Awkwafina success in Hollywood a ‘dream’
Queens native Awkwafina (aka Nora Lum) is everywhere these days as she charges her way through a banner year. This summer she lights up the multiplex with a slot on Sandra Bullock’s squad of all-female thieves in heist sequel “Ocean’s 8,” followed by a breakout turn in the highly anticipated literary adaptation “Crazy Rich Asians.”
Phoning from Barcelona, Spain, the rapper, comedian and actress reflected on her streak of projects, including the Netflix comedy “Dude” and a just-inked Comedy Central deal for a scripted series based on her life.
“I’ve been having this dream where I wake up from the dream that is my actual life,” said Awkwafina, currently in Spain filming the sci-fi thriller “Paradise Hills” with Emma Roberts, Eiza Gonzales and Danielle MacDonald. “I have that dream maybe three times a week where I wake up and I’m just back in the vegan bodega, or at the book company. I can’t believe that it’s real, and I don’t think I ever will.”
Happily, she no longer has to hustle those day jobs now that Hollywood has taken notice.
Awkwafina, 29, brings the same swagger to the screen that made her rap career explode in 2012 when her deadpan feminist single “My Vag” announced the arrival of a fierce new talent.
Leaning into acting, she scored a small role in “Neighbors 2,” but landing a coveted spot in the all-female “Ocean’s 8” lineup in a cast led by Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway gave her Hollywood career a next-level bump.
“Constance is a person I’ve never seen on-screen before, ever,” she said of the “Oceans” role director Gary Ross and cowriter Olivia Milch tailored to her. “‘Asian’ is not part of her character — she just is. She’s a kind of New Yorker, this modernized, outer-borough, fast-talking three-card monte character, but she’s real.”
Another perk of being part of the “Ocean’s 8” ensemble, which also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson and Rihanna? “We might have a group text,” she teased. “Yes, there is a group text. It’s hilarious. Constant laughter, always a joy. A lot of GIFs. I’m very talented at GIFs, I will say that. I’ll find a GIF for any occasion.”
In “Crazy Rich Asians,” director Jon M. Chu’s slick adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-seller of the same name, Awkwafina brings the Singaporean new-money character of Peik Lin to life as a brash, blond-bewigged, human adrenaline shot draped in designer silk pajamas.
And with a new EP on the horizon, music fans will soon see Awkwafina return to her rap roots.
“People think that I stopped music for the movies, and that was part of it, but a lot of it was that I wanted to find my voice,” she said. “If I’m going to be in this genre I have to do it right, and I didn’t feel that I was in a place where it was being done right. I had to find that again, and that’s what that project represents.”
“I can’t believe that it’s real, and I don’t think I ever will.” — Awkwafina, on her recent stream of projects