Who would imagine that a small local newspaper in Alaska would be at the heart of one of ABC’s newest shows? From executive producers Tom McCarthy and Kyle Hopkins, a journalist from a real newsroom in the final frontier, comes the drama series “Alaska Daily” that premiered last fall. I talked to Ami Park (“This is Us”), who plays rookie reporter Yuna Park, before the midseason premiere.
Coming from New York, disgraced investigative journalist Eileen Fitzgerald (portrayed by Hilary Swank) never imagined herself at The Daily Alaskan. Yet her old friend and the paper’s managing editor, Stanley Cornik (portrayed by Jeff Perry), convinces Eileen to make the jump because there’s a story brewing. For Yuna, Eileen’s presence at the small local paper is an affirmation of her career choices.
Yuna is the youngest and newest at the paper. Park shares that she and McCarthy worked together to think of Yuna’s background. “Her background prior to being a reporter was that she was a corporate lawyer, and she decided she wanted to become a reporter because she really cares about the people and she just wants to do the right thing,” Park states.
Yet the desire to do the right thing is complex in the world of journalism, as Yuna finds out. Her arc in the first half of the season followed the fallout of her cover story outing corruption. After Yuna’s piece is published, the CEO in question takes his own life.
Kyle Hopkins actually had this situation happen to him when he was a rookie reporter as well.
“[Hopkins] told me that he contemplated quitting [after it happened] because it was a lot. I admire reporters so much, because they have to do this on a daily basis. He is the reason why Yuna goes to therapy — because that’s what [Hopkins] did. I think maybe he had something to do with putting that in the writer’s room,” Park remarks. “It was her first big story, so that’s definitely something she’s never going to forget. But through…
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