INTERIOR CHINATOWN Trailer (2024) Chloe Bennet

INTERIOR CHINATOWN Trailer (2024) Chloe Bennet

INTERIOR CHINATOWN Trailer (2024) Chloe Bennet---
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This interview contains major spoilers from “Interior Chinatown,” now streaming on Hulu.

Chloe Bennet knows what it is like to straddle two worlds — both in life and on television. For seven seasons, the Chinese American actor starred as Daisy Johnson/Quake in ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” a long-running, procedural-esque show that followed the lives of special agents in a world of superheroes. Having spent the majority of her 20s working on “S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Bennet learned to define parts of her own life through playing a character — so much so that she feels like she was essentially raised in the procedural genre.

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So, when she first read Charles Yu’s National Book Award-winning novel “Interior Chinatown” — which follows the life of a Chinese American actor who has always felt like a background player in his own life until his being witness to a crime in Chinatown reveals that he is actually a bit player in a much larger story — Bennet, whose father is Chinese and whose mother is white, began to recognize parts of her own experience in Hollywood.

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“Charlie is such a brilliant writer — and this is how he is in real life as well — but he is so able to capture these very specific and nuanced feelings about racial identity, even for me being a woman on a TV show,” Bennet tells Variety of “Interior Chinatown,” which explores tropes and archetypes that often relegate Asian characters to the background. “There’s so many ways that he was able to express these nuanced emotions and feelings that I’ve had in my whole life, and it felt like he was able to just string them all together in this book. I just felt really seen by that, like, ‘Oh my God, this guy is reading my half-baked thoughts and then putting them into this book, in a script format, in a procedural TV show format.’ It felt like there was nothing I didn’t understand or didn’t feel connected to.”

But after Yu’s novel introduced Karen, the half-Asian detective who was renamed Lana in Hulu’s new adaptation, Bennet had to stop reading. Knowing that “Interior Chinatown” would inevitably be adapted for the screen, she says she could not bear the thought of anyone else playing the part.

“I reached out to anyone I knew that was attached to the project, or who I knew that knew someone attached to the project,” Bennet says, describing her “insane” reaction to learning that Yu would be adapting his own novel. “I played it like I was dating. I was like, OK, I’m going to be cool, but not too cool. I’m going to try, but not try too hard.’ And then eventually I did get it, which was a big relief because I think I would’ve probably quit acting otherwise.”

Courtesy of Mike Taing/Hulu
In the new 10-part series, Bennet plays Lana Lee, a newly transferred detective who is brought into the police department for “cultural considerations,” as another detective snidely puts it, amid a growing spike in crime in Chinatown — despite the fact that she knows very little about the community. As it turns out, Lana is the only character in “Interior Chinatown” who seems to realize that she is playing a new detective on a satirical “Law & Order” show called “Black & White.” Acting as a bridge between those two worlds, Lana, who is herself relegated to a stereotypical role as a side character in “Black & White,” agrees to team up with Willis Wu (Jimmy O’Yang) — the Chinese American man who doesn’t realize that he is the protagonist of his own show-set-within-a-show — to uncover the truth about why his older brother, Jonathan (Chris Pang), mysteriously disappeared after being given a starring role as the stereotypical Kung Fu Guy. (Bennet admits she is still attempting to process the meta nature of the storytelling.)

In a wide-ranging interview, Bennet opens up about her character’s arc in “Interior Chinatown,” how she has dealt with inevitable scrutiny over her racial identity in real life — and why, following her experience on the show, she’s more determined than ever to tell her own stories.

How would you describe Lana’s arc in this 10-episode first season? What does she learn about herself?
We’re introduced to her through this postured male gaze. Immediately, she’s put on this pedestal. It’s a dissection of what race she is. It’s a dissection of, “Oh, who is that?”here’s something very relatable for me as a female actress that is utilized in that way often. I think that she at that point is proud of her ability to be anything she wants. She has a privilege of being able to slip in and out of these worlds, and I don’t know if that is the privilege I think it is. I don’t know if that’s something that I’d want. There’s an exhaustion that she realizes, because for Willis, he’s introducing her to this part of herself, to this [Chinese] community that she’s actually never been a part of.

Episode 5 is an important episode for her in discovering and getting to see this world, and getting to see the benefits of being in one place at one time and not having all these secrets. Throughout this show, we start to see that she’s realizing, “Oh, I can be a part of all of these worlds, but I’m actually not a part of it.” She’s not accepted in either world. The metaphor is rich, in that a lot of it is about being mixed. We’ve barely scratched the surface on Lana as a standalone character, and her journey with her identity on what she actually wants and what really motivates her. Because I think that changes throughout the show. But I think Lana, as a piece of the puzzle of telling Willis’ story, is a different conversation.

Chloe Bennet and Jimmy O. Yang
Courtesy of Mike Taing/Hulu
There’s a lot to unpack in the finale alone. After realizing that he and the rest of the people in Chinatown exist as characters in a meta police procedural controlled by a powerful corporation, which has been invasively broadcasting all of their lives, Willis attempts to take control of his own narrative. The season ends with Willis and Lana jumping off a rooftop together, which symbolizes their attempts to break free, but they seemingly wake up in another show playing the same characters but in different circumstances. What was your interpretation of the ending?
I’m interested to hear other people’s fresh takes on it, because we’ve been sitting with this for two years, and I’m not quite sure if I can be completely objective about what I think happens in the ending. But I think that they discovered that they are pieces of a much larger puzzle. I think at the beginning of the show, no characters are entirely aware of that. I think Lana might be the most aware of it and it’s still deeply embedded. I don’t want to say anything on the record that’s going to be totally wrong, because I have my own personal theories, and I don’t know if they’re right.

Give me one of your theories then.
There’s various pathways I could go to dissect it. I think that there was a lot going on while we were finishing the end of the show. We were navigating strikes, and there was a lot of stuff that was happening. I only recently saw what we did because there was a lot more that we shot, and I think what was carved out was strategic. So I can’t speak for the creators of the show, but my takeaway was I can only apply it to my experience as an actor.

To me, it’s like Lana and Willis almost got off this show where they were being pigeonholed, but they’re now on another one. There’s a very simple that might be easier for the sake of the interview. And then, there’s a lot of other, way bigger things that we talked about at length on set, and it gets very heady. Was Jimmy looking at the camera at the end? We did various takes. So I actually have not talked with Charlie or [executive producer/director] Taika [Waititi] about this, and you are asking good questions. I don’t want to publicly say fully what I think, because I think that there might be some surprises. I also think it depends whether we go another season. If that’s the end of it, I think I’ll have an opinion about what the whole thing was and what it all means. But if there’s more, I don’t want to give anything away.

