You’re set to see a lot of Yoson An
You might have glimpsed Yoson An in Mortal Engines and The Meg, but soon you won’t be able to miss him,
Most Kiwis have never heard of Yoson An, but they will see an awful lot of him during the next 12 months. The 26-year-old actor, whose family (including three sisters) arrived in New Zealand from China when he was just 7, is set to become a household name – and potentially a global superstar – thanks to key roles in the TV adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s Booker Prizewinning novel The Luminaries and Disney’s remake of Mulan.
Unlike many Kiwi actors his age, he’s avoided a stint on Shortland Street, preferring to be involved in theatre productions, web series such as Flat 3, and directing his own projects.
However, having already secured bit parts in Mortal Engines, The Meg, and starred opposite Rachel Griffiths in Australian police drama Dead Lucky, he’s acutely aware that his status of relative anonymity is about to radically change.
‘‘I can feel it coming,’’ the affable An says with a slight shudder.
‘‘I knew that things were already different when I was announced publicly [as playing the lead’s love interest Chen Honghui] for Mulan.
‘‘I didn’t expect to be publicly announced – I’d thought, ‘OK, I’ll be able to just wait until 2020 when the movie comes out’.
‘‘But then, one day, I woke up to my phone going, ‘ping, ping, ping, ping, ping’. My Facebook just blew up as the article came out in Deadline, Variety, and on the front page of China’s Weibo.
‘‘It was just weird. I turned my phone off for quite a few days because I was just getting constant messages. So it has already changed my life a little bit. I enjoy being incognito, but I also enjoy being recognised for the good work I’ve done – it’s a good feeling.’’
Working on Mulan also allowed An to spend plenty of time with veteran Chinese actor Donnie Yen (Star Wars: Rogue One) who he first met on the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny set in 2014. It was on that Netflix sequel that the young actor got a harsh lesson about the acting game – a week spent on a scene opposite Yen ended up on the cutting-room floor.
However, just the chance to meet him and the likes of Michelle Yeoh was an ‘‘awesome experience’’, and it led to An and Yen living together for a month last winter while Mulan shot its South Island scenes.
‘‘We had dinner conversations every night, so we got pretty close. He helped me understand his perspective on the industry – that whatever happens, happens.’’
Although unable to speak much about his Mulan experience, An says he learned a lot from Kiwi director Niki Caro.
‘‘She’s amazing. I was super impressed with how she ran the production,’’ he says of the Whale Rider director.
‘‘As a film-maker, when you get on set, you plan everything you need to do, but on the day things are always different.
‘‘But with Niki, even though there were things coming in from every direction, she just adjusted so quickly, was so spontaneous, and just knew exactly what she wanted.
‘‘To me, as an actor, in that environment, it gave me a lot of confidence about the film. I feel very honoured to have worked with her.’’
He was slightly less enamoured with the South Island’s late winter weather.
‘‘I’m not going to lie – there were tough and intense days, especially the first day – it was so cold and our costumes were not thick. We all put thermals on.’’
Those conditions couldn’t be more different to his current project, The Luminaries, in which he portrays Sook Yongsheng. Cast and crew have been sweltering in the Penrose-set studio, with temperatures on location at the production’s ‘‘Hokitika’’ near Bethell’s Beach said to be even hotter.
The Luminaries’ author and screenwriter Eleanor Catton is among the growing army of An fans. When asked why he was chosen to play such an important character, she says, ‘‘Yoson’s passionate and affecting audition made us all feel at once that he was the perfect actor for the role’’.
‘‘Sook’s story is ultimately tragic, beginning in the Opium Wars of the 1830s, where the British contrived mass addiction to opium as a way of compelling the Chinese to trade on their terms.
‘‘It is a shameful chapter of history with chilling relevance to our world today, as Yoson’s powerful performance brings home.
‘‘He is an extraordinary actor, and also just a really bloody lovely person.’’
That’s a sentiment echoed by Rachel Griffiths, An’s co-star on Dead Lucky.
Griffiths told the Sydney Morning Herald last year that the chance to work opposite An was one of the elements that drew her to the project.
‘‘Yoson is adorable and very talented, and he has unique cultural history to draw from,’’ she said.
‘‘He would tell me what a Chinese mother would say, and the kind of pressures that would be on him from his culture. That’s been fascinating.’’
An laughs at Griffiths’ comments, recalling that he got that role just by recording a self-tape audition.
‘‘They didn’t even ask me for a call back, I just did the one take and they were like, ‘your hired’.’’
Preparation for playing rookie cop Charlie Fung included spending several hours with real-life police detectives and learning how to draw a gun, knowledge and skills that have also proved useful for his role on TVNZ’s new rural black comedy Fresh Eggs.
‘‘I’d never held a real gun. I’d never fired a real gun. I had to have ear muffs – if I didn’t have them on, my ears would ring for days.
‘‘Because I had them on, I still don’t know how loud it is – I just felt the vibration through my hands and saw the bright flashes.’’
His second police role is a little different. Where Lucky’s Fung was a young cop working alongside a detective he blames for the death of his best friend, Eggs’ Justin Cheng is a polite and nonconfrontational policeman who hates structure and bureaucracy.
‘‘Justin’s a little different from the typical police officer,’’ An says. ‘‘He’s one of two policemen in the whole town. Sure he does his job, but he doesn’t really do his job – until he really has to. He’s a stoner cop, man – he was really fun to play.’’
An says he enjoyed the whole process of making the six-part series, which also stars Claire Chitham, Cohen Holloway, Danielle Cormack and Dave Fane.
‘‘I got to work with really cool people, and the script itself was the first time I’ve cracked up laughing while reading a script in my own time, in my own living room. I thought, ‘this is going to be good’.’’
Fresh Eggs also reunites An with his Dead Lucky and Mulan co-star Xana Tang.
‘‘We were actually both in LA for the Mulan callback when we found out we were going to be playing husband and wife here.’’
Despite also being a skilled martial artist, An says his interest in the performing arts began in high school when he took part in everything from musicals to playing musical instruments.
‘‘I just really loved the thrill of performing in front of a crowd.’’
He admits that performing took a back seat when he initially went to university however, ‘‘then I realised I didn’t really like what I was studying – I wasn’t good at it – so I decided to pick the acting side of things back up as a hobby and it
just kind of went on from there.’’ But while the acting side is now going along nicely, An says he also has big ambitions behind the camera.
‘‘Reading scripts and learning how things operate on set has really made me fall in love with the concept and idea of storytelling.’’
To his delight, his short film Between the
Parallel took home the audience award for best cinematography and best film at last September’s Toronto Fantasy/Sci-Fi Film Festival.
He says he’s now talking to the New Zealand Film Commission to see if it would be willing to help him release it here in some form.
Dwelling on his love of those two genres, An says he was disappointed to miss out on a role in the Wellington-shot Ghost in the Shell, but he’d love to star in Denis Villeneuve’s remake of sweeping space drama Dune. ‘‘I’m a huge fan of his films, like
Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival.’’
An recently spent a week in Los Angeles visiting studios and networks. It was only the second time he’d been to Hollywood – the first time was for that Mulan callback.
‘‘My first visit was a bit of culture shock, but this time it felt all right. People are nice and I think I finally get the vibe of it, mainly because I spent six months with the cast and crew of Mulan –I think I kind of adapted to their culture.
‘‘I could see myself living there, but I do like Auckland and plan to stay here for the moment.
‘‘I’m a pretty chill guy and this country’s chill, it’s just my vibe. When you go to LA or Australia, the pace is a lot faster – and I can handle it – but I do enjoy being chill.’’