Everyone thinks I’m American, I’m not
Actor Benedict Wong, star of the new must-watch drama 3 Body Problem, talks to Vicky Jessop about the lack of East Asian roles on television
I couldn’t get roles in Manchester — I had to leave my hometown and go to London
YOU may be surprised to learn this, but Benedict Wong is not American. Most people think he is, he says (including, until a few days ago, half of our office), which is why his most recent role in 3 Body Problem is such a treat.
“They are a bit shocked,” he says, in his broad Mancunian accent, of fans who approach him expecting to meet Marvel’s sorcerer Wong. “It’s taken this long road to find a role to finally reveal myself as such. I’m glad that they went for me... and we [went] authentic.”
The “they” in question are the creators of Game of Thrones (David Benioff and DB Weiss) and True Blood (Alexander Woo), who have joined forces for Netflix’s big spring release: a glossy adaptation of Chinese sci-fi writer Cixin Liu’s book The Three-Body Problem.
Wong plays Da Shi, the no-nonsense, London-based detective trying to find out why top scientists are dying. The role was literally written for him, as Wong found out when he read the character description: this version of Da Shi had parents from Hong Kong who emigrated to the UK, and was born in Manchester in the Seventies.
“He spent 20 years there and came down to London. I went, ‘Hang on, this sounds an awful lot like me.’ Then Alex [Woo] had to confess that they just copied my Wikipedia page. So at the back of my mind, I went, ‘Oh, wow, stalkers!’”
Stalkers, but for a good reason. Benedict Wong is hot property in Hollywood right now. Starting out in cult British shows like 15 Storeys High and The Peter Serafinowicz Show, he’s segued into a blockbuster career that has seen him don the purple robes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Wong.
Da Shi may be gruff and Wong the sorcerer may be brusque, but Wong the actor is a cheery presence, willing to crack a joke. Acting is what he’s always wanted to do. Born in Eccles, Lancashire, he was the funny kid at school (or as he describes it “trying to say the odd quip here and there”); as an adult, he screwed up his courage and interviewed for the performing arts course in Salford.
“I took a double brandy at the pub before I went in and so I think I was fuelled by booze,” he says. “I mean, I’ve thankfully weaned myself off that now and can work soberly.” From there, Wong spent many of his formative years “collecting tickets and sweeping floors” at Manchester’s Green Room venue.
“Steve in the lighting box would circle all the best touring shows and I’d get half a lager and I would just absorb all this theatre,” he says. Another haunt was the Library Theatre where “Judith the house manager knew I didn’t have any money but would sneak me in, and I’d watch the shows there. I owe a lot to the people of Manchester — you know, a free coffee here, just trying to survive in the arts.”
He almost didn’t. Relegated for years to bit-part roles based on racial stereotypes, he hit breaking point during an audition for Peter Kay’s sitcom Phoenix Nights, for a role that only required him to deliver one line.
“I was waiting for an hour and 40 minutes there and no one was coming out. It’s quite soul-destroying.” Wong left them a letter. “I just said, look, I’m better than this. As soon as I left, I called my then-agent to say, that’s it, I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough.”
Salvation arrived in the form of acclaimed 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things, in which he starred alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou and which gave his career fresh momentum.
Wong is still one of only a very few British East Asian faces on our screens today, though. And although the industry has changed — he points to the successful stage version of My Neighbour Totoro (“it’s a joy-spreader. I’ve never man-cried so much”) — there’s still a long way to go, especially when it comes to his hometown.
“I just think the North hasn’t done enough [for] East Asian [representation],” he says. “Even talking about just Coronation Street, you know, living in Salford and knowing where I came from, there was a chip shop or a takeaway a square mile away [run by East Asian owners]. It’s part of the fabric of Manchester.
“I think they’ve been a bit lazy really. I couldn’t get any roles in Manchester, and that was my first heartbreak, having to leave my own town because I couldn’t get employed. I had to go to London.”
But London has its own problems. In addition to the issue of representation, up-and-coming actors face another barrier to entry: closing venues, slashed budgets and ever-shrinking opportunities to get on stage for those starting out.
Is there an arts crisis? “Massively,” he says, pointing to the Vault Festival’s recent closure. “That was utterly heartbreaking. I don’t know how or why the Government are squeezing us out at [those] seedling roots.
“We need all of that, the [whole] terrine of all the arts… of literally starting from the ground up. I just don’t know where it’s going to go. It makes it a lot harder, but artists are artists and we will create; we’ll find a space and make it happen.”
These days, Wong is an old hand at navigating the industry — he even represents himself, via a one-man agency he jokingly calls “Wong and Only Management”.
“The Christmas parties are a bit lonely. I’m just tending to get off with myself by the photocopier,” he laughs. “No, we are thriving. I signed my own Marvel deal and I think the next step now is building our production company.” Has he ever been tempted find a new agent? “I’ve been courted by a few, but they all tend to get Gollum eyes for the Marvel contract.” And who can blame them? Since assuming the role of Wong in 2016, he has become the MCU’s ace in the hole.
“God, everybody loves Wong,” Tatiana Maslany’s She-Hulk quipped when he made an appearance in her 2022 series. “It’s like giving the show Twitter armour for a week.” Wong himself (the real one) is evidently thrilled at the turn his career has taken: a self-professed Spider-Man fan, he fondly recalls standing at the press junket next to comic book legend Stan Lee for his first role in Dr Strange.
“I sidled up and with my teenage voice falsetto, saying, ‘You don’t know me…’ and he said, ‘You’re Wong, and you’re great!’ I was like, just internally crying.”
They need that positivity, because there’s no denying that the MCU is in trouble at the moment. In addition to a spate of recent TV flops, there’s also been the much-publicised drama around Jonathan Majors’s conviction for assault, leading to him being dropped as the franchise’s next big baddie, Kang.
Unsurprisingly, Wong is coy about the issue. “That’s obviously something that’s been dealt with in the media and court and law,” he says, but, “at Wong and Only Management, we just receive their calls, but I don’t really call them.”
His own future is looking bright, and even if he decides to retire from the MCU, there’s always DJing to fall back on thanks to his alter ego, DJ Obi-Wong. He DJed the 3 Body Problem launch party and has a habit of doing the same at impromptu parties during shoots.
His track of choice seems strangely appropriate: “Let It Happen, the Soulwax remix of Tame Impala. My invitation to everyone: just let it happen.”
⬤ 3 Body Problem is streaming on Netflix