[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Inside Chinatown.]

The Big Picture

The Hulu series ‘Interior Chinatown’ follows Willis Wu, a background character who becomes the main character in a crime investigation.
The show, adapted from Charles Yu’s novel, explores family secrets and the struggle of being an underdog in American society.
Actor Jimmy O. Yang praises the collaborative process with author and showrunner Charles Yu and the detailed production design.

Based on the novel by Charles Yu, who’s also the series showrunner, Hulu’s Interior Chinatown follows Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang), a waiter used to being in the background of his own life when he witnesses a crime that pushes him into the spotlight as a main character. Trapped in a police procedural called Black & White has left Willis wanting more, so when he finds himself drawn into the investigation by teaming up with a detective (Chloe Bennet) who is herself overlooked, he uncovers family secrets that he never could have imagined.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Yang talked about how Interior Chinatown was one of the best pilot scripts he’s read, the blessing of having the author of the book as their showrunner, how collaborative the shoot was, the emotional roller coaster of an underdog story, having Ronny Chieng as comic relief, the fun of unexpected fight scenes, why he didn’t meet Bennet when he did an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and whether there could be another season.

Collider: When this came your way, how was it presented to you? How much did you know about what it would be and how it would work? If you don’t know the book, this must have seemed wild on paper.

JIMMY O. YANG: That’s the great part about the show. You don’t really need to know the book for it to be entertaining. I read the script and I hadn’t read the book yet. I was like, “This is one of the best pilot scripts I’ve read,” just on a human level standpoint. I understand there’s a bigger mystery. There’s some stuff that’s very meta and very hard to grasp in the first episode, but it’s entertaining. There’s a fight, there’s comedy, there’s family drama, and the character relationships are so nuanced. I absolutely fell in love with it. And then, I read the book and I was like, “Oh, this is what they’re trying to do.” I read the book in one sitting and was absolutely enthralled by it. I completely related to it, so it really helped me dive into that character.

Related ‘Interior Chinatown’ Review: Jimmy O. Yang Charmingly Leads a Metafictional Police Caper ‘Interior Chinatown’ premieres November 19 on Hulu.

Were there still ever times on set when you were like, “Okay, somebody explain to me what is happening and how this is working”?

YANG: Oh, for sure. But the great part was, it was such a blessing to have Charlie Yu, who wrote the book and the show, be our showrunner. That’s like if George R.R. Martin also ran Game of Thrones, which he didn’t. We could always ask Charlie tough questions and he always has great answers, big picture answers and answers that help the actors. At the same time, it’s a very human story. As an actor, whenever things in the bigger picture maybe are in doubt, as a reader of the script, I can always just go back to Willis’ life. He lives a very real life within a very unreal world. The fact that I was always able to just go back to his relationship with his mother, his relationship with himself, trying to be a better person, his relationship with his best friend Fatty, that was always able to keep me grounded and keep Willis grounded.

It Took A Village To Create the World Within a World of ‘Interior Chinatown’

It feels like having a show creator and showrunner who also wrote the book could either be really great because he could answer any question or it could also be really challenging because he has it all in his head and doesn’t want to divert from that. What was it like to work with him? Was he very open to collaboration?

YANG: Oh, yeah, Charlie was very open to collaboration, especially for someone that wrote the book. But at the same time, for us actors, it’s important to trust the process. Sometimes things aren’t supposed to make sense in episode five, or it’s supposed to be up for interpretation, but then it unravels and reveals itself. And sometimes Charlie wouldn’t share the latest scripts with us on purpose to keep us in the moment of just being grounded. He did a great job of that. But he was open to ideas and even improvisations. It took a village. It took a whole team. There are so many nuanced things that people watching maybe won’t get on the first watch, but they can get it on the second watch or on a Reddit forum. There are so many things that have never been done before, even in the hair and makeup. They did our hair and makeup less at some points in the beginning of the season, and then more. And then, there are also camera and lighting changes between Black & White, which is like a Law & Order procedural show, and his life with his mother and stuff in Chinatown. There are a lot of nuances from every department to help tell the story.

Related Jimmy O. Yang Goes Full Kung Fu in High Octane ‘Interior Chinatown’ Sneak Peek [Exclusive] The Taika Waititi-directed premiere debuts on Hulu on November 19.