Courtesy of Mike Taing/Hulu
You’ve always spoken openly about how when you’ve walked into casting rooms, people don’t always know where to place you. You’ve been told that you’re not white enough to play the lead, but you’re also not Asian enough to play some of the more stereotypical and supporting roles. Now that you have established more of a public profile in the business, do you find that you’re still having to deal with those kinds of conversations about your racial identity?
I think that it’s something that we actually have so much more work to do, and it’s not just around me. The industry took a big pendulum swing in the other direction. Now, I would say I’m not Asian enough. Even within the last few years, I’ve not gotten things because I don’t look “Asian enough,” [but] I’ve been told that they want to see the diversity onscreen. This press tour in and of itself has been really eye-opening. I feel like [there’s] an elementary understanding of racial diversity and what real progress is. I believe that real progress is not having to speak about it all the time. Even in the promotion of the show, a lot of it is reduced down to just an Asian American story. That’s certainly what this is, but also it is a lot of other things. So I think we have a lot of work to do.

Do you feel like you’ve reached a point where writers and producers are able to lean into and write toward your ethnicity as opposed to running away from it?
They’re running away from something else. I’m not quite sure what exactly it is. Race is still very much at play. I think it’s definitely not OK to be like, “You can’t be the lead if you’re not white,” anymore, by any means. There are definitely limitations, but they are presenting themselves in a different way at this point.

Your decision to change your professional last name from “Wang” to “Bennet” came with a lot of strife and backlash, particularly from the Asian community. Now that you are over a decade removed from that decision, how do you reflect on that choice now?
I have really always struggled with that decision. I was 18, 19, and needed to pay my rent. It really did feel like Willis in Episode 2 or 3 when he is trying to walk into [the police station and keeps getting locked out]. I was, in a really naive way, shocked by the way that I was not able to [get work]. I actually wasn’t being given any opportunity. Simply being able to delete Wang and type Bennet was a very cinematic moment for me. I can still see the way the light hit my computer screen — all of it is still very ingrained in my memory. But I’m very aware of the front-facing privilege to be able to do that because then I did get work.

I understand that for a lot of people, they don’t get to just delete their last name and then become white-passing. But I think that the most damning thing of that experience is that you think that it’s a privilege to be white-passing. And obviously, there are logistical privileges to being white-passing in the society that we live in at this point. But you take the outside elements of that away, and what does that do to you psychologically? And I paid a lot of psychological repercussions about who I was the whole time, and really have struggled with that.

Both sides of the coin have opinions about it, especially the Asian community, and there’s no negating people’s feelings about that. But the reality is, I never changed my last name. I’m not Chloe Bennet. My name is Chloe Wang. I changed the way people perceive me, but nothing about me has ever changed. There’s a point when you’re like, “Oh, they let me in. I’m in the club.” You’re in the club, and then people don’t think you’re one thing. So I guess when you’re white-passing, people don’t know that you’re Asian, and you’re along for a lot of fucking racist comments. And when you defend it, it’s like, “Well, you’re not really [Asian].” So a lot of that has happened, and it’s a really complicated mixed bag, but it’s something that I still struggle with.

Have you ever considered changing your professional surname back to Wang?
I don’t know. It’s hard because I am still Chloe Wang all the time. When I go to a dinner or when I give my name for something, I’m not saying Chloe Bennet; I’m saying Chloe Wang. I made an effort to never shy away from talking about it or opening myself up to these conversations. It’s definitely something that is not black and white. I understand that there was a privilege involved in that, but it’s not as glamorous on this side of it as I think people think it might be. But I understand that it gave me a lot of opportunities.

Courtesy of Mike Taing/Hulu
You mentioned that you don’t want “Interior Chinatown” to be reduced to an “Asian show,” but it’s important not to downplay the significance of having so many Asian Americans working on the same project. For you, how different was the experience of making “Interior” compared to your other shows? Has making a show like this put you more in touch with the Asian side of your identity?
It was incredible. I don’t think you realize the absence of something until you see the presence of it and you’re walking on set. I always thought of my Asian part of me as this kind of domestic part of me, in a weird way, and I always thought of my white part as the professional part because that’s how I was forced to view myself for a long time. I didn’t realize the level of comfort, the deep breath I took — and I welled up — when I first walked on the set, and I really saw diversity off-camera. Across the production, there were department heads that were Asian women, and the show meant something to everyone. And not only were people hired just because they were Asian — they’re the best at what they do, and they’re really fucking good.

It was actually very inspiring for me, as a creative, and as someone who had been toying with wanting to branch out of acting for a really long time and honestly just never felt the confidence to do so. Seeing so many people like me behind the camera was extremely motivating. I was like, “Oh, this is what straight white men get. They have always gotten to see themselves the whole time creating the thing.” So that power of representation for me worked immediately off-camera, and it was extremely motivating. I don’t think that we should just hire people for the sake of hiring people; I think that we need to be really good.

You mentioned wanting to branch out beyond acting — presumably into writing, producing and directing. Have you thought much about the kinds of stories that you want to tell? You have a particularly unique experience as someone who is “hapa,” or half-Asian.
I have been writing, and I actually have always written, which is something that I was very, very shy and not confident about. So much of it has to do with those weird conversations about identity, and where you do or do not fit in. I was raised in a very specific house. I had seven brothers. My dad is Chinese — a lot of people that I know are mixed don’t have that experience. I have two Black brothers, a Mexican Filipino brother, three half-Chinese brothers and a half-Indian brother. I have an Indian stepdad.

Growing up and having a seat at the table, literally, at dinner, I had a safe space [to discuss] these big topics — race, sexuality, gender and politics — and was able to speak about that very openly with people who are different, who do not have the same skin color as me. I grew up in this bubble of equality within my family, and I watched the world take in my family members differently based on the way they look. That gave me an immense amount of perspective.

The reason I got into acting was because I really think the power of having an intimate proximity to those conversations where you’re not going to get canceled, where you can speak about stuff and leave room for nuance — that is the only kind of content I’m interested in. It’s also not a sad story. It doesn’t need to be this, “Woe is us. We are Asian.” I really want to celebrate the complexities. I grew up in this microcosm of America, and it certainly wasn’t chill, but man, was it fulfilling.

