September 24, 2013, 6:52 PM
Ming-Na Wen Spills The Secrets of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’
By Jeff Yang
ABC
Ming-Na Wen
Actress Ming-Na Wen loves being in the spies and superhero action drama “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” But she’s also dreaming of “Star Wars.”
There are two things you have to know about “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Joss Whedon’s latest addition to the Marvel multimedia universe. The first is that it’s a breathless, buoyant hour-long chunk of pure, uncut Wheeedooooonnnn! — shouted as if on a mountaintop, accent on the “whee!” If you’re looking for smarter-than-it-needs-to-be dialogue, unexpected pivots and gotchas and characters that feel real even when drawn in the pencil-sketch of a television pilot, you’ve come to the right place. (That would be tonight at 8 p.m., on ABC.)
The second is that in “Agents,” Whedon has assembled the most interesting cast that he’s had to work with since the glory days of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” — sorry, “Firefly” fans and “Dollhouse” fan — centered around Clark Gregg as special agent Phil Coulson, whom you may remember dying in rather spectacular fashion in “The Avengers.” As might be expected, rumors of his death were, er, greatly exaggerated, and, in fact, deliberately designed to enable Coulson to recruit and lead a team capable of tackling the law enforcement challenges of a human world suddenly chockablock with superhumans. (It’s never deliberately explained why pitting superhumans against superhumans isn’t enough — although it’s safe to assume that the human Powers That Be just want to avoid putting all of their eggs into one masked-and-caped basket.)
You’ve probably already seen the hilarious trailer snippet where Coulson steps out of the shadows and welcomes his shocked first recruit, surly wetworks specialist Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), to “Level 7” security clearance — the gigaclassified tier necessary to know about Coulson’s continued existence — and then sheepishly explains his portentous entrance from the dark as being due to a broken light bulb. Coulson is the superspy as everyman, or more accurately, as everyfan — short, balding, all-knowing but intimately aware of his limitations, prone to geeking out over heroes and gadgets alike.
Whedon knows his base: Coulson is designed to give all of us who look more like Rowan Atkinson than Daniel Craig with a protagonist with whom we can instantly identify. Heck, so are the rest of his crew, which in addition to Ward includes ultracute pair-bonded Brits Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), who hold down the team’s science-y bits — and, as we’re given to assume by the pilot episode’s end, uni-named rogue hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet).
But it’s the still-enigmatic fifth member of Coulson’s team who may bring the most nerd-cred to the table. That’s Melinda May — the black-clad reluctant warrior played by Wen.
Some movie lovers may remember Wen from her breakthrough as June in the film adaptation of Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club.” Others may recall that she was the voice behind Disney’s take on the classic Chinese legend “Mulan,” or seen her on television in roles ranging from “The Single Guy” to “E.R.” But in parallel with what she jokingly refers to as her “serious actor” work, Wen has accumulated an astonishingly awesome geek resume: Long before her arrival in the Marvel Universe, she starred in the 1998-99 TV adaptation of Todd McFarlane’s “Spawn”; she voiced the lead role of Dr. Aki Ross in the 2001 CGI-animated movie based on the epic adventure videogame series “Final Fantasy”; she voiced Detective Ellen Yin in a season of the animated TV series “The Batman”; and, of course, from 2009 to 2011, she played Camile Wray on “SGU Stargate Universe,” the final installment in the long-running “Stargate” franchise. (And let’s not forget that she also portrayed everyone’s favorite high-kicking dumpling-head, Chun Li, in the first live-action adaptation of the videogame “Street Fighter.” Spinning bird kick!)
“My ultimate dream is to be in a ‘Star Wars’ film,” she laughs. “If the right people at Disney are reading this, now that the series is moving along, I’m happy to just be an extra! Really! Just so I can check that off my bucket list.”
