Interviews: Taika Waititi, Jimmy O. Yang, Chloe Bennet and more discuss comedy-noir Interior Chinatown

Last Updated on December 2, 2024

Taika Waititi has brought various projects to the screen over his career. From mockumentaries like What We Do In The Shadows to superhero epics like Thor: Ragnarok to his Oscar-winning film about Hitler as a boy’s imaginary friend in Jojo Rabbit, Waititi has covered the gamut in genres, tones, and creativity. His latest project is the adaptation of the National Book Award-winning novel Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. With Yu on board to adapt his novel, a book that seemed impossible to translate to the screen has become a ten-episode series unlike any show I have seen before.

Interior Chinatown follows Willis Wu, played by Jimmy O. Yang, a waiter in a Chinese restaurant who wants more out of life than being a supporting player in his own story. When he witnesses a kidnapping, Willis is recruited by Detective Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet) to help solve the case and maybe find his missing brother along the way. It also becomes apparent that Willis is not just a supporting character in his own life but within a television series. Trying to break free of the tropes and cliches of television shows, Willis discovers much more than he bargained for.

I got the chance to talk with the cast and crew of Interior Chinatown about the new series. Star Jimmy O. Yang, who played a supporting background character a decade ago in Chloe Bennet’s series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., discussed taking on a lead role that has him doing comedy, drama, and martial arts. Chloe Bennet talked about the deeper story of Lana Lee and how it fits into this world, while Ronny Chieng talked about the fun of shitting on people. Sullivan Jones and Lisa Gilroy discussed playing cops and whether they based their roles on famous television detectives. Archie Kao talked about his character of Uncle Wong, who is not in the novel. In contrast, legendary veteran Tzi Ma talked about reuniting with The Farewell co-star Diana Lin and how Interior Chinatown fits into cinematic history alongside similarly themed projects like Everything Everywhere All At Once. Charles Yu and Taika Waititi also discussed how they adapted this series and used creative filming techniques to not spoon-feed the audience into what is happening in Chinatown. Check out the full interviews in the embed above.

Interior Chinatown is now playing on Hulu. Read our review!