Arden Cho & Ahn Hyo-seop from KPop Demon Hunters Show Off Their Voice-Acting, Talk "Free" Covers

Welcome to the show. Thank you both for coming on. And is this true, this is only the second time you guys have met? Or, really? Basically. Movie magic. Movie magic. I mean, you'd think we hang out all the time. Or fight. Yeah, but it's just all voiceovers, so you're never in the booth at the same time. Never, yeah. Well, welcome to the show. Congrats on the success. K-pop Demon Hunters, holy moly. I think it's been watched over, like, half a billion times or something, like, 500 million times. It's the biggest film in the history of Netflix. It's the biggest film. And last night, it won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature. Come on! You voice Rumi and Jinu. Arden, when you auditioned originally, it wasn't for Rumi, right? It was someone else? Yeah, it's pretty wild. I actually auditioned for Celine. And I remember it was August 2022. I just sent a simple voice note. Sounded cool. K-pop Demon Hunters. I like K-pop. I like demon hunting, so why not? Yeah. And then I didn't hear anything, and about a year later, I got an e-mail that was like, hey, would you like to come in for a callback for Rumi? Yes. And I was like, wait. The lead? Yeah. Would I like to? Yeah. I mean, of course. You're fantastic. I booked a ticket. I flew in from Korea. I was on vacation in Korea. So, yeah, flew in, came into Sony. We had, like, an hour-long session, and then a month later, I was working. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yosep, what did you feel when you first read the script? Well, when I first saw the title, K-pop Demon Hunters, I thought, okay, this could be very interesting or very weird. Yeah. Yeah. Because I've never seen K-pop and demon hunting at the same time, anyway, so... The world hasn't. Oh, yeah. We didn't know we needed it. So, when I first read the script, I just thought it was really fun, very playful, and also it had a really good message, so I thought the kids would definitely love it. And I was a very... I was a big fan of an animation as a kid. It was amazing. This animation is next level. It is. It's gorgeous. And one of my favorites was Frozen. And that was, like, almost my entire childhood, although I watched it when I was, like, 20. Yeah, I mean, I know how impactful it is for kids to have these kind of meaningful animations and to be able to be on the other side, to give back the message to kids just felt really special. Congratulations. That's cool, but you're a demon, though. I mean, do you consider your character a... I never really thought of Jinwoo as a demon. I think that we all have a little demon inside of us, and... That's a nice way to put it. But demons are never nice. No, I just thought Jinwoo was more human than demon. He just made a wrong mistake at the wrong time. And through Jinwoo, I wanted to kind of send the message that, you know, in order to overcome your mistake, you just got to accept it, accept who you are, and just move on. Good for you. I like that. Yeah. Arden, out of all the success, I mean, it's massive. It's global. Do you have any moments, like, a pinch-me moment or something happened to you where, like, oh, yeah, the coolest thing happened? So many, but, I mean, a couple months after the movie came out, Linda Larkin, the voice of Princess Jasmine, called me. From Aladdin? Yes, from Aladdin. And we had a two-hour phone conversation. I, like, put it on speaker, because the entire first hour, I was like, is this really happening? Am I talking with Jasmine? She just called you out of the blue? Yeah. That's so nice. Well, she wanted to congratulate me, and she actually told me that, as a voice actor, she was really impressed with my work with Rumi, and she loved the depth and the layers and all of it. And I was like, I think we were both crying at one point. It was incredible, but I will never forget it. And now I'm like, Princess Jasmine called me. Yes, that's so cool. She was like, you're gonna be a modern-day princess. Oh, my God. You're also very talented musicians, as well, so I know you did separate covers of the song Free. Right. We did. And the internet went crazy. What made you want to do a cover? I was actually in Korea doing a different project, and they were doing this whole big promo thing in the States, and I just wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to give something back to the fans. So it was just a little fun project. And, I don't know, to be honest, deep inside my heart, I kind of wanted to stay in the movie. Oh, my. And I just wanted to stay. Working on a sequel. I'm just saying, I don't know. I mean, you got a crazy response. Arden, were you surprised with the... Yeah, I mean... People loved it. I think same. We just, we love the movie, we love the music, and right after the movie came out, I have so many friends in K-pop, and Cha Eun-woo is a good friend of mine. He literally called me and was like, I love the movie, would love to do a cover. Should we cover Free? And I'm like, should we? Would I? With you? Of course. And so it was our last cover, or his last cover he did before going off to the military. And yeah, we had like, I think 70, 80 million views collective. It's insane. And I feel like the fans are demanding our cover as well. Yeah, let's see. I want to hear that. Let's go. Let's do it. I think it'd be kind of fun if I maybe showed you guys. For the fans? For the fans. Yeah, we have to. I thought it'd be interesting if I maybe just showed a couple just stills from the movie, and maybe you can tell me about your voice and what you did when you were recording. Like, this is Rumi and Jinu, obviously, but then this is Jinu slipping. When you slip, can you give a little line for what you would do here when you slip? So I went like, this was when Rumi was about to run away from, I mean, Jinu was about to run away from Rumi, and I did something like, ah, and then I said, and then I said, which means, I'm sorry in Korean. Wow. Oh, I got to go back and watch that. All right, this is Rumi screaming. Yeah! Yes! Come on, Jimmy, you can do it. Yeah, I can try to do it. All right, ready? Yeah! Jinu laughing. Because Jinu's a demon, I want it to be kind of lovable, so I want it to be kind of goofy, so I was like, hee hee hee hee hee, or something like that. Hee hee hee hee hee. I feel like we can all do it. Yeah, hee hee hee. How about this last one here? This is when you get on the plane. Oh, not our fans. Yes, that's right, come on! Classic, not our fans. I feel like we should all do it. Oh, we can do it, not our fans? Yeah, I mean, what do you guys think? One at a time or two? Not our fans? All right, do it. Ready? Should we do it? Yeah, let's do it. All right, three, two, one. Not our fans? I want to show everyone a clip. Here's Arden Cho and Ahn Hyo-Seop in K-Pop Demon Hunters, take a look. Pathetic. I'm pathetic? You can't even talk about your patterns. You want me to talk about my patterns? I hate them, just like I hate all demons, how I hate Kima. If hate could defeat Kima, I would have done it a long time ago. Trust me. Excuse me, Mr. Jinu, I made this for you. Uh, for me? Maybe listen to those voices instead of the ones in your head. Yeah, come on. Arden Cho and Ahn Hyo-Seop. K-Pop Demon Hunters is streaming now on Netflix. More Tonight Show after the break. Stick around, everybody.