This is a series with a lot of detail in its production design and sets too. What can’t we see, just from watching this? What would surprise viewers about the level of detail that you experienced on these sets?

YANG: Hopefully, the audience watches and follows the journey of Willis, and if they can relate to him, that’s great. It’s an entertaining watch. It’s an emotional roller coaster. It’s really just an underdog story at the heart of it. But then, you dig in on a deeper level and there are great metaphors about the invisibility of Asians in America and a lot of the stuff that we feel and the box that society tries to put us in, and then we just have to fight through that in sometimes comedic or emotional moments. And then, if you’re really a cinephile, there’s the layer of lighting changes and camera movement changes. The language that Taika [Waititi], our director, set up with Mike Berlucchi, the DP, and even our Steadicam operator, all did such a great job. There’s a lot to discover within this world, but at the same time, even for a casual viewer who’s never read the book, it’s just an entertaining watch.

With ‘Interior Chinatown,’ Jimmy O. Yang Gets To Mix Kung Fu With Laughs and Tears
Image via Hulu

You’ve so often played the funny guy. Was it ever strange or surreal to have Ronny Chieng being the comic relief while you’re playing a wide range of emotions? What was that dynamic like to figure out?

YANG: It was great to take that pressure off, having Ronny be the funny one, so I can focus on everything else. I had to cry on a Tuesday, do Kung Fu on a Friday, and then be funny on a Thursday. There was a lot to do. There’s also such a fast growth of Willis that I basically get to play almost 10 different versions of a very fast-growing person, and that was very, very exciting.

Regardless of the location or the type of fighting involved, everyone has probably pictured or dreamt of themselves fighting the bad guy and winning, at some point. As an actor, when you can live out that dream without actually worrying about hurting yourself or someone else and looking really cool while doing it, what is that like? What was it like to experience being a little bit of an action star for this?

YANG: I love doing stuff that’s unexpected. I don’t think people expect me to do martial arts, but I made sure I trained for it. I had a Wing Chun teacher that came to my house twice a week to train me and to get me acquainted with that language. The funniest thing is that Willis is not supposed to be that good at Kung Fu. He is kicking ass, but does he end up winning or does he end up getting his ass kicked, which is really cool to me because you so expect the protagonist to win every fight. Every Power Rangers episode, they always defeat the bad guy. But with this, you don’t know what to expect. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he doesn’t. It really helps tell an interesting story.

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You’re credited as “Chinese Teenager #1” in episode 5 of Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and now your co-star in this is Chloe Bennet. Did you work with her at all in that episode? Did she know that you had been on that show when she signed on for this?

YANG: That was about 12 years ago on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Chloe was a big star while I was “Chinese Teenager #1.” No, I didn’t get to meet her. I would have been nervous trying to meet her. And now, she plays kind of my love interest in this and, of course, has her own story as Lana Lee, which is a great story. It was cool and serendipitous. That’s why the story felt so close to me because I went through the same stuff that Willis goes through. I was a background guy. I was “Chinese Teenager #1.” I was a tech guy. Without giving too much away, his entire journey made me feel like I was able to pull from my past experience to inform where Willis was at in each of the episodes.

Will There Be Another Season of ‘Interior Chinatown’?
Image via Hulu

Is this a character that you would like to keep playing and a world that you would like to keep exploring? Have there been conversations about continuing to tell this story?

YANG: I would love to. It was so exciting to be able to play this whole range of emotions with such a fleshed-out character in such a crazy world that Charlie built. But I don’t know. That would be a Charlie question. It already almost expands beyond the book. I’m sure he has some big ideas, but I couldn’t start to imagine what they would be. It would probably just be even more bonkers, and I can’t wait, if he does have more ideas.

Interior Chinatown Interior Chinatown, adapted from Charles Yu’s novel, follows Willis Wu, a background character in a TV police procedural. After witnessing a crime, he uncovers a criminal conspiracy in Chinatown and his family’s hidden past while exploring what it means to take the lead in his own story.Release Date November 19, 2024 Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Creator(s) Charles Yu Streaming Service(s) Hulu Expand

Inside Chinatown is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Hulu