking down, and being exposed was the thing that helped her rebuild,&quot; she remarked. </p><p><em>KPop Demon Hunters </em>centers on Huntr/x, a K-pop trio juggling their superstar lives with a hidden mission which is battling demons. Their double life takes a dangerous turn when they clash with the Saja Boys, a rival boy group whose members are revealed to be actually demons.</p><p>In the movie, Rumi is the lead vocalist of Huntr/x and the daughter of a demon father and a deceased demon hunter mother.</p><p>Back in December 2025, Netflix announced that<em> KPop Demon Hunters</em> reached 500 million views since it premiered on their platform.</p><p>The animated film recently won Best Animated Feature at the 31st Critics&#x27; Choice Awards and 83rd Golden Globe Awards.</p><p>The movie is directed by Maggie Kang.</p>

<p>Arden Cho shares that Rumi's journey in the movie closely mirrors her own.</p>