Celebrating Asian culture
The role of Sandra Oh in Over The Moon has a deep meaning
SandraOh’s role in the newanimated feature‘ Over the Moonmay not be her largest, but it has deep meaning.
The story is set in China and Ohvoices the stepmother of a girl named Fei Fei, grieving after the loss of her mother. So she builds a rocket to fly to the moonto search for the truth about a goddess who lives there.
The Golden Globe- winning actor says shewas drawn to the role because Fei Fei is a smart, intrepid female in a complex family situation, in a story that celebrates Asian culture.
Over theMoonwas
written by her friend, AudreyWells, who also wrote The HateUGive
and UndertheTuscan Sun.
Wells had directedOh in her directorial debut, 1999’ s Guinevere and Oh wanted to be a part of her last project. Wells died of cancer before themovie was finished.
Voiced by an all- Asian cast, including Phillipa Soo, KenJeong, and newcomerCathy Ang, the musical is nowstreaming on Netflix.
In a recent interview, Oh discussed the significance of her character, the importance of media inclusion, and when her hit show Killing Eve might return.
This modern story rejects many animated feature tropes, including your character, a step mother called Mrs. Zhongwhois not evil.
The storytelling is changing. It’s widening and it’s changing. Mrs Zhong fulfils a couple of different roles. One being in someways the foil or the obstacle for the main character of Fei Fei because she doesn’t want her life to change. That’s one of the lessons of the film. And the second part is, is the normalisation — and particularly in the Asian community— of blended family. We don’t really talk about it that much andwe don’t really see it ... Iwas really happywith that. It’s not an evil stepmother trope. It’s actually, the reality of a blended family in different cultures exists, so let’s see it.
Growingup, you likely didn’t see yourself represented in filmand media. Does thatmake this filmmoremeaningful to you?
“THE REALITY OFABLENDED FAMILYIN DIFFERENT CULTURES EXISTS, SO LET’SSEE IT.” SANDRAOH Actress
It’s so important for me, I can’t tell you. Formy nieces, having animated characters— like, Mulan was so key for them, so key for them! But I did not necessarily have that: Having just a variety of characters that you can see yourself in, particularlywhenyou’re a young person. For example, like howimportant it is to have diversity in dolls, you know? Whoyouwant to take care of, who’sworth taking care of? And for many of uswho aren’t white and never had a doll for ourselves, to take care of that does something. So, yes, that’s a big part of why I’m doing this.
Canyou talkabout working on screenwriter AudreyWells’ lastproject?
You have and knowa working relationship for over20 years, of someone who’s been in and out of your life for20 years. And you’ve seen themgo through a lot. Youwere there at the beginning of their first film. Doing UndertheTuscan Sun with her and seeing all the stuffthat shewent through to do that, and her successes and then her health issues. And then this being her final project. I don’t really have the rightwords yet. Itwas my primary drive to do the film because it’s like she wantsme to say these words. Howcan I not? These are thewords that she left us... And so, I’m just really grateful.
Are you able to shoot KillingEve yet or is the travel not possible in a pandemic?
Not in the foreseeable future. We’ve definitely pushed an entire year. You know, our shooting schedulewould have been ... fromJuly toDecember. So hopefullywe’ll start up next year in that time frame. We just don’t know because the integrity of the show, which is an international film, we don’twant to give that up, because then thatwould not be the show. There’s something very heightened about our show. It has its ownworld and all its ownrules. Sowe need to at least keep that tone.