When I was 17, I actually got signed to CAA by talking about my family, and it was ultimately about developing a show about the stories that I was telling about growing up. So this experience on “Interior” has catapulted the creative juices inside of me — and that’s a huge inspiration from Taika and Charlie. Charlie’s been extremely supportive; he’s been a mentor for me, as a creative behind the camera. So the big takeaway from the show has been really inspiring for me: No one’s going to tell my story, and certainly not a bunch of white executives, so I’ve just got to do it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Read More About:
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Interior Chinatown
Genre Crime drama
Created by Charles Yu
Based on Interior Chinatown
by Charles Yu
Showrunner Charles Yu
Starring
Jimmy O. Yang
Ronny Chieng
Chloe Bennet
Sullivan Jones
Lisa Gilroy
Archie Kao
Diana Lin
Music by
Mark Mothersbaugh
Nick Lee
Country of origin United States
Original language English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 10
Production
Executive producers
Charles Yu
Taika Waititi
Dan Lin
Lindsey Liberatore
Jeff Skoll
Miura Kite
Elsie Choi
John Lee
Garrett Basch
Producers
Joanne Toll
Alex Russell
Matt Okumura
Cinematography
Mike Berlucchi
Tari Segal
Editors
Andrew Groves
Joanne Yarrow
Nicole Brik
Patrick Tuck
Tamar Federknopp
David Chang
Running time 34–47 minutes
Production companies
MSD Imaginary Machines
Waititi
Participant
Rideback
20th Television
Original release
Network Hulu
Release November 19, 2024
Interior Chinatown (stylized onscreen as INT. CHINATOWN) is an American crime drama television series created by showrunner Charles Yu based on his 2020 novel of the same name. The series stars Jimmy O. Yang as a waiter in Chinatown who is thrust into the spotlight after witnessing a crime. Produced by 20th Television, the series premiered on Hulu on November 19, 2024.[1]

Premise
Willis Wu is a background character stuck in a police procedural called Black and White. One day he accidentally witnesses a crime, and as he investigates, he starts to uncover family secrets and a Chinatown criminal underground while learning how it feels to be in the spotlight.

