Ko ’15 back to Emerson after Oscars

Hearin Ko '15 getting instructions from Oscars officials last week in Los Angeles. She was on stage at the Academy Awards on February 24. (Courtesy photo)

After living it up among the glitz and glamour of Hollywood the past several days—capped with being onstage at the 85^th annual Academy Awards—Hearin Ko ’15 has already boarded a plane and will be back in class tomorrow, February 26.

Sounding weary in a phone interview with emerson.edu while traveling to the Los Angeles airport on Monday, February 25, Ko said the media attention she has garnered in Boston is just beginning to set in.

“My phone and Facebook were blowing up yesterday and today,” said the 19-year-old Visual and Media Arts major. “I was representing Emerson and a lot of people were proud of me.”

This year, the Academy did away with female models who hand the statuettes to presenters and escort celebrities on and off stage. Up-and-coming college filmmakers are now performing that role. The students were acknowledged at a point in the awards show.

“It was such a great honor,” Ko said. “It meant so much to all of us.”

Onstage, Ko came into contact with George Clooney, Ben Affleck, and Jack Nicholson—one of her all-time favorite actors.

“To see him there was kind of scary,” Ko said. “He’s always left such an impression on me.”

Ko and five other students won the national Oscar Experience College Search for aspiring filmmakers in which they submitted 30-second videos on how they would change the future of film.

Ko’s video was shot and edited at Emerson last month and describes how she wants to create a genre called “magic realism,” which is a blend of fantasy and surrealism.

“Because I was able to be a part of this…my passion for film has grown,” Ko said. “I’m going to try harder than ever. I feel that if I try and focus, I can break into Hollywood.”

Social media has been buzzing over Ko’s appearance at the Oscars. An earlier story about Ko on emerson.edu has been liked more than 765 times on Facebook—with more than 600 of those likes occurring between 7:00 pm Sunday, when the Oscars telecast began, and 1:00 pm Monday.

In that interview, Ko said she grew to love filmmaking as an adolescent when she moved from Seoul, Korea, to Shanghai, China, and was forced to learn both English and Chinese at age 9.

This week, she will be back on campus and trying to make up for lost time.

“I have two exams this week,” Ko said. “I’m worried. I haven’t studied at all because I was on a very busy schedule!”