Cast, director, and executive producer of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings assembled for a virtual press conference with press joining from around the world. Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, and Sir Ben Kingsley along with director Destin Daniel Cretton and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige were present to talk about the highly-anticipated film.
Moderator and cast member Ronny Chieng asked the questions, he started off by asking Kingsley what it was like to bring the story of Shang-Chi to life on the big screen, he said:
I think that this story, because it’s so beautifully told, and so rich, will ultimately be healing because it’s not propaganda. It’s just a really beautiful story. I, as an actor, uh, Trevor, of course, is a Shakespearean actor and he finds himself transported into a completely exotic environment, but he survives. And thanks to the welcome that Kevin and-and Destin and my beautiful colleagues gave me, I have done 17 out of Shakespeare’s whole canon of plays. So, I-I’m sort of a Shakespearean actor. But as-as soon as I arrived on set, the fact that my colleagues were from a different culture was immaterial.
Ronny then went on to ask Meng’er Zhang what it was like to go from stage acting to film acting, she said:
it’s so different because this is my very first, um, film experience and I-I am so lucky to work with all of them and Sir Ben, I asked him a lot of questions on set. And I asked him that question and he said, so beautiful, he said, um, so when we are on stage, we are landscape artists. And we are-when we are in front of a camera, we are portrait artists.
Yeah, and I-I also remember, um, when we were doing some stunts. It was just so different from like stage acting.
I remember the makeup team, um, doing the final touch on my fringe to make sure everything’s perfect. And some people came to tell me so Meng’er there will be some wind, a little bit of water, a little bit, and so I’m like okay, okay. So, I’m ready. I-I was ready I-I’m in character and three, two, one action and the wind was like [MAKES NOISE]. Just like-yeah. Just like that.
Things get funny very fast when Ronny asks Awkwafina about her stunts in the film, he asks if this movie was more physically demanding or voicing a character on Spongebob, Awkwafina said:
Oh, um, [LAUGH] uh, well, you know, much to be said about voice acting…
I actually went to a race track and learned how to drift, which is really fun but probably not practical in any scenario like traffic. And yeah I learned how to shoot a bow and arrow.
Ronny then turned to Shang-Chi himself, Simu Liu, and asked him what it was like to work with a cast of so many incredible actors, Liu said:
It was like impostor syndrome every single day. It was such a treat and it was all I could do just not to mess it up. When I was first cast, I did my final screen test with [Awkwafina] and she did such a wonderful job of putting me at ease. My nerves were sky high. I was an actor from Toronto, I really had never allowed myself to imagine being a part of the MCU, it was the craziest dream that anyone could possibly dream. And Nora did such a great job of putting me at ease and just being in the moment with me and we had such a beautiful chemistry.
Maybe you’ve read some reviews on social media or maybe you’re staying far away from reviews and spoilers, which is a very good thing, because you are in for a treat, trust us!
Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings comes to theaters on September 3.