Shang-Chi’s Fala Chen Details Working With “Humble” and “Shy” Tony Leung

Today is the day Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings finally hits theaters everywhere and it features a range of stars from first-time actor Meng’er Zhang to the iconic Tony Leung. Leung has nearly 100 acting credits to his name with iconic movies like In the Mood For Love and Chungking Express on his filmography. Leung plays the villain and Shang-Chi’s father in the new Marvel movie, and many of the film’s stars have talked about working with him. ComicBook.com recently spoke with Fala Chen, who plays Shang-Chi’s mother in the movie, and we asked her about working opposite Leung.

“It’s very different onscreen and offscreen because Tony, privately, he’s such a gentle, calm, almost shy person in real life, so that you … if you put him in the room, he’s the last person you will look at, because he kind of hides his own energy,” Chen revealed. “He’s just very invisible in many ways. He’s so shy. And every time you talk to him, because we were hanging out and eating dinner, and the only thing he talks about is the movie, the script. He’s like, “Oh, I’m still thinking. I’m not sure.” And he comes off as so humble. He’s like, “I’m not really sure if I can do that,” or “Why did I … why did your character say that line?” as if he doesn’t understand, or he’s like, “Oh, I need to go home and practice my lines.” And then, once he’s on set, he’s like the most majestic, charismatic, strong, powerful character in the whole film. And you’re just like, what happened? Because I think he just puts so much thought into his character. He spends all his energy outside work to think about … to work on his character, that once he’s on set, he kind of just unleashed all of those preparation and his work, and his experience, decades of experience, it just comes out, and without being too much. It’s just perfect in the film.”

Simu Liu, who plays the titular role in Shang-Chi, was taking part in a “Ask Me Anything” session on r/MarvelStudios when he was also asked by a fan what it was like to work with Leung.

“Like a master class in acting every single day,” Liu responded. “He is every bit as legendary as the legends say. What makes Tony so incredibly watchable is his stillness, his ability to convey such emotional colour with a single glance. For a newbie like me coming to set full of nervous energy, he really grounded me and forced me to be still and present.” The actor then joked, “Also, I just love that my job was to literally stare into Tony’s eyes for hours at a time.”

You can watch our full interview with Fala Chen at the top of the page.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is scheduled to premiere in theaters on September 3rd. The rest of Marvel’s 2021 line-up includes What If…, which releases new episodes on Disney+ on Wednesdays, Eternals in theatres on November 5th, Hawkeye on Disney+ on November 24th, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres on December 17th.