Cast
Main
Jimmy O. Yang as Willis Wu, a waiter at the Golden Palace who feels trapped and wants to see the world
Ronny Chieng as Fatty Choi, Willis' best friend and co-worker at the Golden Palace
Chloe Bennet as Detective Lana Lee, a detective who recruits Willis to investigate the disappearance of his brother
Sullivan Jones as Miles Turner, a detective who leads the investigation of several crimes scenes in Port Harbor
Lisa Gilroy as Sarah Green, a detective who leads the investigation of several crimes scenes in Port Harbor
Archie Kao as Uncle Wong, the owner of Golden Palace
Diana Lin as Lily Wu, Willis' mother
Recurring
Tzi Ma[a] as Joe Wu, Willis' father
Annie Chang as Audrey Chan, Willis' childhood friend and aspiring lawyer
Chau Long as Carl, an employee at Golden Palace
Allan McLeod as Desk Sergeant Felix, a desk sergeant at the Port Harbor police
Marlon Young as Randall the Janitor, a janitor working at the Port Harbor police
Lauren Tom as Betty Chan, Audrey's mother and a real estate agent serving as Lily's aspiration
Michael J. Harney[3] as Chief Walden, the police chief of Port Harbor PD
Chris Pang as Jonathan Wu, Willis' late brother who died 12 years prior, with his death being deemed mysterious
Maury Sterling as Carrey, an older detective who worked with Jonathan 12 years ago[4]
Spencer Neville as Aidan McDonough, a young detective who worked with Jonathan 12 years ago[4]
Episodes
No. Title Directed by Written by Original release date Prod.
code
1 "Generic Asian Man" Taika Waititi Charles Yu November 19, 2024 1KBR01
Willis Wu is a waiter at the Golden Palace, who sees himself as a background character in a television show called Black & White. He resents his father who trained his missing older brother in kung fu, and purposely trained Willis to fail as a way of protecting him. After witnessing the kidnapping of a young woman, later learning she was murdered, he becomes convinced that he is destined for something greater. He falls for the detective assigned to the case, Lana Lee, who visits the restaurant and informs her of the kidnapping. Lana recruits him to help take down the gangs in Chinatown and after some digging, reveals that his older brother was working with her unit before he disappeared. Motivated to find out what happened to his brother, Willis agrees to help Lana. Shortly afterwards, Willis sees the murdered kidnapped victim alive.
2 "Delivery Guy" Ben Sinclair Eva Anderson November 19, 2024 1KBR02
Willis begins to duck out of work, forcing his friend and co-worker Fatty Choi to take over his duties. Lana takes Willis to the precinct, but he is somehow unable to enter the building. When Lana tries to introduce Willis to her superiors, Turner and Green, they seem incapable of noticing him. This allows Willis to overhear a very personal conversation about their opinion of Lana. Even after helping to solve a murder, a supernatural force prevents Willis from entering the precinct. A neighbor of Willis's passes away and Chinatown grieves his loss. Willis's mother, Lily, learns that he broke up an animal smuggling ring and now there is a vacancy in the former hideout building. Lily, having gained a realtor's license decides to buy the space. Inspired by a comment from Fatty, Willis feigns a food delivery and finally manages to enter the precinct.
3 "Tech Guy" Jaffar Mahmood Matt Okumura November 19, 2024 1KBR03
Lana gives Willis a tape from his Older Brother where he says that he thinks he is being watched by someone. Needing more information, Willis begins feigning more deliveries and ends up befriending members of the precinct. Audrey Chan, a girl who has a crush on Willis, helps him by determining the amount of food he needs to bring. Fatty begins to grow frustrated with dealing with customers, which has the effect of people wanting to come see him. Lana tries to get closer to the ever suspicious Green, who later approves of a recent bust. Willis learns that the files of past cases are now on digital. Realizing that no one notices the "tech guy" in charge, the precinct help Willis replace the tech guy where assuming his role allows him to master use of the computers. He opens up the files of his brother and finds hundreds of files about him.
4 "Kung Fu Guy" John Lee Tiffany So & Saba Saghafi November 19, 2024 1KBR04
Willis and Lana sit down and watch the files, presented as film clips, and learn that older brother was the "kung fu guy" for former cops McDonough and Carrey. Lily gets hired by realtor Betty Chan who comments how her husband Joe is always reflecting on his past. Fatty learns that he has become a viral sensation for his rude service, which his boss Uncle Wong fully supports, much to his chagrin. While Lana is away, Willis begins to dig further into the files and learns that older brother was the leader of the Painted Faces, a criminal gang. When Willis sees footage of older brother killing McDonough, he deletes all the footage. He tells Fatty to tell Uncle Wong that he quits, leaving him dejected. Suddenly, Willis realizes where older brother made his call and follows a hidden tunnel that leads him into the office of the Golden Palace.
5 "Chinatown Expert" Alice Wu Naiem Bouier November 19, 2024 1KBR05
Willis and Lana suspect Uncle Wong, the owner of the Golden Palace, of being involved with Willis’s brother’s disappearance, and resolve to steal the keys to his office to investigate. To get him to drop his guard, Lana poses as Willis’s girlfriend during a family dinner. Willis gets into the office, and finds his brother’s pager, given to him by Carrey and McDonough, hidden behind a painting. Willis flees, discovering that all the stores are connected, but is caught by Uncle Wong who takes him somewhere. Meanwhile, Turner begins to become self-aware of their world and tires of the monotony of constantly solving cases the same way, though Green tries to dissuade him. When disarming a time bomb in the precinct, Turner’s disaffection leads him to let it explode, yet the bomb’s countdown stops as if he had successfully disarmed it.
6 "Translator" Stephanie Laing Keiko Green November 19, 2024 1KBR06
Uncle Wong reveals that he helps people who have been trafficked in crates, though he doesn't know where they came from. Lana solves a case quickly so that Turner and Green can come and rescue Willis, impressing Turner. Soon, the detectives begin to notice that some of their cold cases are still unsolved, reigniting Turner's passion. Wong refuses to talk and Willis tries to get his money to bail him, but a dejected Fatty prevents him from doing so. Willis encounters the original tech guy who is happy in his new life at a tech store and helps him with the pager. Willis poses as a translator to get Wong to open up about Older Brother. Audrey comes and has him bailed, and Willis breaks down in front of Turner and Green who finally acknowledge him and agree to help him. Lana tells Willis that she was working with Older Brother.
7 "Detective" Pete Chatmon Lauren Otero November 19, 2024 1KBR07
Willis gets paired with Turner while Lana gets paired with Green. Willis and Turner manage to locate a series of leads that have them running into Carrey who reiterates that Willis's older brother was the leader of the Painted Faces. Green realizes that Lana was dating older brother, who is finally identified as Jonathan, and the two head to the docks where Lana and Jonathan used to go all the time. After capturing a perp, they find that the boat had been destroyed and sunk. Willis and Turner finally open up to one another about their respective lives with Turner revealing that he didn't want to become a cop and did so so that he can feel closer to his dad. He announces he is quitting the force and has Willis inducted as a detective. Believing that this is where he belongs, Willis embraces his new life.
8 "Ad Guy" John Lee Alex Russell November 19, 2024 1KBR08
Presented as a series of commercial breaks, three months have passed and Willis has become a famous detective. He stars in a string of commercials where he has an assistant named Josh who seems to interrupt him whenever he is about to have a meaningful moment. Lana is put on leave so that her background can be checked as she continues her search for Jonathan. She joins Carl in going to the docks. Lily has become a successful realtor, but Betty promotes a gentrified presentation as opposed to something cultural, damaging her relationship with her daughter Audrey. Willis films a commercial for Fatty's hot sauce, apparently becoming rich himself, and the two get into a fight about their respective lives. Realizing that this was the life Turner warned him about, and admitting that he misses Jon, Willis finally patches things up with Lily.
9 "Bad Guy" Anu Valia Eva Anderson & Greg Cabrera November 19, 2024 1KBR09
Willis and Green become partners, and discover that McDonough is still alive. Lana now works at the Golden Palace to stay close to Wong. After an elder of the community supposedly dies, she awakens at the docks with no memory. Lana realizes that citizens are getting "recycled". Willis begins missing with the precinct now convinced that he is behind the Painted Faces. The chief orders Green to capture him or she is fired. Green slowly admits that she misses Turner, who is now a mangaka, and gets in touch with him, trying to ask him back on the force. Willis confronts McDonough who confirms that Jonathan was framed. Willis goes into the tunnels and realizes that his world is a TV show controlled by a large company. He then runs into the Painted Faces who proceed to tell him what is really happening in Chinatown.
10 "Willis. Willis Wu." Stephanie Laing Charles Yu November 19, 2024 1KBR10
The Painted Faces were friends of Jonathan and reveal that their lives are being watched. Willis flees when police arrive and calls upon Turner and Lana. Lana confirms that the company called Hulu is behind the strange events. An event honoring Lily's work is being held at the Golden Palace and the gang race there with Green also arriving. Lily quits Betty's team after suffering a moral dilemma. Turner and Green make amends and resume partnership, while Willis also makes amends with Fatty who started a relationship with Audrey. As the police close in, Willis and Lana race to the roof with cameras on them. Willis decides to tell his story, accepting that he is just a regular guy. Lana, who realizes that Jonathan was communicating within an arcade game, pushes herself and Willis off the roof where they both fall into a dumpster. Willis ends up in a purgatory where he happily reunites with Jonathan. All the events are revealed to be a script that Willis is writing. He is introduced to his new assistant, Lana, as this reality is revealed to be a show as well.
Production
Development
Development of a television adaptation of Interior Chinatown began in 2020.[5] Hulu ordered ten episodes of the series in October 2022, when Jimmy O. Yang was announced as the lead and Taika Waititi would direct the pilot episode. The series is created by Charles Yu who also serves as the showrunner.[6]

Casting
In October 2022, Ronny Chieng and Chloe Bennet joined the cast of the series.[7] In January 2023, Sullivan Jones, Lisa Gilroy, Diana Lin, Archie Kao and Tzi Ma joined the cast, with Ma joining in recurring capacity. [8][2] In February 2023, Lauren Tom joined the cast in recurring capacity.[9] In April 2023, Chris Pang joined the cast in recurring capacity.[4]

Filming
Principal photography began by February 2023, with location shooting at the Universal Pictures backlot,[10] Chinatown, Los Angeles, New Zealand (Chinese New Zealanders), and Toronto (Chinatowns in Toronto),[11][12] and wrapped prior to August 2023.[13]

Golden Palace Restaurant setting[14] is inspired by the real-life Doyers Street and the real-life Doyers Street tunnels[15] in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

Release
The series premiered on Hulu on November 19, 2024.[1]

Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 89% approval rating with an average rating of 6.9/10, based on 27 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Adapting its satirical source material to imperfect but thrilling effect, Interior Chinatown is freewheeling entertainment with plenty to say about Asian-American stereotypes in media."[16] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 67 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17]

