'Shang-Chi' Cast on Karaoke, Accidental Punches & More! | Around the Table | Entertainment Weekly

and i i did punch you in the face in that scene hi i'm devin cogan from entertainment weekly and this is around the table uh with the cast of shanxi and the legend of the ten rings i'm so excited to be here with you guys thank you guys so much for joining me thank you so much for having us where's the table i know this isn't around the table it's around the it's an imaginary table can do it a table of the mind that's a high table my tables are out here it's time for you to take your place by my side you better watch out [Music] i'm so excited to talk to you guys about this film and dustin i actually wanted to start with you because i know you and i have talked before and you talked about how you were never somebody who you know had really made plans to make a superhero movie what was it that changed your mind and made you want to tell this story when when they announced that they were looking for directors i wasn't expecting my my reaction to be i have to go and talk to them but that's what it was i was um reminded of the hole that i had as a child that i'd never you know like like cmu we didn't have somebody to to go to character to dress up like on halloween we didn't have a superhero to look up to so to be able to just get in on that conversation and help shape what maybe to avoid what to what what to aim for that was my initial goal of going in to talk to them and snowballed into this and simu you know i love this character of shang chi because he fits so well into this marvel universe but he sort of carves out his own you know he's very different from some of the heroes that we've seen before for you what is it that makes him different different than uh heroes that audiences may have met in the past gosh that's a really great question i think i think what makes uh shanghai or sean unique is is you know exactly what what destin kind of envisioned for this character which is one that is not a superhero just by the way that you look at him i don't know if that makes sense but some people you look at and you're like that's a freaking superhero you know the way that they walk the way that they pose when they land the way that you know and destin knows i tried to get a lot of superhero poses into the movie because even i couldn't shake this idea of like if i'm a superhero i should be walking a certain way but i think what desmond was so brilliant at doing is just bringing all of the motivations of the character into such a grounded and intimate place that when when i was on set i just i'd just be playing somebody who is going through some some really really terrible or has gone through some really terrible family trauma and i think you know everybody knows what that feels like to some degree in some way shape or form and i think it's just bringing it to a more human place rather than the superhuman and nora i know you were one of the first people to to join this cast what was it about this story that really hooked you and made you want to be a part of it well i think the initial thing that i was told by my team because you know obviously it is they didn't have a lot of information is that like you know it was it's it's basically this existing character that is is like a master of martial arts pretty much so i wanted to know that there was more right i didn't that was the only thing that i that i heard and so when i met with destin i really expected it to be a short kind of meeting to go go through and it was a really long meeting and it was it was so interesting like not only the history and the context of this character but where he wanted to go with it and you know the kind of the superhero aspects i found more in this like deeper darker story between like this this dad and his and and his son and like his this journey he goes on that i think speaks to a lot of people that in this country are are in the asian american community that this this feeling of like two places and this negotiation i thought it was so enriching for you know what we know as as kind of action movies so yeah and mungo tell me a little bit about your um uh your audition process and how you first got involved in this and what was it about uh xiao ling that you you really loved uh well actually i i didn't know i was auditioning for a marvel film i just saw a um audition call in group chat i didn't even know that really yeah so i said yeah i sent a self tapes and i got a call back and they flew me to do a screen test with simu and and meet up with destin when i saw those two names oh okay so i was auditioning for sean chi so that's the moment that i realized really yes and yeah i i think the the screen test went pretty well because the the first time i i met simu he just he he really gave me a brother vibe yeah yeah and i i was i was nervous because i i thought it would be very serious you know the director and everything and but as it was so nice to me you always tell me that i was in flip-flops i don't know why you remember that specifically yes he showed up in the room um in his slippers and in your training suit because at that moment you have already started your training he has already been in the superhero costume with the flip-flops no um training suits probably like sweaty i still remember your audition and how you were twirling a pen or a chopstick or something yeah like did you put your hair up yeah we saw some really great auditions um but the thing that stood about stood out about munger was the playfulness that she brought to an otherwise pretty stoic character and so much attitude and so much just like the way that i don't know i still remember all the physical things that he did that was really cool hey can we get real for a second we've been friends for 10 years i know that you don't like to talk about your life but a guy with a freaking machete foreign arm just chopped our butts in half [Music] who are you and i read that you actually met your husband on this film is that right yeah that's right yes um yes young yes my husband yeah the love of my life young lee yeah he is one of the action designers on this film and actually we didn't prepare anything for our marriage the production just threw us a big celebration party and aquafina booked a whole venue for us yeah yeah she asked so so how many people you wanted to invite and we said we said like three she said okay well i booked the whole thing and simu took us to a disneyland trip he surprised us he said i thought you were going for a hike yeah