Joey King: A Woman Working Hard To Achieve Success, But Staying Humble And Kind While Doing So

Variety’s ‘Actors On Actors’ is now on season 20. This latest season is nothing short of interesting, and it’s one I actually follow. People like Kristen Wiig, Robert Downey Jr., Jodie Foster, and Even Kim Kardashian took part this season. One duo I want to concentrate on first is Joey King and Taylor Zakhar Perez. They co-starred together in two of the three ‘Kissing Booth’ movies. In my opinion, as well as many others people’s opinions, including Jacob Elordi himself, the movie series was complete sh*t, but at least we got a beautiful friendship come out of it that we all now get to witness.

King has worked as an actress since she 4 years old, having started out with commercials for such companies as AT&T, Eggo, Kay Jewelers, and Life Cereal. She starred in movies such as ‘Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’, and ‘Bullet Train’. She also starred as Gypsy-Rose Blanchard in the 2019 limited series, ‘The Act’. Most recently, she starred in the Hulu limited series, ‘We Were The Lucky Ones’, where she plays a young Jewish (King is Jewish herself) woman, the real-life Halina Kurc, who passes herself as an Aryan woman during World War II. She also stars in the Netflix movie, ‘A Family Affair’, coming out June 28th, which also stars Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron.

Zakhar Perez is fairly new to the entertainment industry, especially if you compare his resume to Joey King’s. His first major role was as Marco in the ”Kissing Booth’ Franchise. His most notable role was as Alex Claremont-Diaz in the LGBTQ themed Amazon Prime film, ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’, also starring Nicholas Galitzine, who was also featured in this season’s ‘Actors On Actors’ alongside Leo Woodwall. A sequel was recently announced, and let’s just say that fans are very happy with the news and can’t wait to see Alex and Henry (Galitzine’s character) back on their screens. But ever since his newfound success and fame, he’s been staying low, and for a good reason. His sister, Kristy, passed away of cancer at the age of 44 in 2023, just a few months shy of the release of Zakhar Perez’s breakout role.

Of her passing, Zakhar Perez said, ‘It was hard doing “Red, White & Royal Blue” — and I’m going to start crying — knowing that she didn’t get to see it. My director, Matthew López, was like, “Do you mind if I put ‘For Kristy’ at the end of the film?” That blew my mind, that somebody was so thoughtful to think of my family in our time of need and mourning. We’re coming up on a year, and it’s tough. In the creative world, people throw themselves into projects to forget or to soothe themselves. I was like, “I can’t do that. I need to be with my family.” I’ve been with my family this past year.’ To which King responded by saying, ‘I think that’s the right way. The hard thing about our industry, and our country in general, is the more you work, the better. Sometimes people forget that tending to your real life is the most important thing.’

I not only read the interview on Variety’s official website, but I watched the entire episode as well. And I have to say, it was so astonishing to to see Taylor Zakhar Perez, a man in his 30’s, get so emotional when talking about such a family tragedy. Toxic masculinity is very much a thing in our time. I’ve written about it on this blog time and time again, and I’m so glad to see that a man who’s gotten such level of a fame in such a short amount of time still holds true to who he is. When he spoke of his sister, I felt the love, the sadness, and the pride in his voice. It was beautiful. Some might to say that pairing him up with an actor who he already knows and has a close relationship with instead of an actor he never met just like how it’s usually done was a missed opportunity. I, however, have to strongly disagree. It was the perfect pairing, because both of them got to be so comfortable with each other during their conversation that we got to see the serious side, the silly side, and the vulnerable side of both their relationship together and them as individuals that we wouldn’t have gotten to witness otherwise. Like the moment where King asked Zakhar Perez what inspired him to go into acting, and he told the story of him and his siblings, all 7 of them, having a ritual of watching ‘Saturday Night Live’ and reenacting the skits on Sunday mornings. Moments like that could only be told with so much depth when you see close friends conversing with one another.

And speaking of how of he got his start in the entertainment industry, Zakhar Perez said, ‘“Kissing Booth” was my first major project, with an incredible No. 1 on the call sheet. I’m going to say it: You lead a set in a way that makes everybody feel comfortable. You raise the energy levels, and people want to come to work. You were my intensive on how to lead. You’ve become a sister to me, but also, you’re a role model and a mentor on how I want to be. I take it with me on every set I go to. It sounds corny, but you totally inspired me.’

