Shang-Chi's Meng'er Zhang Shares Sweet Behind-the-Scenes Stories About Her Co-Stars

By Jamie Jirak

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings hit theaters at the beginning of the month, and many people involved with the cast and crew have taken to social media to pay tribute to their co-workers. Director Destin Daniel Cretton has shared many stories about the movie's cast and he's not the only one. Meng'er Zhang (Xialing) not only made her MCU debut in Shang-Chi, but also her onscreen acting debut. She's written sweet posts for many of her co-stars, and her latest includes stories about Tony Leung (Wenwu), Awkwafina (Katy), and Simu Liu (Shang-Chi). 

"Things that you probably don't know about these people and why I love them," Zhang wrote. "P1-Tony's an introvert like myself. The longest conversation we had was 3 sentences long: Tony: 'Do you like surfing?' ☺️ Me: 'l, I can't swim...' 😳 Tony: 'Oh, I, I love surfing...' ☺️ Watching his performance is like looking at the ocean: calm and subtle on the surface, but you can feel the waves and great depth underneath. I was too shy to tell him that. But I think I should learn to swim ASAP. @tonyleung_official. P2- Nora's the coolest! Always gives me super helpful advice! Every time we hang out, she always passes the wheel to me, because she knows that I'm shy, and she doesn't want me to miss out. She takes care of me in a very understanding and protective way♥️. Also, if you see her laughing to her phone, it must be her watching funny animals videos. @awkwafina P3- Simu's like a real brother to me, caring, and annoying sometimes. We play a lot of games together, and he never lets me win! I've mastered his winning skill for VR boxing: after we touch gloves at the beginning, he'll throw his punches without a hesitation before I even notice. But he let me hit him countless time in real life during training and always cheering for me♥️Never let him 'panic order' when the restaurant tells us it's last call, he'll basically order the whole menu. @simuliu" You can view her photos below:

Zhang recently revealed during a chat with ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis that she actually punched Liu in the face when they were filming.

"I mean, I didn't have any martial arts background before this, so they flew me four months to train. It was really intense, and you really hear Simu and I screaming in the stunt stage. And yeah, the first fight scene we did, I did punch him in the face, yeah," Zhang admitted. "Because I was nervous and he encouraged me. He said, 'It's okay. You can never hurt me.' So I went for it. And I didn't mean to, but to be honest, I enjoyed it."

Not only did Shang-Chi have a record-breaking opening weekend at the box office, but it also earned the highest audience score of any Marvel Cinematic Universe film on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie was met with positive reviews from critics, earning a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes after 292 reviews, and it also earned an impressive 98% audience score after 10,000+ reviews. ComicBook.com gave the movie a 4.5 out of 5, calling it "one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's best origin stories to date." 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now playing in theaters. 

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