Netflix has never found itself with a shortage of A-list talent, and its upcoming action comedy, The Brothers Sun, will see Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh joining the streaming service in a lead role alongside Sam Song Li and Justin Chien. Li, the up-and-coming actor who was raised in Southern California, will feature in his largest role to date in the Netflix project as Bruce Sun, the younger brother of Charles Sun (Chien), a Taipei gangster who must go to L.A. to protect his family after his father was shot by a mysterious assassin.

With The Brothers Son set to hit Netflix on Jan. 4, Li spoke with MovieWeb about his journey to becoming an actor, his aspirations in Hollywood, working with Yeoh, and how he relates to the story of Netflix’s upcoming action series. In addition, he discusses the actor who inspired him the most, Donald Glover, and how he hopes to model his career after the success he’s had.

Sam Song Li’s Journey to Starring in a Major Netflix Production

Though he was born in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, Li moved to California at a young age and quickly became interested in acting. “When I was 16 years old, I was skipping high school class to edit movies, and I was doing very naughty things that were totally in line with my character for the sake of pursuing the things I wanted to pursue,” he explains. “In that sense, I feel like I’ve always known that at least content, and making my own things and writing my own things, and, ultimately, acting in them and telling my own stories were vital to me.”

It hasn’t taken long for Li to begin producing content, either. With a large fanbase on both TikTok and Instagram, the actor has reached a broad audience with his creations, something he hopes to expand going forward in his career.

“There are two important pieces of work that I will make before I retire one day. One of them involves a story of my own family and my mom and how she came to be and came to raise me and my sister in America. I feel like she defied all the odds being here and raising me and my sister; she’s my hero.” Li adds, “She came to this country without really even speaking English and did everything the right way. She spent the time to learn English and become a literal rocket scientist here in America and chase the American dream. It’s a beautiful story, and I could not be more proud of her.” If Li has his way, this story will become a major project one day.

That’s something I’ve always wanted to tell, and it stemmed from my desire to be a filmmaker… When I first got involved in acting, the reality was there were not a lot of Asian actors out there. There was not a lot that I could look up to or say I could maybe model my career after.

This led to the focus on content creation, which he keeps up with despite a schedule that continues to fill up.

Writing, directing, and producing his ideas is something that Li is focused on in the future, and he wants to model that type of career based on Donald Glover and his performances, as he’s the star, director, writer, and producer of the hit series Atlanta. “I think that man is so talented not only as a director but also in the way that he’s able to commit and perform at a high level within every industry that he gets involved with. I think he’s transcended what people’s expectations of him were, and it’s very inspiring.

Sam Song Li in The Brothers Sun

Despite being a series filled with action and fight scenes, Li hardly had to undergo any choreography training for his role. With his character being entirely unfamiliar with the world of assassins, he may have been overqualified for the part. “We have this world-class stunt team. We’re led by Justin Yu, who worked on the John Wick series, and so many people who all worked on the original John Wick and other action series,” he tells MovieWeb, and it’s easy to see the resemblance. Based on the trailer alone, the hand-to-hand combat and fast-paced action will look familiar to any fan of the Keanu Reeves-led franchise.

“These are the best in the entire industry, and when they sign me up and talk to me about choreography, they look at me and say, ‘You’re overqualified for this. We don’t need you to look any better,’ so they actually wanted me to stay as far away as possible because my character is not supposed to be a crazy assassin.”

But who is Bruce Sun, from Li’s point of view? “Bruce is a naive college student. He’s studying to become a doctor. He was raised by a single mom and very sheltered from his other family’s history. He has to improv his way through the criminal underworld once his two worlds collide… He’s a little stubborn and a little dangerous. I don’t want to say too much, but the way that he takes action is maybe a little dangerous at times.”