I feel like it’s important to note that not only is Zakhar Perez a man, but he’s also almost 10 years older than King. King is 24 years old, turning 25 in July, and Zakhar Perez is 32. And yet, despite their obviously different genders and their large age gap, Zakhar Perez wasn’t afraid to say out loud that he ‘s inspired by someone like King and sees her as a role model. I’d even say it was brave of him to say that because it’s not every day that you see anyone, let alone a man, say that he sees a much younger woman as someone he looks up to and aspires to be. As a blogger and a content creator, I myself look out for any advice from those that are younger than me. I take comfort in the fact that I look out for how Sophia Lee does it all, a full-time blogger who started out at the age of 19 when she was in college. Yes, she’s younger than me, but she does it better than me because she’s more experienced than I am, and therefore, I want to learn from her. But it’s one thing that I’m saying that because I’m a woman, but it’s completely another when a man says he even remotely learns from a younger woman, let alone sees her as a role model and aspires to be like her. But in hindsight, we always want to aim to learn from those that are better than us, not older than us. Age has nothing to do with it.

I have to admit, I thought it was extremely weird to see that a 32 year old man was best friends with a 24 year old woman. And they met years ago, which meant that Zakhar Perez was in his late 20’s and King probably still in her late teen years. What could a grown man in his late 20’s possibly have in common with a teenage girl? But then, as you get to see Joey King’s personality, her history, and who she is as a person, you start to understand the dynamic of their friendship. Again, King is someone who’s been working for most of her life. She’s not your average 20-something year old woman who’s trying to find herself in formative years. She already found herself a long time ago, as she’s lived the life of an adult for a long time now. Hence, it’s very much possible that she’s mostly friends with those that are older than her because she’s able to relate to them more. King is also friends with Taylor Swift, who’s also a decade older than her. Swift even attended King’s wedding in 2023 with her brother, Austin. Zakhar Perez also attended, of course.

And speaking of weddings and marriages, King married Steven Piet, someone who’s 16 years her senior. They met when he was a producer on 2019’s ‘The Act’. And you could say that there’s a power dynamic between the two, as he’s older and was her boss. But don’t let that sh*t twist you, because King is a powerful woman in her own right. She previously dated someone her own age when she dated Jacob Elordi for two years, so you can’t say she didn’t try. And yet, despite her having this power within her, she’s still kind and humble, which is more than could be said about other child stars who got an early start, such as Lindsay Lohan. This is something that Zakhar Perez said himself when he reminisced on his time working on ‘The Kissing Booth’ franchise.

King, on her part, remembered one specific question Zakhar Perez asked her when they first worked together, and that was whether she stayed friends with her co-stars. He asked her, ‘Do you normally stay friends with people that you work with? Or do you get really close to them on set, and then you just don’t talk to them very much afterwards?’ That was back in 2019. Now, 5 years on, King opened up to her friend what that question meant to her. She said, ‘It was a sweet question because I felt like the subtext was like, “Are we going to be friends after this?” And I told you, “It depends.”’

But of course, the duo stayed friends and are now closer than ever. Throughout the interview, Zakhar Perez couldn’t stop gushing of his friend’s kindness and what a humble person his friend is, both when working together and beyond, to which she said ‘I really appreciate it. I’ve worked with people who aren’t as kind or don’t lead with grace. I’ve learned from both positive and negative experiences what kind of person I hope to be. When I’m working on something I’m really excited about, and I have lovely people like yourself around me, it’s just easy to be … I mean, it’s always easier to be nice than to be an a-hole.’

In short, she said that, as a leader, she wanted to treat others the way she’d want to be treated. And to go back on Zakhar Perez’s emphasis on how kind and humble Joey King is, he also made sure to mention how grounded she is, which is something that has to do with the people she surrounds herself with, particularly her family. He said, ‘You’re so grounded with your family. I could text, call, FaceTime your mom, and she’d be there for me. Growing up in Los Angeles and starting when you’re 4 — you’ve seen the track record with actors, and you are an anomaly.’

And he’s absolutely right. We’ve seen so many child actors who started working at a very young age whose careers didn’t withhold the test of time. I previously mentioned Lindsay Lohan, but she’s just one person. She’s only now getting a second chance at reviving her career, with movies like ‘Irish Wish’ and ‘Falling For Christmas’. She will also star in ‘Our Little Secret’ and a sequel to ‘Freaky Friday’ in the works. There were child stars that didn’t get that second chance that Lohan did.

