Before being cast in a lead role in 3 Body Problem, possibly Netflix’s biggest show of the year, Jess Hong’s screen credits looked like someone whose next career step might be Shortland Street or another local Shakespeare production – not a major part of the next big show by the makers of Game of Thrones.
But after a self-recorded audition sent in the Covid days of 2021 impressed GoT makers DB Weiss and David Benioff, Hong eventually found herself in Britain and elsewhere for nine months, playing astrophysicist Jin Cheng.
She’s a composite character from the book the show is based on, the first novel in Chinese sci-fi writer’s Liu Cixin’s hit Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, which tell the story of the planet’s preparations for an alien invasion we know is coming centuries ahead of the advanced extraterrestrials turning up, not exactly uninvited.
For Hong, this has meant scenes involving some big ideas – quantum physics, string theory, nano-fibres, saying goodbye to a mate whose brain is being sent on a nuclear-powered space probe – ones that she possibly didn’t encounter on her guest roles in The Brokenwood Mysteries or Creamerie or during her Palmerston North Girls’ High or Toi Whakaari/NZ Drama School productions.
She’s also part of the show’s unrequited love story, involving “the Oxford Five” – a group of bright young things who have a role to play in saving life on the planet. Oh, and her character is a Chinese-New Zealander with a Kiwi accent.
When the Listener finally gets 15 minutes with Hong after a month of requests, the show is already out and winning decent reviews, though many express caution whether the show – and possibly complicated future seasons – might appeal beyond science-minded Wired subscribers.
But for Hong, well, it’s already been quite a trip. And she is as amused as the Listener is that the Netflix publicity machine has arranged an internationally hosted zoom call for people sitting about 3km apart.
Next month, Hong is part of an Auckland Writers’ festival panel on “The Science Behind Science Fiction” with speculative fiction writer Octavia Cade, physicist Geoff Willmott, and film director Roseanne Liang.
So that’s a panel with some notable people.
I don’t know why I am there. I honestly don’t. I think they made a mistake and maybe I should just pull out now for my own dignity? I think they just wanted a different angle. Someone who’s, literally, been on the far end of the adaptation side. So hopefully. I’ll have some knowledge that I can offer to the group.
So, before the show, what was your relationship with quantum physics? Did you have one?
Well, I live in the world, and I know that involves physics. So that’s about the closest relationship I had with it. I did try to get acquainted with some theories. I watched a couple of TED talks, read a book… tried to read a book.
How about the Liu Cixin trilogy? When you got the part, did they tell you to read it?
Oh, no one was told to read anything. It’s just when you have source material, how can you not? I didn’t have that much time to get through everything. But I definitely skimmed the first book for plot and the third book for character.
And in the show, your character is a brilliant Chinese physicist who grew up in New Zealand.
I think my British accent must have been shit. I think what happened is with this adaptation, they’re trying to make it as relatable and global as possible. We don’t normally see antipodean accents on screen and when we do, they are usually Australian. I think it was, they were just curious and fascinated by that but they [Weiss and Benioff] also have a great way of weaving in your little idiosyncrasies. So, after we met on Zoom, these little things started popping up in the scripts I was being sent. Like, ‘Those years that Jin spent in New Zealand’ … I went, ‘What? Wait, new iteration?’ So, they put all these small things that they would notice about you into the script. You’re still playing a character, but it was as authentic as possible. They made a sandwich between you and the person.
Was it weird they had turned the character more into you?
Yeah, it was a little bit. But it was a pleasant surprise. I was just impressed that they’re willing to do that. And that’s what I kept discovering through the whole process of filming, because they are on set every single day. I was just so impressed that they were open the entire way through the process, to change and to modify and to add texture to the story into the characters and the relationships.
It strikes me that the show is a good advertisement for science and arrives at a time when, based on the events of past years, many think they know better than scientists.
I love that. There are scientists that are like the heroes of the story, but they don’t have to be action heroes as well and super buff and fighting baddies. They’re just people, highly intelligent people, but they’re just people at the end of the day. There’s a lot of scepticism in the world right now. But these people work very, very hard to try to reveal the truth of the world. That doesn’t come with nothing. That comes with some gravitas, and I hope people appreciate that a little more.
Double-headed question: why did you get into acting and how does playing a character who is clearly a driven overachiever dovetail with you?
I think I’m quite tunnel-visioned in that if I find something that I love to do then I will put all of my eggs into that basket, which is what I did with acting. How I got into it was interesting because I actually grew up with a lot of social anxiety. I was too shy to even hold a conversation and in high school and joining drama class was one of my ways to help myself build confidence. It was like therapy. I realised through acting, and through putting on other characters that I could be more vulnerable than I am in my real life, but in front of complete strangers, and for some reason, that felt like a safe way to be vulnerable,
So, it depends on how well the first season does whether you go back to the character?
Yeah. Totally out of our hands now.
Must be quite a relief in a way.
Yeah, but my fingers are crossed.
3 Body Problem is streaming on Netflix. The Science Behind Science Fiction panel at the Auckland Writers Festival is on Saturday, May 18, Aotea Centre. To book tickets to the Auckland Writers Festival, go here.