Notes
Tzi Ma is credited as "Special Guest Star" but is a recurring cast member.[2]
References
London, Rob (July 10, 2024). "Jimmy O. Yang and Chloe Bennet Are Trapped in a Procedural in First 'Interior Chinatown' Images". Collider. Archived from the original on August 20, 2024. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
Rice, Lynette (January 19, 2023). "'Interior Chinatown': Diana Lin, Archie Kao & Tzi Ma Join Hulu Series". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
Ihnat, Gwen (July 19, 2023). "The cast of Orange Is the New Black: Where are they now?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
Sun, Rebecca (April 11, 2023). "'Crazy Rich Asians' Star Chris Pang Joins Hulu's 'Interior Chinatown' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
Thorne, Will (October 15, 2020). "Hulu Adapting Charles Yu Novel Interior Chinatown for Television (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on March 20, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
Porter, Rick (October 13, 2022). "Interior Chinatown Series a Go at Hulu, Jimmy O. Yang to Star". The Hollywood Reporter. PMRC. Archived from the original on November 28, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
Rice, Lynette (October 26, 2022). "'Interior Chinatown': Ronny Chieng And Chloe Bennet Join Hulu Series From 20th Television, Charles Yu". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
Andreeva, Nellie (January 17, 2023). "'Interior Chinatown': Sullivan Jones & Lisa Gilroy Join Hulu Series Cast". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
Rice, Lynette (February 28, 2023). "'Interior Chinatown' Casts Lauren Tom In Hulu Series Starring Jimmy O. Yang, Directed By Taika Waititi". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 20, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
Singh, Sartaj (November 19, 2024). "Hulu's Interior Chinatown: All Filming Locations, Explored". The Cinemaholic. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
Crimmins, Peter (February 15, 2023). "'Interior Chinatown' is the Free Library of Philadelphia's all-city read". WHYY. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
Bach, Gabby (February 6, 2023). "How-To: Chloe's Bennet's Bob Haircut for "Interior Chinatown"". Beauty Launch Pad. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
Schweitzer, Robyn; Lauren, LaBelle (August 14, 2023). "T-Pain & Jimmy O. Yang Team Up with HelloFresh to Launch New Recipes with Unexpected, Flavorful Twists". Business Wire. Archived from the original on August 20, 2024. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
Chai, Barbara (November 20, 2024). "In 'Interior Chinatown,' the Sets Have Main Character Energy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 20, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
Walsh, Kevin (April 3, 2019). "'Bloody Angle': The Story of Doyers Street and Chinatown's Odd Alleys". StreetEasy. Archived from the original on April 7, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
"Interior Chinatown: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 29, 2024.
"Interior Chinatown: Season 1". Metacritic. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
External links
Interior Chinatown at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
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Hulu original programming
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Taika Waititi
Categories: 2020s American comedy television series2024 American television series debutsAmerican English-language television showsHulu original programmingTelevision series by 20th Century Fox TelevisionAsian-American televisionTriad television series
Chloe Bennet

Bennet in 2019
Born Chloé Wang
April 18, 1992 (age 32)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupations
ActressModelSinger
Years active 2009–present
Chinese name
Chinese 汪可盈[1]
Transcriptions

Chloé Wang (Chinese: 汪可盈; pinyin: Wāng Kěyíng; born April 18, 1992),[1] known professionally as Chloe Bennet, is an American actress, model and singer. She starred as Daisy Johnson / Quake in the ABC superhero drama series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–2020) and voiced Yi in the animated film Abominable (2019) and the television series Abominable and the Invisible City (2022–2023).

Early life
Chloe Bennet was born Chloé Wang on April 18, 1992, in Chicago, Illinois.[2] She is the daughter of Bennet Wang,[3] an investment banker[4] and Stephanie Crane, an internist.[5]

Bennet's mother is Anglo-American and her father is Chinese.[6] She has six brothers:[7] three biological, two foster and one adopted; two are of African American ancestry and one is of Mexican and Filipino descent.[3] She attended St. Ignatius College Prep.[3]

Career
2007–2011: Music debut and acting beginnings
In 2007, at age 15, Bennet moved to China to pursue a singing career; while in China, Bennet lived with her paternal grandmother and studied Mandarin.[4] Back in the US, she released two singles "Uh Oh" and "Every Day in Between" in 2011, under her birth name Chloe Wang.[8]

Bennet at PaleyFest 2014
In 2010 she moved to Los Angeles, California.[4] Her first on-screen appearance was as a host for the short-lived TeenNick summer dance series The Nightlife. She appeared in the 2011 music video for South Korean band BIGBANG's "Tonight".[9] While pursuing an acting career in Hollywood, she changed her name to "Chloe Bennet," after having trouble booking gigs with her last name. According to Bennet, using her father's first name rather than his last name avoids difficulties being cast as an ethnic Asian American while respecting her father.[6][10]

2012–present: Breakthrough
From 2012 to 2013, she had a recurring supporting role in the ABC drama series Nashville as Hailey.[11] In December 2012, she was cast as a series regular on the ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,[11][12][13] which premiered on September 24, 2013. Bennet portrayed a hacker known as Skye, who was revealed to be Daisy Johnson / Quake in the second season.[14] Bennet was awarded the "Visionary Award" by East West Players, the longest-running professional theater of color in the United States, on April 21, 2017, at their annual gala.[15] She dedicated her award "to all the little girls who want to be a superhero; I'm just a half Chinese girl from the southside of Chicago."[16]

In 2019, Bennet was cast in the lead role as Yi in the animated film Abominable.[17] She appeared in the 2020 film Valley Girl, a jukebox musical remake of the 1983 film of the same name, as Karen, the "Queen Bee".[18] The film was originally scheduled for release in June 2018, but was postponed due to controversy around one of its cast members, Logan Paul.[19]

In March 2021, she was cast as Blossom Utonium in the upcoming CW live-action pilot Powerpuff, alongside Dove Cameron as Bubbles and Yana Perrault as Buttercup.[20] However, after a decision to reshoot the pilot episode and subsequent scheduling conflicts with another project, Bennet left the project in August 2021.[21] In 2023, she starred as the main actress in Mike Rohl's Married By Mistake as Riley Smith, a recent graduate of Stanford University who drunkenly marries her friend Nate Fisher.[22] Later that year, Bennet joined the cast for the second season of Invincible.[23]

Personal life
"I think what's really dangerous with what, continuously, is happening with Asian-Americans in Hollywood is there's a narrative that white Hollywood, or just any other ethnicity really in Hollywood gives to Asian-Americans that, 'You're the butt of the joke.' They're determining that we're the nerds, that we're the shy girls or that the guy that can't be sexy because he's an Asian man."