oh we tried we're trying to surprise you and young knew about it and uh and it was like so hard to get her out of bed because she was like who's waking up at 7 30 in the morning didn't even give me 10 minutes to dry my hair i was like why so she comes out of this hiking gear like a little bag there's like a party bus and we're like surprised you go to new zealand it really was like the purest thing to ever happen yeah and on the karaoke party you host it oh yeah all of us stand on the top of our lungs i i think actually we can make a really good band oh you're so good about how good you are everyone no no no no no no i was like who's playing the radio still out because i was like having a drink like oh in the corner i was like who was playing like and then i turned around and i was like oh no that's just live that's live music alicia keys yeah like she can bring the house down you really yeah she really zones in too like she'll go right in front of the screen you know some people like play to the crowd she'll go right in front of the screen and she'll be like um we get it you could do alicia keys as well and you and you also we the backstreet boys and all that we yeah yeah let's just make a band together yeah sure so i wanted to ask them because karaoke is part of this movie if you guys were all gonna sing together uh one one song what would you what would you guys what would you just perform they'd all be different what's your go-to yeah i do like a john legend or like yeah i love boy band songs so i'll do backstreet boys whole new world a whole new world is always you know that one's always we did it destin would do okay i'll go destin would do like aerosmith destin's a uh uh uh smith he's discreet i'm putting words in his mouth but you're you screech really well in the carrot oh good yeah i feel like one drink or two i don't know if this is it when i do karaoke i like to um i like to be the person that gives other people who can't sing the the low standard the low standing yeah they're like oh if he can do it and sound like that i'll come do it too yeah i i screech it out and i wanted to ask um specifically about there's this great scene with all three of you where you're there's this great fight scene um in you know on the scaffolding basically from the side of the building tell me a little bit about you know working on that together and how much training went into that i mean for for nora so much i was i was yeah eight trainers so impressed because there's a one of the bigger stunts of the movie was nora dangling off of that that bamboo pole and i don't really think you had much training except for it strapping you on the pole just dealing with gravity my whole life pretty much what that's like to hang on to something but she really she really did it what you see is her literally i mean of course there's safety of yada yada but they just threw her out on a bamboo pole holding on and she's just like remember i kept showing up to set and just making just to make i was just like yo you know my poll works really good and then on the third day like everyone stopped laughing at that joke i was like because then it was like i'm volunteering still doing the forward but no i i was actually i i mean yeah i forgot about that following but it was really impressive because it's high that was high you know like where we were like it was not on the ground yeah i just remember the time constraint shooting that action sequence because we we more or less did it right after we did our bus sequence which is another major piece in our film that that is you know heavily featured in the trailers and is you know really really awesome we spent like a month on the bus and then it was like we were playing catch up for the other and for this one for whatever reason we just didn't have as much time shooting it so i remember for the whole scaffolding scene it was like learning choreography two minutes before i was set to go up and do it and so it was just like it was chaotic but of course like the sequence itself is so chaotic and so in the moment and and frenetic so i think it worked really really well and it's it's so incredible how it all came together and that i think do you think that the bamboo sequence played to your gifts a little more because simu is very athletic and kind of a natural gymnast so that i think that that sequence in itself played to yourself it's time to show the world [Music] have this amazing fight scene where it's they're sort of their reunion tell me a little bit about you know uh prepping for that and how you guys uh did that pulled off that together wow we we trained so hard i mean you can really hear us screaming in the stun stage from a mile away yeah and like came to you know how much boxing experience would you say you had coming in from day one none none none and the like by the time the camera was rolling she was like throwing like left hook right hook like she was like legit moving as a boxer so it was really like she really put herself into that role it was really incredible i hated fighting her she has the boniest arms ever because if you look i mean she's quite she's quite a stick of a of a human and the elbows just every time because you know you know it's a brother-sister reunion she's you know she's a little bit mad at the circumstances of which the you know the that scene was actually it was our rap gift and i remember i screamed when she came like i got on a chair i like pull like unfolded a chair and got on it because it is very epic and it also is your your shirt your top list oh yeah yeah oh did you get up and scream for that and then and then because you don't expect it to hit like that you know like you yeah it's a really epic introduction i think that's very very powerful yes and i i did punch you in the face in that scene do you remember what happened i made contact yeah really i must not have felt it i didn't uh i can't recall yeah he just kept telling me that it's okay if you you cannot hurt me [Laughter] [Applause] [Applause] and i wanted to ask you guys have such a great cast in this movie but i specifically wanted to ask a little bit about working with tony liang who's such a legend what is you like your most memorable moment from working with him or or memorable day on set with him um i never thought in a million years he'd say yes to being in this movie and and so on day one when i found myself behind the monitor watching him do his first take in the movie um i i was so scared but also just so blown away by take one of him doing the first scene