In the series, Bruce hopes to become a successful improv comedian, and the mindset of his character is based on that. “Improv is a huge part of Bruce’s life, and there’s a term in the improv world called ‘yes and,’ and it’s basically when you want to build off something, you don’t want to turn an idea down. You want to go with the flow. I think Bruce sees ‘yes and’ as a way of life, which makes him very bold in the way he approaches everything.”

Sam Song Li on Working With Michelle Yeoh and Justin Chien

Yeoh is coming off of a massive year with her 2022 multiversal movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, receiving 11 Academy Award nominations, winning seven of them, including a win for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role by Yeoh. However, Li has been part of a series with similar prestige, even if his time on the show was short.

In 2022, Li appeared in the seventh episode of the final season of Better Call Saul in a scene alongside Patrick Fabian’s Howard Hamlin. Plan and Execution, which features one of the most shocking moments of season 6, is the episode with the highest overall IMDb rating in the series and gave the actor the chance to work with some of the best in the business. Now he’s doing it again in The Brothers Sun.

“Both Patrick and Michelle are incredible people. Working with them was insane and a dream come true. I was so nervous the first day I worked with [Yeoh] because she seemed so larger than life. She’s a global icon, a global sensation… Her presence and the way she interacts with you is so calming and inviting. She takes everybody in like they’re all her kids with the same openness and love. It’s very sweet and inspiring, and it’s something I want to bring to future sets with me.”

That maternal instinct certainly helped when it came to playing her son. When talking about his experience working with Yeoh, Li compared it to “Playing basketball with Steph Curry or catch with Tom Brady… It just feels effortless acting with her.”

Luckily, Li’s relationship with Chien, who plays his brother Charles in the series, came just as easily. “I think me and [Justin] have so much more in common than Bruce and Charles,” Li explains. “The chemistry was almost too good because we aren’t supposed to get along. But when we were chemistry reading, I was asking Charles all the questions about our family, and I didn’t really know Justin at all. I feel like we built the groundwork of our distance from each other as brothers based on that encounter because I do remember feeling distant from him like he was a total stranger in my life.”

Representation in Hollywood

After feeling like he didn’t have many feature film role models growing up, Sam Song Li was given the chance to star in a series with an almost all-Asian cast and an all-Asian writer’s room. After the success of Everything Everywhere All at Once last year, this feels like another step in the right direction.

“It means so much to me. I want to pay homage to all the Asian projects that came before us. Without them, we would not be able to be here, and I think every project that gets greenlit, and every project that is a success is a huge win for us. When one of us wins, especially when it comes to new projects like this with fresh perspectives, it’s a win for all of us.”

In a world where the term superhero fatigue is beginning to set in now more than ever, audiences are indeed looking for new, original ideas. “Audiences have a real hunger for fresh content that they’ve never quite seen before,” Li explains. “The Brothers Sun is so authentic and fresh in the same way that Everything Everywhere All at Once shifted the narrative and the perspective of immigrant storytelling by transcending multiverses. Even Squid Game, a Korean language project, became a global phenomenon because it was fresh, and the concept was new.”

Squid Game saw similar levels of awards success as EEAAO, receiving 14 Emmy nominations and taking home six wins at the end of the night. Li hopes to see a similar audience reception.

I feel like with our action sequences and how genre-bending The Brothers Sun is, it feels very authentic and fresh to me, and I hope people feel the same.

Of course, The Brothers Sun has yet to air its first season on Netflix, but if it were to be picked up for a second, Li has his hopes on what that will include. “I think what makes The Brothers Sun work so well is the brotherly dynamics and how these two brothers rub off on each other. The show, at its core, is about two worlds colliding. There’s potential there because they cannot be more different from one another. Naturally, that’s going to stir up conflict. Setting up a showdown of some kind, with a deeper, darker, more serious conflict between the two, could be really fun.”

Audiences will see the relationship between Bruce and Charles develop when the series hits Netflix. The Brother’s Sun, starring Sam Song Li, Justin Chien, and Michelle Yeoh, arrives on Netflix with eight episodes on Jan. 4, 2024.

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