When Zakhar Perez asked King what kept her so grounded, she said, ‘My friend Phoebe Dynevor worked with an actor recently who said something very wise: “In order to have an extraordinary career, you must prioritize an ordinary life.” That quote contextualized a feeling that I’ve always had: It’s really easy to get distracted by the exciting things that present themselves in our industry, but you also have to tend to the things that really matter. So my family, my husband, my husband’s family — all these people that surround my life — is the world I want to tend to.’

And you can be certain that the young actress takes her work very seriously. 2019’s ‘The Act’ and 2023’s ‘We Were The Lucky Ones’ were King’s most notable projects. And I’m not counting the success that ‘The Kissing Booth’ franchise garnered. She portrayed real-life people in both projects, and she worked f*cking hard to get her portrayal just right. She didn’t talk much about ‘The Act’ during ‘Actors On Actors’, but she did open up about it during an earlier interview with Variety back in 2019.

Joey King’s Work: In Her Own Words

Of her transformation for ‘The Act’ to portray the real-life Gypsy Rose Blanchard, King said,

‘I was playing a version of Gypsy, but it was helpful to have all of the facts. We did have some creative liberty so our story could move along at a little bit of a quicker pace, but we do really stick to the story. … I wanted to really become her — to transform myself entirely, lose all vanity, lose all ego, lose everything I thought I knew about acting, just throw it out the window. And I’m really happy I did because I feel very vulnerable about this performance — I’m very nervous to put it out there — but that makes me excited because I know I did something worth putting on the line if I feel scared. And becoming her was one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had to face.’

The physical transformation was really, really huge for me. I shaved my head, I wore four different sets of fake teeth for the role, and with the costumes, the wheelchair and the voice, everything really seemed to fall into place for me. And then getting into the rehearsal room with Patricia [Arquette, who plays Dee Dee]. We both had prepared and we were both ready, but really figuring out how our characters were going to mesh was really frigging awesome — figuring out our dialect and how these relationships work and how it would be for us to play with each other for four months and what our trajectory was [going to be].’

During the ‘Actors On Actors’ interview with Zakhar Perez, King opened up about working on ‘We Were The Lucky Ones’. She said,

‘I got very, very, very thin for that show because my character is a Jewish woman passing as an Aryan woman. At the beginning of the war, they’re living off rations. And then the access to food is so limited. 

We were trying to be as smart and safe about it as possible, but we were trying to be mindful that the responsibility we have to this story is so immense. The least we can do is find discomfort where it’s necessary. We’re not actually going through the Holocaust; we’re portraying a family that is. At the end of the day, we should feel uncomfortable when doing these scenes that require such heavy emotion. But filming the show was one of my proudest accomplishments. I’m just so honored that I got to portray this real-life woman, Halina Kurc, who’s just a miraculous human being.

It’s a family of heroes who didn’t see themselves that way. Who were just trying to fight for survival, to see each other again and to keep each other alive. It’s amazing.’

The Takeaways

Joey King takes her work very seriously, and she’s not one to ever take any opportunities that she’s ever given for granted. She doesn’t take herself seriously, but she certainly takes her work seriously. She’s a professional. If you’re doubting her professionalism, here’s a fun fact for you: She still worked with her ex, Elordi, for two more films after their breakup. They dated for almost two years, which, in teen years, is an eternity. When King opened up about working with her ex, she said that the sacrifice was worth it.

You’re probably wondering to yourselves why I’m telling you all this and how it relates to all you regular people who aren’t famous. It’s a fair question, and I can tell you that we can all learn from Joey King more than one would think. She’s a force of nature; one that as women, we should strive to be. It doesn’t matter that we’re not in the entertainment industry. It doesn’t matter that It doesn’t matter that we’re not changing ourselves and our appearances to portray different people. It doesn’t matter that we’re not portraying real people in TV shows. It doesn’t matter that we’re not staying in foreign countries for seven months at a time for work.

This can very much be a continuation of the previous post. No matter what we path we choose for ourselves, whether it be being a homemaker, a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, a businesswoman, or anything else, we should always aim to bring in 100% effort just like Joey King brings in 100% into her work. It won’t always be perfect, but we should still do our best. And no matter how successful we become, we should always stay humble, grateful, and kind. Treat those around you the way you’d want to be treated, because what goes around comes around and, at the end of the day, you get what you give. It’s hard; very hard. Especially in a male-dominated world. But nevertheless, we just need to be aware. And if you’re still doubting yourself as in whether you should be taking a woman as young as Joey King as an example for anything and taking someone like her seriously, I got someone better for you: Kim Kardashian…