Let’s talk about your project with Netflix, Wu Assassins.

Yeah, so it’s Wu Assassins which premieres August 8th. Very exciting project to be a part of. I play a character called Lu Xin Lee. He’s kind of a cocky, flamboyant gangster extrovert. He’s dealing with a lot of identity issues. He’s dealing with a lot of pain and trauma from his past which he compensates, or overcompensates, through this flashy lifestyle with cars, jewelry, His cocky demeanor and attitude. So, it’s a very interesting character. It’s very multilayered. I’m excited to get to play someone like that, and I’m excited to perform a gritty, violent action series because Into the Badlands was so beautiful and very Hong Kong style martial arts. it had it’s own style. This is much more gritty and grounded. There’s no wires, and there’s none of that kind of grandiose, beautiful, almost dance-like choreography. This is more violent and gritty.

I was gonna say, there’s a certain type of performative, poetry, poetic thing that we were able to see in Into The Badlands. It is opratic. This upcoming project seems very brutal. How did you prepare for it?

I prepared the same way I prepare for all my roles. First I find the character’s fears and desires and loves, and then I figure out a way to embody those characteristics—or at least understand them as deep as I can. I use different techniques each time, depending on what I’m doing and what kind of role I’m playing. But as far as that, when I get to a point, and I fail a lot. And then when I finally find the thing that flows it feels like it just connects, it just fits, you know? The energy just kind of fits like a puzzle piece and then I know I have something. Then I start to feel a lot better. As far as physicality, yeah I trained a lot. I did a lot of training with Iko Team and kind of built a character physically as well as emotionally, and then I merged those two things when I performed. Each kind of different, and this character was really fun. Like I said, it has lots of layers and as the series progresses you get to reveal more and more and more of these layers so it’s been a really interesting performance. One of my favorites.

You have a background in plays and theater. You were coached under John Kirby. What kind of roles do you inhabit in those types of plays?

Yeah, John Kirby has been my coach for many years and we do a lot of different theater work from the classic playwrights like Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neil, John Patrick Shanley, Chekov, David Mamet, these types of classic playwrights. We get to explore a lot of interesting things that I wouldn’t necessarily have the chance to explore on film because you’ve got to be given these opportunities to play these parts. It’s very rare for a six-foot-two Asian-American actor like myself to be given these types of opportunities. So it was nice to be able to perform plays and to dive deep into material. As an actor you dream of doing Tennessee Williams, you dream of doing John Patrick Shanley plays, so that has helped me grow as an actor. John Kirby is a legend in the film industry, and has been around forever—him and his family and his brother, Bruno Kirby, have been around since the Godfather days. I’ve been very fortunate to have him guiding me.

It’s an interesting concept what you say, “as an Asian actor, getting these types of opportunities. Do you feel like we’re at the point where we’re finally seeing some crossover in regards to the turnover post-Crazy Rich Asians, where it’s recreating the type of identity in the American canon of the Asian figure. How do you feel like your narrative is fitting into that?

It’s definitely an exciting time. I’ve been watching it since I was a kid, watching my father play villains on films like Tango & Cash and Batman for years. I’ve been watching the progression since I was young. I’m very sensitive to it, and obviously when it became apart of my life and my career, I became more intune, more sensitive to it. It’s been nice to see the explosion of interest, and I wouldn’t even necessarily say it was Crazy Rich Asians—there was definitely a huge public turnaround as far as the community getting together and making their voice known and saying, “Hey, we’re going to support this show.” I didn’t even see the film, I bought out a theater before even watching the film. I just bought out a theater with some of the cast members of Wu Assassins just to support. The first time that this happened was with this movement and I think that social media and with everyone finally coming together speaking their voice and making it heard, it’s created opportunities for other Asian actors, for other actors of color, because from that is when can get to the real story that we can really relate to and that we really want to tell. There’s so much more than Crazy Rich Asians, there’s so much more to be told and I’m excited that we’re finding these opportunities.