For Sandra Oh, theres a throughline connecting her latest role in the Netflix series The Chair to a role from all the way back at the beginning of her career, like bookends.

Long before she became the legend and icon behind some of the most richly realized and multidimensional women on television from Dr. Cristina Yang on Greys Anatomy to Eve Polastri on Killing Eve and long before her name was on T-shirts , she starred in a small Canadian movie called Double Happiness . Written and directed by Chinese Canadian filmmaker Mina Shum, who would go on to frequently collaborate with Oh, the 1994 movie is a slice-of-life portrait of Jade Li (Oh), an aspiring actor in her early 20s.

The movie still feels revelatory all these years later because its about a young Asian woman living her life. We see her hanging out with her best friend, figuring out dating, navigating her familys expectations and trying to find her way in the world. Its one of those movies I wish I had known about much earlier in my life, instead of only having discovered it earlier this year, as I told Oh when she mentioned the movie during our interview.

In The Chair, which premiered Friday, she plays Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, the chair of the English department at a fictional New England liberal arts college. In both roles, she was able to naturally and unconsciously draw from places within herself, which felt really good for me, she said.

When she played Jade, Oh was also in her early 20s, trying to make it as an actor and figuring out whether to leave home. Like Jade, [I was] breaking away from my family, and then actually having the gift of actually playing it at the very end of the film you know, Jade basically leaves and separates from her family to go pursue her dreams, she said. Yeah, I didnt have to reach that far for that.

Both are also fully fleshed characters that happen to be Asian. They strike the right balance between delving into their Asian identities by bringing in culturally specific details and not being heavy-handed about them or making them the only plot point. Ohs characters get to be their full selves, which, even now, seems radical. Over the last few years, Asian Americans have had more opportunities to feel seen on-screen. But the roles are still not exactly abundant. Each movie, show or character is still an event.

In a career full of great heights, Ohs performance as Ji-Yoon marks a new pinnacle. Its a wonderful showcase of her many talents, and there are so many layers of substance in the character. As the first woman and person of color to lead her department, Ji-Yoon hopes to use her power to change the institution. In reality, the job involves a lot of putting out fires every day and keeping the teetering department afloat. She faces immense pressure on many fronts, from the colleges leadership to her fellow faculty members. Her colleague, best friend and will-they-wont-they love interest, Bill (Jay Duplass), becomes embroiled in a campus controversy that further jeopardizes the department and tests Ji-Yoon.