Close encounters
Strangers connect amid drama in ‘Expats’
An expatriate is someone who leaves their own country to live abroad for an extended period. Prime Video’s melodramatic “Expats” focuses on three women coping while making 2014 Hong Kong their new home.
Nicole Kidman’s Margaret is married to Clarke (Brian Tee, “Chicago Med”), a wealthy Hong Kong businessman, and struck by tragedy. Her neighbor Hilary (Sarayu Blue) is floundering in a troubled marriage with her alcoholic, self-destructive husband David (Jack Huston, “Mayfair Witches”). Decades younger Mercy (Ji-young Yoo), a struggling Korean immigrant, is trying to find her way.
Adapted by Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”) from Janice Y.K. Lee’s 1998 novel “The Expatriates,” it was important to set this a decade ago when Hong Kong’s democracy was being demolished by mainland China.
“We were especially keen in placing our show in that particular environment, in that time,” Tee, 46, who is Japanese-American, said in a joint virtual interview with Huston, 41. “It was a very heightened moment in Hong Kong that we wanted to add to the heightened situations. What our characters were actually going through was really elevated.
“What attracted me to Jack is that it’s the first time in my career I got to play pieces of myself. In real life I’m a father, first and foremost. It’s one of the most important things to me, if not the most important thing. A father, I feel like it’s the best role I’ll ever play — and to be able to use pieces of myself into the character was something that I’ve always dreamt about doing.”
“Lulu Wang is such a brilliant filmmaker. I was lucky enough to work with her on her first film,” the British Huston revealed. “We’ve kept up a lovely friendship and when she came to me with this, it’s one of those things you don’t really need to read to say yes.
“David,” he continued, “is tragic to me. He’s so human. He’s so flawed. He’s going through what so many men, I guess, do go through in life.
“It’s interesting when you get to explore something, and really peel away the layers, because he keeps revealing himself. Initially he is sort of ‘the villain’ but you begin to understand where he’s coming from, what his life has been.
“And it’s very interesting, making a show like this that is not only about victims, but about the perpetrators, the people who committed a horrible act or did something.”
In David’s case, he said, “It was a mistake, something that was unintentional. In essence, he’s also a victim, because they go through life with the stigma of being a villain, evil, a victim of circumstances.”
“Expats” streams the first 2 of 6 episodes on Prime Video Jan. 26