—Bennet in a September 2017 interview for NPR[10]
In 2018, she revealed that she has had anxiety and ADHD since childhood.[24]

Race
Bennet has described the American film and television industry as racist against Asian Americans and other people of Asian descent. In a 2016 interview, she noted, "Oh, the first audition I went on after I changed my name [from Wang to Bennet], I got booked. So that's a pretty clear little snippet of how Hollywood works."[25]

In September 2017, after actor Ed Skrein stepped down from his role as Major Ben Daimio in the then-in production film Hellboy following backlash over the fact that Skrein, a white actor, was playing Daimio, a character who is Japanese-American in the Hellboy comics, Bennet wrote a since-deleted post on Instagram in which she applauded Skrein's decision, and addressed her own experiences as an actress of Asian descent in Hollywood, saying, "Changing my last name doesn't change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in China, speak Mandarin or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese. It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldn't cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable."[25]

In an interview for the 2024 show Interior Chinatown, Bennet said that her Chinese heritage is "always a part of every role that [she's] done". She described her upbringing as "very culturally Chinese". However, she said that she often views work as a "very 'white' thing" in which she often has to assimilate, and the Interior set was the first one where she heard Mandarin being spoken and was surrounded by a largely Asian cast and crew.[26]

Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
2014 Nostradamus Lane Fisher Short film
2015 Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast Chase Voice role
Direct-to-video
2019 Abominable Yi Voice role
2020 Valley Girl Karen
5 Years Apart Emma
2023 Married by Mistake Riley
Rally Road Racers Shelby Voice role
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Daisy Johnson / Quake Photograph cameo[27]
TBA Hello Out There Minnie Post-production[28]
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2010 The Nightlife Herself Host
4 episodes
2012 Intercept Tess Unsold pilot
2012–2013 Nashville Hailey 7 episodes
2013–2020 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Skye / Daisy Johnson / Quake Main role
136 episodes
2014 The Birthday Boys Verna Episode: "Love Date Hump"
2015 Jake and the Never Land Pirates Swifty Voice role
Episode: "Flight of the Feathers/Captain Hookity Hook"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Double Agent Herself Episode: "Post Heist"
2016 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot Daisy Johnson / Quake 3 episodes
2018 Marvel Rising: Initiation Voice role
2 episodes
Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors Voice role
Television film
2019 Marvel Rising: Chasing Ghosts Voice role
Television special
Marvel Rising: Ultimate Comics
Marvel Rising: Heart of Iron
2021 Powerpuff Blossom Unaired pilot
2022–2023 Abominable and the Invisible City Yi Voice role
Main role
Also consulting producer
20 episodes
2023 Dave Robyn Season 3
Guest role
4 episodes
2024 Invincible Riley Voice role
Episode: "I Thought You Were Stronger"
Interior Chinatown Lana Lee Miniseries, Main Cast
Discography
Singles
Year Title Ref.
2011 "Uh Oh" (English Version) [8]
"Uh Oh" (Chinese Version) [8]
"Every Day in Between" [8]
Music videos
Year Title Artist Ref.
2011 "Tonight" Big Bang [29]
"Lose Control (Take a Sip)" Chase Jordan [30]
"Uh-Oh" (English Version) None —
"Uh-Oh" (Chinese Version)
"Every Day In Between"
Awards
Awards and nominations received by Chloe Bennet
Award Year Category Work Result Ref.
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards 2020 Best Animated Female Abominable Nominated
Hawaii Film Critics Society Awards 2020 Best Vocal Capture Abominable Nominated
Movieguide Awards 2019 Most Inspiring Performance in Television Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nominated
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2015 Favorite TV Actress Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nominated [31]
2016 Favorite Female TV Star – Family Show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nominated [32]
Teen Choice Awards 2018 TV Actress: Action Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nominated
2019 Summer TV Star: Female Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nominated [33]
See also
History of the Chinese Americans in Chicago
References
《神盾局》公布主角造型照 汪可盈饰演黑客斯凯 (in Chinese). QQ.com. Tencent Entertainment News. August 23, 2013. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
"Chloe Bennet". TV Guide. Archived from the original on September 27, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
Crowder, Courtney (December 9, 2013). "Chloe Bennet brings humor and heart to 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
Hiltbrand, David (November 12, 2013). "Chloe Bennet out to impress the guys". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
reporter, Courtney Crowder, Chicago Tribune. "Chloe Bennet brings humor and heart to 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'". chicagotribune.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
Wong, Tony (May 11, 2014). "Actress Chloe Bennet says changing her name changed her luck". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
"Chloe Bennet – Episode 5". Fired Up with Brad Jenkins 🔥☝🏾. Archived from the original on August 7, 2019. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
"Chloé Wang on Apple Music". iTunes Store. Archived from the original on May 6, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
""Tonight" actress Chloé Wang poses for selcas with Big Bang members". Allkpop. March 3, 2011. Archived from the original on July 4, 2017. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
Martin, Michel (September 3, 2017). "Actress Chloe Bennet Wants To Change The Narrative For Asian-Americans In Hollywood". NPR. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
Goldberg, Lesley (December 19, 2012). "Joss Whedon's 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' Pilot Enlists 'Nashville' Actress (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015.
Mitovich, Matt Webb (December 19, 2012). "Joss Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D. Pilot Completes Casting With Nashville Actress". TVLine. Archived from the original on December 21, 2012. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
Gallagher, Brian (December 19, 2012). "Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. Adds Chloe Bennett as Skye". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on February 20, 2013. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
Abrams, Natalie (December 10, 2014). "'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' reveals Skye's true identity – what's next?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
Wood, Ximón. "East West Players' 53rd Anniversary Visionary Awards Dinner and Silent Auction". East West Players. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
"Chloe Bennet Net » Blog Archive » East West Players "Radiant" 51st Anniversary Visionary Awards And Silent Auction". Archived from the original on July 22, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
"'Agents of SHIELD' Star Chloe Bennet to Lead Pearl Studios' Animated 'Everest' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 1, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
N'Duka, Amanda (April 25, 2017). "'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Chloe Bennet, Logan Paul & More Join MGM's 'Valley Girl' Remake". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 1, 2018). "'Valley Girl' Remake With Controversial YouTuber Logan Paul Looking For Another Release Date". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 19, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
Otterson, Joe (March 9, 2021). "'Powerpuff Girls' Pilot at CW Casts Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, Yana Perrault". Variety. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
Otterson, Joe (August 11, 2021). "'Powerpuff Girls' CW Pilot Star Chloe Bennet Exits Project (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
Rohl, Mike (March 5, 2023). "Married by Mistake". All Canadian Entertainment, Brad Krevoy Television.
Hood, Cooper (July 24, 2023). "8 Characters Chloe Bennet Could Be Voicing In Invincible Season 2". screenrant.com. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
Douglas, Esme (2018). "Chloe Bennet – My younger self". Childmind institute. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
Tharp, Sharon (September 1, 2017). "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's Chloe Bennet Changed Her Last Name Because 'Hollywood Is Racist'". Us Weekly. Archived from the original on October 10, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
Jones, Jalen (November 27, 2024). "Chloe Bennet, 'Interior Chinatown' critique limited AA+PI representation". Mixed Asian Media: JoySauce. Archived from the original on November 30, 2024. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
Peralta, Diego (June 25, 2023). "'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' Features a Wild Connection to 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'". Collider. Archived from the original on June 25, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
Grobar, Matt (September 19, 2024). "Jennifer Beals Joins Chloe Bennet, Phil Dunster In Area 51 Dramedy 'Hello Out There'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
"Big Bang – Tonight". Archived from the original on March 8, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via YouTube.
"Chase Jordan – Lose Control (Take a Sip)". Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via YouTube.
"Kids' Choice Awards 2015: The Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. March 28, 2015. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
"Kids' Choice Awards: The Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
Swift, Andy (July 8, 2019). "Teen Choice Awards: Stranger Things Leads Final Wave of 2019 Nominations". TVLine. Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chloe Bennet.
Chloe Bennet at IMDb
Chloe Bennet on Twitter Edit this at Wikidata
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
Categories: 1992 births21st-century American actresses21st-century American singersActresses from ChicagoModels from ChicagoAmerican actresses of Chinese descentAmerican film actressesAmerican musicians of Chinese descentAmerican soap opera actressesAmerican television actressesAmerican voice actressesLiving peopleSt. Ignatius College Prep alumni

