Martial arts star JuJu Chan on role in Netflix’s all-Asian Wu Assassins
Chan plays the femme-fatale bodyguard of a triad boss, a role she considers unique given most ‘top enforcer’ characters in films are men
The actress, who has previously acted alongside Donnie Yen and Max Zhang, always does her own stunts and even helps choreograph set pieces
Ben Sin
Published: 5:00am, 4 Aug, 2019
Martial arts actress JuJu Chan, who plays a female bodyguard in upcoming Netflix series Wu Assassins, at Eliment Fitlax in Causeway Bay. Photo: Jonathan Wong
There’s a bit of an Asian-American movement happening in Hollywood right now.
The breakout success of Crazy Rich Asians has led to more Asian-American representation on US screens big and small, including the critically acclaimed family dramedy The Farewell; the much-buzzed-about Always Be My Maybe; and beginning next week on Netflix, Wu Assassins, a contemporary crime drama that combines martial arts and supernatural elements.
The show stars an all-Asian cast headlined by Indonesian actor Iko Uwais of The Raid fame, and includes Hong Kong-born JuJu Chan Yuk-wan, whose role was specifically crafted for her.
“I initially met the crew to talk about [another] role,” recalls Chan, 30, who split her childhood between Hong Kong and the US. “But after realising my martial arts background and ability to do my own stunts, they wrote an entirely new role for me.”
Chan grew up watching Hong Kong kung fu movies with her father. Photo: Jonathan Wong
That role is Zan, the femme fatale bodyguard of the show’s main antagonist, a triad boss played by another Hong Kong-American actor, Byron Mann.
“Usually, the top enforcer of the triad boss in movies have traditionally been men,” Chan says. “So I found the role of this tough woman protecting the big boss as very unique.”
It is hardly a stretch for Chan to portray a tough woman. Before she starred alongside Donnie Yen Ji-dan in the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel Sword of Destiny (2016), and fought Max Zhang Jin in this year’s Hong Kong actioner Invincible Dragon , she represented Hong Kong in the 2013 Taekwondo World Championship in Bulgaria, and also competed professionally as a Thai boxer.
Chan grew up watching Hong Kong kung fu movies with her father. She would get so into the movies that she would re-enact the moves at home. Seeing her passion, her parents sent her to learn martial arts at the age of 10. Today, she is proficient in karate, judo, wing chun and hung kuen.
Following an education in San Francisco and New York, Chan returned to Hong Kong to pursue an entertainment career in 2009.
Though she has always kept herself employed – in addition to the acting gigs and the competitive fighting, Chan also modelled, appeared on reality television shows, sang, and released a book – it really wasn’t until landing the part of Silver Dart Shi in Sword of Destiny that her career properly took off.
Chan as bodyguard Zan in Wu Assassins. Photo: Netflix
In a post-Crazy Rich Asians Hollywood that’s more open to Asian-led projects and casting more Asian parts, Chan’s career has picked up too. She says she has had more auditions and job offers this year than ever before.
Almost as soon as she finished filming all 10 episodes of Wu Assassins in Vancouver, she jetted off to Cyprus to shoot Jiu Jitsu, another martial arts movie with Nicholas Cage and Thai actor Tony Jaa. Like Wu Assassins, Jiu Jitsu takes a traditional martial arts genre and adds sci-fi elements, this one involving a group of jiu-jitsu masters who must defend earth from aliens.
Chan in Wu Assassins. Photo: Netflix
Chan has long multitasked on action movie shoots – not only does she do all her own stunts, she often helps choreograph set pieces – but she did even more than usual during the production of Jiu Jitsu.
“On off days I went to take pre-wedding photos, because Cyprus is so beautiful,” she says.
… I want to build my reputation as the action girl, the one who can act and fight on screen and do all her own stunts
JuJu Chan
Chan is scheduled to marry her partner – also a martial artist based in Hong Kong – this October, with plans to start a family next year.
She says she is hoping to time the pregnancy to not overlap with projects too much, which may include the second season of Wu Assassins if season one proves popular.
“I think the modern-day women should be able to do both – have a family and a career,” she says. “Besides, I can still act and do action up to the first three months of pregnancy anyway.”
Chan is proficient in karate, judo, wing chun and hung kuen. Photo: Jonathan Wong
But she concedes she may have to do something she has avoided doing her whole career: use a stunt double.
“If there are action scenes to be shot [later in my pregnancy] then I guess I will have to use a double,” she says with a sigh. “I hope not though, because I want to build my reputation as the action girl, the one who can act and fight on screen and do all her own stunts.”
Wu Assassins will start streaming on Netflix on August 8
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Kicking down the door