Exclusive: Sopranos Scene-stealer Gets Lost!

Ken Leung by Johnny Nunez/WireImage.com

Uncle Junior's poker buddy just hit the jackpot.

Ken Leung — whose memorable turn as Uncle Junior's mentally unstable protégé on The Sopranos last season turned many a head in Hollywood (mine included) — is joining the cast of Lost next season, sources confirm to me exclusively.

The rumor is that Leung will be playing the recurring role of Russell*, a brilliant mathematician who is capable of great insights and has a tremendous knowledge across various scientific fields. He's expected to first turn up in February's season premiere.

Non-Sopranos fans may know Leung from his role as Kid Omega in Brett Ratner's franchise killer, X-Men: The Last Stand.

* May not be the character's real name.

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Posted by

Michael Ausiello

Aug 19, 2007 1:33 PM

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Oh fantastic. Nice scoopage Mike!
Posted by coconutphone77 Aug 19, 2007 4:52 PM Report Abuse

He was also in Inside Man which has been on HBO all the time in the past month. My first thought was that he was too young to play that character (the description said late 30s). Then I saw that he was 37 years old. And like I've said many times before, I like it when Lost casts unknowns.
Posted by Chris Kw. Aug 19, 2007 4:57 PM Report Abuse

It'd be great if the character spoke English and Korean, if only so that Jin could communicate with someone other than his wife. It sure would be nice to give Jin a storyline this season!
Posted by Marcus Dixon Aug 19, 2007 4:58 PM Report Abuse

brilliant deduction Marcus Dixon except Ken Leung doesn't speak Korean and it would be a terrible thing to force it an actor to speak the language perfectly perfect. Get it?
Posted by Scorned1 Aug 19, 2007 9:18 PM Report Abuse

He is not an unknown... I am pretty sure he played the karaoke sales man in the Ben Stiller/ Edward Norton movie...Keeping the Faith....I am feeling way to lazy to verify this on IMDB
Posted by edlowthegreat Aug 19, 2007 9:35 PM Report Abuse

Scorned1- I'm not sure what you mean...?
Posted by curluplw Aug 19, 2007 10:32 PM Report Abuse

edlowthegreat - you're correct, he's the karaoke salesman scene-stealer from Keeping the Faith. No imdb necessary!
Posted by LHarvey Aug 19, 2007 11:29 PM Report Abuse

Wasn't he also in one of the Rush Hour movies?
Posted by April013 Aug 20, 2007 9:00 AM Report Abuse

Yeah. By unknown I meant most people don't know his name off the top of their heads when they see his picture. Of course he's done work. I also wrote that he was Inside Man in my post. When most of the audience sees him they are going to be like, "hey, he looks familiar, but I have no idea who he is."
Posted by Chris Kw. Aug 20, 2007 9:20 AM Report Abuse

lHarvey- Show off! =)
Posted by edlowthegreat Aug 20, 2007 9:54 AM Report Abuse

brilliant deduction Marcus Dixon except Ken Leung doesn't speak Korean and it would be a terrible thing to force it an actor to speak the language perfectly perfect. Get it? I don't get it, either. Daniel Dae Kim has lived in America since he was 2 and speaks Korean beautifully on the show. It was actually a little shocking hearing him speak with an American accent during an interview.
Posted by Susan Marvin Aug 20, 2007 10:43 AM Report Abuse

I guess some people never saw Kim on Angel, where he played a slimy lawyer and didn't have to speak Korean. Or Enterprise. Or 24. The guy's worked quite a bit before Lost.

About this new guy, all I can say is that I hated his character in XMen3. Mostly because his name 'Kid Omega' has nothing to do with that character in the X-Men comics, and in the movie he has Porcupine powers, which a totally different character had. Ok, maybe I just hate what that movie did to the franchise.

Oh well, there's my daily tangent. Can't wait until the next season of Lost!

Posted by tristram

Aug 20, 2007 1:22 PM

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Daniel Dae Kim had to learn to speak Korean for the show. He had the benefit of actual Korean parents, however. Since Leung is a Chinese name, this actor would not, in all likelihood, have that advantage, so learning an entirely new--and very different--language might be asking a bit much.
Posted by shanfan14 Aug 20, 2007 1:24 PM Report Abuse

scorned -- the actor who plays Jin is American born and raised. There were many comments during the first season about how terrible his Korean was. It was so bad his co-star, a native Korean speaker, could barely understand him. The thing is, the average American viewer can't tell the difference between someone speaking fluent Korean and someone speaking cruddy Korean, so why would it be so terrible to have Ken Leung speak Korean?

Posted by LadyK2000

Aug 20, 2007 4:39 PM

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