6

Chloe Bennet‘s mysterious government agent draws Jimmy O. Yang’s mild-mannered waiter into a mind-bending mystery, in the trailer for Hulu‘s Interior Chinatown adaptation.

“Why do I keep getting cast as government agents?” Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. vet Bennet remarked at the summer TCA press tour, while promoting this series. “I have GED from a parking lot in Santa Monica.”

Based on Charles Yu’s award-winning book of the same name, which was published in screenplay format (ergo its title), Interior Chinatown follows Yang’s Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural titled Black & White.

Relegated to the background, Willis goes through the motions of his on-screen job, waiting tables and aspiring to be the lead of his own story. But when Willis inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime” triggering the arrival of Bennet’s Lana Lee, “he begins to unravel a criminal web in Chinatown,” the series overview reads, “while discovering his own family’s buried history and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.”

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If the whatever-within-a TV show-within-a-TV show sounds wildly meta, rest assured that Yu, who wrote the book, served as showrunner to bring his multi-layered narrative to live-action life.

“Thank Buddha that the guy who wrote the book is showrunning the show,” cast member Ronny Chieng said at TCA. “It’s a complicated book that, luckily, the person who fully understands it is the person who’s translating it to TV.”

In addition to Bennet and Crazy Rich Asian castmates Yang (Silicon Valley) and Chieng (The Daily Show), the Interior Chinatown cast also includes Lisa Gilroy (Glamorous), Sullivan Jones (The Gilded Age), Archie Kao (Global TV’s My Dear Boy) and Diana Lin (Australia’s The Family Law).

Interior Chinatown drops all 10 episodes on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

Want scoop on Interior Chinatown, or for any other TV show? Shoot an email to InsideLine@tvline.com, and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

Read More About:
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The Hulu series 'Interior Chinatown' follows Willis Wu, played by Jimmy O. Yang, a waiter in a police procedural, uncovering family secrets.
Co-stars Ronny Chieng (who plays Fatty Choi) and Chloe Bennet (who plays Detective Lana Lee) share real-life TV series they'd want to be trapped in.
The cast enjoyed the opportunity to navigate between two worlds in the series, with lighting and camera movement used to highlight the differences.
Based on the novel by Charles Yu, who’s also the series showrunner, Hulu’s Interior Chinatown follows Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang), a waiter working alongside co-worker and best friend, Fatty Choi (Ronny Chieng), used to being in the background of his own life when he witnesses a crime that pushes him into the spotlight as a main character. Being trapped in a police procedural called Black & White has left Willis wanting more, so when he finds himself drawn into the investigation by teaming up with a detective (Chloe Bennet) who is herself overlooked, he uncovers family secrets that he never could have imagined.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Bennet and Chieng talked about which real-life TV series they’d want to be trapped in, navigating a story told between two different worlds and establishing the differences in their look and feel, being comic relief for Yang, how you should never talk about who wrote what with comedy, playing a character fighting to get recognition after having previously played a superhero that couldn’t be ignored on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and how pretending to be very powerful can also be very awkward.

Chloe Bennet and Ronny Chieng Have Some Real-Life TV Shows They’d Be Willing To Get Trapped In
Chloe Bennet as Lana Lee in the Chinese restaurant in Interior ChinatownImage via Hulu
Collider: To start with a silly question, Willis finds himself trapped in a police procedural. If you guys were suddenly trapped in a TV series, what genre or specific show would you want to find yourself trapped in?

CHLOE BENNET: Well, I certainly was trapped in one for about seven years and it was a procedural cop show. I will say that I feel like that was the one to be trapped in. I’m really thankful for the time I worked on it. At its core, it was certainly a case by case procedural show. So, I guess I’ll say that one because I was, and I’m here.

RONNY CHIENG: I don’t know if I wanna be trapped in a crime show because someone’s always dying. I wanna be trapped in a comedy show. Does it have to be a procedural?

It can be any show or any type of show.

CHIENG: I’d wanna be trapped in Mad About You. That sounds like a cool world to be in.

BENNET: Okay, I take my answer back.

CHIENG: You could have picked anything.

BENNET: I don’t know. What would I wanna be trapped in? Succession.

CHIENG: Succession? That’s a dark world. Go to The O.C., that’s fun. Get trapped in Gossip Girl.

BENNET: No, there’s too much drama. I don’t know. There are so many options. Oh, I would get trapped in The Great British Bake-Off.

CHIENG: That’s a good one. That’s a fun show.

BENNET: I would be there with Noel [Fielding], eating cookies and doing cake and bread week. That would be the life.

CHIENG: Can I be trapped in 60 Minutes? You’d always know about what’s going on.

Jimmy O. Yang wearing headphones
Related
'Interior Chinatown' Review: Jimmy O. Yang Charmingly Leads a Metafictional Police Caper
'Interior Chinatown' premieres November 19 on Hulu.

