In Hulu’s “Interior Chinatown,” Jimmy O. Yang stars as Willis Wu, a “generic Asian man” stuck in the background of police procedural show, whose luck begins to shift when he breaks into a leading role — a trajectory that resonated heavily with the actor.
“I felt that often in my life, especially when I first started as an actor,” Yang told TheWrap of the “almost invisible forces” holding Willis on the sidelines. “I was a background actor. I was Chinese teenager No. 1 in ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ a show that Chloe [Bennet] was the star in, actually.”
Like Willis, Yang explained he “snuck [his] way into being tech guy,” which he explains is “exactly what Willis has done in the book and in the show” as he secretly works with Detective Lana Lee (Bennet) to solve a string of crimes in Chinatown that could be related to the disappearance of his brother.
“Ironically, now I’m finally the leading actor in the show, but I’m playing a background character,” Yang said. “A lot of what Willis goes through, I just have to … rewind back like 10-15 years in my own life … I went through a lot of the similar journey of [being] kind of stuck, but really wanting more out of life — it’s just an underdog story.”
Yang’s understanding of Willis isn’t the only meta aspect of the show, with a police procedural titled “Black and White” living inside “Interior Chinatown.” With Willis’ world getting upended as he investigates mysterious disappearances with Lana, Yang was deliberate in keeping Willis’ motivation and journey grounded as he served as the audience’s point-of-view.
“In a way when you first start it, it’s almost like he’s a child going through this — He’s very unsure of himself. He has not the best relationship with family, and not knowing what he wants in life,” Yang said. “And then he progresses pretty fast in an arc of growing up and … coming [into] his own. But I think … his want and needs to be better, to be bigger, to be more — I think that’s something everyone can relate to.”
For Yang, acting in that single-room occupancy (SRO) housing that Willis and his family lived in added a tangible layer to Willis’ dreams to get out of Chinatown, whose “kitschy exterior” Yang said masks the everyday conditions of its residents. “The stains on the wall, how tiny it is to share bathroom between 10 different rooms on one single floor, the shared kitchen … It got me emotional, and this guy has been living like this all his life,” Yang said. “Using that as a way into Willis’ character was deeply meaningful.”
Living in the SRO, Yang noted that Willis has internalized the invisibility that comes with being relegated to the background, as Willis has been in “Black and White” and as the Asian American community has been in U.S. society. “It’s stuck in the background of it, the invisibility of it, that the otherness of it,” Yang said. “The stars are ‘Black and White,’ the name of the show within the show, and he is just a random little dot in the back — I think a lot of times that’s psychologically how a lot of Asian Americans feel.”
As Willis balances his dreams to leave Chinatown while still looking out for his parents, whom are rocked by the trauma of losing Willis’ brother over a decade ago, Yang notes Willis feels “caught in between two places,” adding “you don’t have to be Asian to feel that — everyone feels that.”
“Our parents have an expectation for you to do certain things, and they put you in a box — your family and society — but you want to do something else, but the same time, you don’t want to disappoint people that loved you and raised you all your life,” Yang said. “Sometimes you have to be selfish and [you] have to carve a path for yourself.”
Enter Detective Lana Lee, who Willis sees as both “a way into the story and a way out of Chinatown” after her and his coworker (played Ronny Chieng) see her glamor shot on TV during a police briefing about a disappearance in Chinatown. In addition to being infatuated with Lana — which Yang joked “anybody’s drawn to” Bennett’s Lana — she holds the key to 1) find his brother and 2) get out of Chinatown. “Lana represented everything that he’s ever wanted in life, a beautiful girl, an amazing, cool detective and also a way out of his loop that he stuck in,” Yang said.
With creator and showrunner Charles Yu expanding the Hulu series beyond the boundaries within the “Interior Chinatown” novel, which Yu also wrote, Yang said he’s “excited to find out” whether a second season for “Interior Chinatown” could be on the horizon.
“Season 1 …. it expands farther than the book, so even when I was getting Episode 9 and Episode 10 … I was pleasantly surprised and really giddy and excited as even just a reader, so I want to be surprised,” Yang said. “I don’t know what Charlie got up his sleeve, but I’m sure it’s something really cool.”
All episodes of “Interior Chinatown” are now streaming on Hulu.
