By Allison Hambrick
On Feb. 28, SCAD’s aTVfest presented a screening of Comedy Central’s new original series, “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens.” Based on Awkwafina’s early life growing up in Queens, this series stars Awkwafina as Nora Lin with BD Wong, Lori Tan Chinn and Bowen Yang rounding out the supporting cast as her father, grandmother and cousin. The screening was followed by a brief Q&A with Wong about his role on the show.
“The show was funnier than anticipated and got me super invested, then BD Wong showed up, and that was really cool,” said Harmony Kahuthu, a second-year animation student. “He talked about how he didn’t become a comedy actor, he just went back to his comedy roots with this show. Plus getting to see the person who voiced [a character] in my favorite Disney movie was just the soy sauce on top of a very delicious dumpling — they made dumplings in the episode we screened.”
Kahuthu’s reference is, in fact, accurate. While Wong has become known for his 11-season role in “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” as well as more recent turns in “Gotham” and “Mr. Robot”, he had his start on Broadway in “M. Butterfly,” for which he won a Tony Award. In the early 90s, he had several small but memorable roles in the “Father of the Bride” movies and “Jurassic Park,” the latter of which he has reprised three times since. His comedy roots stem from playing the brother of comedian Margaret Cho in a now-infamous show called “All-American Girl,” which has often been called out for perpetuating negative stereotypes about Asian Americans.
“The main thing that I learned from it is that a show like this needs to be centered around the energy of the star, and Margaret was forced into a network, corporate sensibility that didn’t suit her,” said Wong. “It was no fault of hers; she was brilliant, and she was doing her best with what they gave her, which was not her.”
Contrasting that with his experience with Awkwafina, he added, “Nora is someone who has called the shots and has been able to call the shots partly because Margaret set the tone for people like her to succeed. Margaret took one for the team so that Asian Americans could actually find a show eventually where [they] can feel that they are more themselves, and Awkwafina is doing that now. She’s generating material for the show that she will look at and say ‘this is me, this is who I am, this is how we are going to approach this show, and this is how the show will be born from my own energy.’ The truth of that is miles of difference from what Margaret went through.”
Even so, returning to comedy after years of dramatic acting was a change of pace for Wong. When asked about why he joined the cast of “Awkwafina is Nora From Queens,” his explanation was straightforward — quite simply, he wanted to.
“When I left ‘Law and Order: SVU,’ my team decided that I would not play any more doctors because I had played what felt like only doctors up until that point, and then I got cast in a show that was on for one season called ‘Awake’ on NBC, in which I played a doctor,” said Wong. “I had to make this choice of ‘do I really want to play another doctor? I’m really kinda bummed out about that.’ What I realized from that experience is that what I’m looking for [in a role] is something that I haven’t done. Any new script that comes that has a different tone or a different character or a different opportunity for the character to do something that I haven’t done before is the most attractive thing to me. I have been lucky to be able to follow that instinct and still be able to make a living.”
Given the wide variety of characters Wong has played, his insights on getting into character suggest that no matter which role you are playing, collaboration is key. Whether you’re collaborating with makeup artists and costume designers or directors and writers, Wong feels that those discussions “open a door for you to understand more about the character that you are playing than you did before.” Beyond that, he stresses that he was taught that “you should honor” the writers and directors of your project and “pay attention to what they think.”
It is that spirit of collaboration and creativity that made “Awkwafina is Nora From Queens” a new and different experience for Wong. When approached to join the cast, he “immediately” said yes because, like many of us, he was interested in what Awkwafina was doing next. Wong expressed that he enjoyed talking to her about her own father and building his character from there.
“I am able to bring my own energy to it, and that’s one of the unique things about the show itself: all of the actors are bringing their own energy to it,” said Wong. “It’s right for this show, but I’ve never been on this kind of show before. I’ve been on a lot of shows which are really strict about how the actors interface with the dialogue, and so this was a refreshing change for me to be in an improv situation.”
Tune into “Awkwafina is Nora From Queens” on Comedy Central Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m.
