Ahead of the release of Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings this weekend, we were granted an exclusive opportunity to sit down with actress Fala Chen (The Undoing; Sound of the Desert) to talk about her pivotal role as Ying Li in the Destin Daniel Cretton-directed blockbuster.
Her romance with Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) essentially sets in motion the events of the film, as her untimely demise results in the immortal villain reverting back to his unforgiving ways and her children Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Xu Xialing (Meng'er Zhang) choosing to seek out a better life than the one their father was offering.
During our chat with Chen, she told us more about working opposite the incomparable Tony Leung, how much preparation went into her standout fight sequence, and her experience working with director Destin Daniel Cretton.
Check out the full video interview below or keep scrolling for the transcript!
ROHAN: When you were approaching the film, how did you look at your character. She’s this incredible fighter, but falls for with a man who she knows isn’t really a good guy, so how did you rationalize that your character could fall in love with a man like Wenwu?
FALA: "I mean, he's played by the great Tony Leung, so it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with him. He’s so charismatic, like in the scene, the character Wenwu is such a complex character, he is - I can’t reveal too much about it - but I feel like he just like draws your eyes, your attention to him automatically, so it was basically like the easiest job in the world to play with Tony and to also play a couple.
So, I feel very lucky to be able to work with him and also - you’ve seen the film - and we get to do a lot of choreographed fights together and those are just so beautifully designed, and it’s so beautifully shot. I loved the sets and the costume, so we kind of just made the whole scene very romantic, and I just really love that scene and working with Tony."
ROHAN: Your fight scene was so beautiful and so well choreographed. How long did that take to prepare for and film?
FALA: "It took us weeks to shoot that scene, but prior to that, I personally had to train for a couple of weeks, for that particular scene, and I had to basically learn the whole scene in its entirety. So, if you asked me to perform that whole scene, I was able to - at least then, I forgot some of it now *laughs* - but I was able to do the whole scene altogether and now, I see the value of it.
When I was learning, I was like, “Oh my God, this is so long and so much to remember,” but now seeing it on screen, I could tell the genius of Destin is not just to make this a beautiful scene, but it’s a story. It’s how they fall in love and it’s how they size each other up, and then go into this whole other arc of the story and it makes total sense now in hindsight, that we had to learn it in its entirety. I also had to train for Tai chi, just to learn the basic stance and the basic hand movements and all of that, so that alone took me a whole month to learn full-time, like 9-5 every day for a whole month, but it’s all worth it."
ROHAN: Destin Daniel Cretton brings a real sense of authenticity to the film, and you feel like this is a real reflection of the Asian American experience because much of Shang's journey feels really reflective of what many of us go through growing up in the U.S. What was your experience working with Destin on this mega project?
FALA: Yes, it’s like no other set I’ve ever been to before because it feels very much like a true collaboration because Destin, from the get-go, he told us, “I’m open to anything, if you know certain things about your character or the particular cultural aspect of things, that you have ideas, feel free to tell me,” so, he was very much open about anything.
My character speaks Chinese in the scenes, so sometimes I have to work - we have an expert translator on set all the time and she was working with me on the translations, and we would explain to Destin the nuances, “Okay, Destin, we have three versions of this particular word - when you translate it A, this means this, and B, it means a little bit different, and C, it shares some meaning - so, we have to kind of have to explain everything to Destin, but he was so interested in picking the perfect word and watching me acting in a language that he doesn’t really understand, but he could also give me guidance at the same time, but then let me do my own thing as well and trust that we are also giving our input as part of the creative team and I felt like I was very much welcomed to bring any suggestions I had and that was really, really enjoyable.
ROHAN: The way you act with young Shang and Xialing really reminded me of how my mother used to act with my brother and me when we were growing up...
FALA: Thanks a lot, I feel very young now! *laughs* No, I’m joking. I totally get it, and the whole set, taking our shoes off and all of that, it was almost like we didn’t need to speak about it, it was like a shared kind of like experience, but also shared understanding that, “Oh, it’s only natural you’re going into your house, you take your shoes off,” so it was never like, “Um, can we… ?” So, we never had to raise those questions, it was just very natural, it was very authentic in that way.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now playing in theaters worldwide!