It’s an amazing run, though one that took her a while to embrace. “When I first started out, I was trying so hard to not be in that realm,” she says. “It was against all of my instincts — I grew up as a total geek girl, I was the president of my high school’s sci-fi club — but I kept on telling myself, if you want to get respect, you have to be a serious actor.”
But times have changed. More and more genre works have earned critical acclaim, not to mention ratings and box office. And she has two kids of her own, 13-year-old Michaela and seven-year-old Cooper Dominic. Existing in the same universe as Iron Man and Captain America generates all the respect she needs, thank you very much. “My kids were in the audience at Comic-Con experience, and it was their first time watching the pilot, with all the madness of our incredible fans screaming, cheering and laughing,” she says. “Let’s just say it’s pretty awesome to be the Cool Mom! I’m waiting for their friends to ask me to show up to their birthday parties in costume.
Despite Wen’s long list of comic-book credits, getting cast as Melinda May was something of a surprise. “You get to a certain age, you’re going out for roles and oh look, you’re competing with Sigourney Weaver,” she says. “Well, that’s not going to work! But after my agent decided to change career paths, I got a new set of agents, and they said, ‘You know what, you still look pretty good. We’re going to try sending you out for a different set of roles.’”
That’s an understatement, to say the least. Wen doesn’t just look “pretty good”: When you see her in “S.H.I.E.L.D.,” you’ll swear her mutant ability is eternal youth.
“Well, there’s this special Chinese tea — you mean you don’t drink it?” she laughs. “Seriously though, it’s hard work. I tell people this and they don’t believe me, but I really do not like working out. I’m not the kind of person who likes to get up early and put in an hour jogging or whatever. But I’m motivated by fear. I say to myself, ‘You’re wearing a leather catsuit. Do you want to look bad, or badass?’ So it’s martial arts training, pilates, and every five minutes, if no one’s looking, I’m doing lunges and squats.”
The work paid off. The role of Melinda May was originally written as “Althea Rice,” a non-Asian character. “But once I got the part, one of the exec producers — I’m assuming it was Maurissa — pointed out that it was a problem to have an Asian named ‘Agent Rice.’ Might get a little backlash, you think? So they actually changed her name for me.” (Maurissa, of course, is Thai American Maurissa Tanchaeron, frequent collaborator with Whedon and cowriter of the pilot along with her husband, Whedon’s brother Jed.)
What they didn’t change was the character’s identity. May is a “damaged soldier” who, due to some as-yet-unrevealed trauma, had relegated herself to desk duty until Coulson convinces her to return to the field, promising that all she has to do is “drive the bus” — that is to say, fly the massive stealth jet that’s used to bring the S.H.I.E.L.D. team to crisis points around the globe.
“Naturally, she doesn’t just drive the bus,” says Wen. The character’s nickname, “The Cavalry,” refers to her incredible combat skills — she’s described as being the only S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with more black belts than Natasha Romanoff, that is to say, the Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johansson in “Iron Man 2” and “The Avengers”). Wen puts those skills on display in the pilot in one remarkably efficient ass-kicking sequence — taking a burly security guard down with a few lightning-swift kicks and punches. (“The guy playing the cop made me look good,” says Wen. “I mean, it convinced by seven-year-old, and he’s a tough critic.”)
As to May’s backstory, Wen doesn’t know everything, and what she knows, she won’t tell. “It’s a secret!” she says — something that requires Level 8 clearance, I guess. “All I’ll say is that over the course of the series, you will see the pieces of her emerging. Her storyline will unfold very slowly, because they’re set on maintaining that mystery, that intensity about her. But it’s been a lot of fun. She’s one of my most favorite chars I’ve ever had to play.”
Until then, she says, enjoy the ride. “We’re working on our seventh episode now, and every time I pick up a new script, I can’t put it down,” she says. “NO WAY! This is going to happen? That person shows up? It’s such a good read.”
And an even better watch. In the classic Marvel Comics tradition, it even manages to address some real social issues with a candor you won’t see anywhere else on primetime. So buckle up, fans: This helicarrier is going places.