uh and and it was that's what set the stage for what this movie could be um and after take one i had i turned to our producer jonathan was sitting next to me and i said i have no idea what to go and tell him i don't i don't know like we could walk away with that take and it's way beyond anything i i expected for for this scene already um what was surprising about tony was that everything that i'd worked up in my mind for his legend status he he went so far beyond that in reality he's probably the hardest worker on set he's the most dedicated to his craft and and his character he also just treats everybody with such respect no matter if you're the pa or the head of marvel studios he he has a humility to him that is really infectious um and and the biggest surprise is he's really fun and playful and he loves to explore scenes he um so directing actors like that is so it's just so easy because it's it's not about right or wrong it's about exploring a scene until you feel like you don't really have anything else to explore so let's try this let's try that and it was it was really so fun to work with him yeah he is such a legend and i remember and he's such an introvert he's very soft yeah he's yeah and i'm i'm i'm also introvert too i'm very shy and we played um uh father and daughter so i remember one day he i i wanted to make a conversation with him because i i'm such a fan and one day he just he came to me and i remember the conversation was extremely short because we were both so the conversation was like tony long you like surfing i was like i can't swim he was like oh i love surfing [Laughter] he's really i mean he's just like legendary and then on set is so powerful there's like that dinner table scene where he like bangs on the table and i just like this is insane that i'm in the presence of of an actor like this because he's so he this character too he's like the perfect kind of embodiment of like this this fear but it's so controlled and and really beautiful and like just nice to watch i guess i've seen so many viral videos of like tony learns eye acting have you have you seen this it's just like the man's eyes are just so intense and i you know obviously playing off of that dynamic uh in the movie i was like on the receiving end of his eyes all the time and i just remember i just loved it so much and there were scenes where like i was like off camera and and tony was like oh no like you don't have to be there like i can just do it to a dot or whatever like i don't need you don't distract me and i was like no no no let me do and i would literally just be on set like the camera would be here i'd be completely off and i'd just be like looking at them because they just wanted to like show that i wanted to exist this guy needs to go because i just you know i just give me a golf ball i need anything no no no no you don't understand stop i don't want you here and i'm like no i'm here for you tony i got you and then and then and then comes back to see you guys [Music] and he's like get him out i just really wanted to be there it just was like i can't you know i can't say i i just want to act more with him you know tony's performance is probably in large part due to scenes just giving him something to react off of you know you know maybe if i informed his performance in any in any sort of way then you know i'm happy to take credit for her oh my god oh man that's funny my son you can't run from your past [Applause] is this what you wanted to wrap up but thinking for all of you was there a specific moment on set that we haven't talked about that it just really sticks out in your mind you know there was this moment when when me wrong me it was ronnie simu and i were before we meet monger in in the fight club and we mentioned this earlier he says like um it's okay i could talk abc right i just i just never seen that kind of asian-american representation in that context against in this place like with this it's just you know there's been a lot of really great um movies that have been released just like representation keeps evolving it's like moments like that when you realize that these are just small little moments that yeah reflect a lot about what we're doing there was another moment in the movie where i felt the exact same way i think it was at it was that katie's house and it's you talking with waipua and it's like the duality of language which which was constant in my household like my parents spoke to me in mandarin i spoke back to them in english it was like a very kind of chaotic bilingual household and and i just loved seeing that yeah and and on top of like you know the close-up on the shoes as we're taking them off because of course you have to take off the shoes right right you know we enter the the house one of my favorite moments was watching these two we when when we did the karaoke scenes we had about 30 minutes to shoot four different scenes and we were like no problem and we just went and built bill pope got on the camera which and was just shooting handheld and we went into into our karaoke box which was lit to just be able to shoot 360. and we just started cycling through songs and they just played getting drunker and drunker drunkarist bizarre because you had the the controller and you were like okay okay uh old town road and you're like you could do it are there peanuts on the page only fully built karaoke set it was like fully functional was a disco ball but just a room it was just the room yeah and uh yeah it just that was a really fun rush of 30 minutes that ended with both of them passed out on the couch and it was it was perfect yeah all right great uh well this has been uh entertainment weeklies around the table with shanghi uh thank you guys so much for joining me thank you i'm still waiting for that actual table there's not is there ever a table sometimes

Channel: Entertainment Weekly

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Keywords: Entertainment Weekly, EW, shang chi, marvel studios, shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings, simu liu, marvels shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings, tony leung, shang chi cast, shang chi and the legend of the ten rings, shang chi review, simu liu awkwafina, simu liu shang chi, simu liu kims convenience, simu liu interview, shang chi cast reaction, shang chi cast interview, shang chi cast and crew, shang chi and the legend of the ten rings review, shang chi full movie

Id: LgBShe6XeU0

Length: 21min 56sec (1316 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021