'Fresh off the Boat' star Ian Chen on Evan's future with Sicily and Constance Wu's transformation from tiger-mom to young adult
The hilarious season 5 of 'Fresh Off the Boat' is coming to a close with Friday's episode 'Under the Taipei Sun,' and we are already waiting for the sixth season. Brilliant, poignant and socially aware, 'Fresh Off the Boat' is one of the most popular and endearing shows on TV right now, and it has the three Huang brothers - Eddie, Evan and Emery, portrayed by the talented Hudson Yang, Forrest Wheeler, and Ian Chen respectively.
Emery, the apple of his beautiful and tough mother Jessica (Constance Wu) has had the most character growth over the last five seasons. In the last few episodes, we saw the old-soul-trapped-in-a-boy's-body really come to his own and stand up to his mother.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) got the opportunity to chat with Ian about his character's future on the show, along with that of his role on the superhero flick 'Shazam!'
Here are the edited excerpts from the interview:
Congratulations on the success of ‘Fresh Off the Boat’. This season Evan has really grown into his own, even standing up to Jessica when it came to his love life. How has portraying that transition been for you?
Yes, it was really interesting to see Evan establish his distance between his parents and himself, and would be really interesting to see him grow up and come from this Mommy's boy to something that we haven't seen from him yet…
What can you tease us about Evan’s future storylines on the season? Would we see more of Sicily in the coming episodes?
I won't say too much, but Sicily is back and we'll embark on a very "outdoorsy" adventure soon ;)
Evan has a very unique relationship with both his brothers, how would describe your relationship with Hudson and Forrest in comparison?
Evan and Eddie are always fighting in a way... To me, Hudson and I don't really fight, we just tease each other, but in the end, we all know it’s a joke. He sometimes locks me in my trailer (dressing room), or Forrest will tease me. Sometimes they pretend to fight me... It's cool until someone gets hurt.
Thank god it's never happened. But now that I think about it, it's probably why my parents think if we go fishing, Hudson will throw me off the boat. I'll truly be ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ then.
This season especially, we see a lot of sweet moments between Evan and Eddie, even in the flashback where he walks into baby Evan’s room and talked to him through the night. How has filming these scenes been for you?
It's great to see the brothers really bond, and really makes the story more "heartfelt." Hudson always makes these scenes fun to film and its great working with him.
How is Lucille Soong on set? Do you find her to have any similarities with Grandma Huang?
[Chuckles] It's funny that you mention this. Lucille is a very funny and interesting person. There are so many scenes of Grandma Huang driving in the show, however, we only show you guys the time she nails them.
Sometimes, she'll bump into pieces of furniture, and everyone breaks down laughing. The funniest part is when we wrote in a "bad Asian driver" segment for her- where she was to hit the coffee table in the living room. Guess what??!!? She couldn't bump the coffee table, even after multiple takes.
It's like when you try to be perfect, but you're not, and when you try not to be perfect, you're perfect. Working with Lucille is amazing and quite entertaining.
Did you watch ‘Crazy Rich Asians’? How did feel to see Constance in a completely different light after years of watching her as Jessica?
Of course, I did! I think I saw it maybe 2 times or more. It's funny seeing Constance from a tiger-mom with three kids to a young adult with zero children.
We know a sequel is coming, are the Huang children vying for a role in the film?
Ooo... maybe.
What can you tell me about your role in ‘Shazam!’?
Eugene Choi is a gamer, and part of the Vasquez foster family. He doesn't play those role-play "baby" games, oh no... he plays the most action-packed (and sometimes bloodiest) games of them all. To keep his energy up the whole time, he guzzles down soda and sometimes plays from the break of dawn to the setting of the sun.
What was it like working on the sets of a huge superhero film?
It was quite an amazing experience, as it really was different than working on ‘Fresh Off the Boat’. It truly opened my eyes to how much work and coordination it takes to produce a film and was also great to work with so many new talented actors. We spent a good 3 months or so bonding, and [it] was really fun.