1
When this came your way, how was it presented to you? Unless you’re familiar with the book, it seems like this would have been very confusing on paper. This is now an easy show to explain.

BENNET: It certainly is not. I think it was actually easier to read and understand. Applying these broader themes and the differentiation between the world and the characters and how they interact with each other throughout the entire production is where you really notice the shift between the media of books and TV. It’s not even film. We have to tell these stories over the span of 10 hours, and that has to make sense, we have to make the world make sense, we have to make each character’s arc make sense, and they have to work well together. And there’s a lot of satire. A lot of it is meta. It was never, “Show up to set and we’ll just do the scene,” at least for me because I’m annoying. Also, my character is the only one for most of the episodes who goes back and forth between the worlds. There was a lot of navigating how each world is lit differently and how each world is shot differently. We have very playful camera movements. It’s very handheld when we’re interior Chinatown, but then it’ll lock off into either steadicam or dolly shots. For any cinephiles or film nerds, there’s a lot of stuff to dissect and appreciate. It took a ton of effort throughout the production to nail how to capture these worlds in the worlds for each character and make that cohesive. Did we do it? I think we did. We tried.

Custom image via Jefferson Chacon of Jimmy O. Yang looking concerned for Interior Chinatown
Related
Jimmy O. Yang's Wild Road From "Chinese Teenager #1" on 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' to Leading 'Interior Chinatown'
"I don’t think people expect me to do martial arts, but I made sure I trained for it," says Yang, about his 'Interior Chinatown' fight scenes.

Ronny, how did you find the experience of playing comic relief to Jimmy O. Yang? Did you guys find that dynamic pretty easily?

CHIENG: With Jimmy, he and I have known each other for so long now that any dynamic between me and him comes very naturally, whether it’s fighting or comedy or just hanging out. I’ve known him for a while now and we’re very different people, but we have very similar backgrounds, in terms of coming from Asia and doing stand-up comedy in America. Working with him is very easy for me. And being comedic relief is easier for me than vice versa.

'Interior Chinatown's Ronny Chieng Believes You Should Never Reveal Who Wrote What With Comedy
Ronny Chieng as Fatty Choi in a white tuxedo standing on stage at a microphone in Interior ChinatownImage via Hulu
I particularly enjoyed the moment when Fatty is taking the table’s order and he goes off on this couple for wanting orange chicken and for not drinking the free tea. Were all those insults scripted? Did you improvise any of that?

CHIENG: The thing with comedy is that you never wanna talk about who wrote what because it’s all collaborative. Charles Yu is probably the smartest writer in Hollywood right now. We had Taika [Waititi] on this, who’s a goddamn genius. We also had a writers’ room writing scripts. It was everybody. Everybody put a little bit in. I honestly can’t even remember who wrote what. That’s how spot-on it was, that we managed to hit something that people like because all these people knew what they were doing.

Is there a difference between finding the funny when it’s your own comedy versus finding the funny that works for a specific character?

CHIENG: One thing I really appreciate about this role is that, in my opinion, it brought me the most out of my comfort zone, in terms of having to act, play this character, and do the comedy that wasn’t necessarily my own. There is a lot of comedy in the show and a lot of it is intentionally awkward or making a different point, which is not something I would normally say myself, but that’s the point of acting. I welcome not having to be myself, as much as possible. I welcome trying to throw myself into this thing and saying someone else’s lines, like the great Charles Yu, and yell at Jimmy. I welcomed the opportunity to play an actual character.

Chloe Bennet Is Just Fine With Not Doing Many Stunts For 'Interior Chinatown'

Chloe, you’ve gone in reverse, playing the character that kicks ass in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to now being the one that nobody notices at the precinct in Interior Chinatown. What was it like to make that shift?

BENNET: It’s interesting. That’s a great question. One, I’m older and I kicked so much that all my bones are aching and I’m injured everywhere. I was really, really happy, physically, to not have to do anything. The one stunt I did, I’m pretty sure I dislocated my finger and it still hurts. I shouldn’t be doing that stuff anymore. S.H.I.E.L.D. was always super difficult for me because I don’t feel that way. I had to play a superhero when I was in my most awkward phase as a young woman growing into her body and I never was comfortable with it. I always felt incredibly awkward having to play very powerful because I didn’t feel it at all.

CHIENG: It didn’t show.

BENNET: I really struggled with having to navigate that. I think they worked that into that show in its own way. But for this, it was nice to play a character that actually felt more realistic to me. As someone who’s worked in the industry for a long time, it felt more authentic, actually, to be code switching and going between two worlds and not really belonging in either. We watch Lana realize how much that has affected her. She masks it with this confidence and playing these different characters, and that could not be more relatable to me. I was really happy and it was very therapeutic.

CHIENG: It’s also fun to subvert the trope and to go backwards.

The cast of Agents of SHIELD
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At what point did you find out that Jimmy had played "Chinese Teenager #1" on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

BENNET: During a panel not that long ago. I did not know that at all. I was not there that day. I was not in that scene. He didn’t tell me that, even while we were shooting. I didn’t know at all. That was a surprise to me. It’s a really fun switch. I’m really happy for him.

interior-chinatown-official-poster.jpg
Interior Chinatown
Interior Chinatown, adapted from Charles Yu's novel, follows Willis Wu, a background character in a TV police procedural. After witnessing a crime, he uncovers a criminal conspiracy in Chinatown and his family's hidden past while exploring what it means to take the lead in his own story.

Release Date
November 19, 2024
Cast
Jimmy O. Yang , Ronny Chieng , Chloe Bennet , Lisa Gilroy , Sullivan Jones , Archie Kao , Diana Lin
Main Genre
Drama
Seasons
1
Creator(s)
Charles Yu
Streaming Service(s)
Hulu
Expand
Interior Chinatown is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:
Just a month before its debut on Hulu, the first trailer for Interior Chinatown has been released. Based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Charles Yu, who won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, the series will follow Silicon Valley’s Jimmy O. Yang as Willis Wu, who accidentally witnesses a crime and starts to discover family secrets and Chinatown's criminal underground. The cast also features Agent of Shield’s Chloe Bennet as Detective Lana Lee and Ronny Chieng as Fatty Choi.

Hulu has released the first official trailer for Interior Chinatown. It teases Willis' discontent with life, stuck playing clichéd characters and working in the seemingly banal Golden Palace. Things take a turn when he teams up with Lana, who informally recruits him because she needs someone who knows the famed neighborhood, and Willis’ journey becomes dangerous, absurd, and somewhat surreal. Watch the full trailer below:

What This Means For Interior Chinatown
Jimmy O. Yang in Interior Chinatown while waiti