She’s due to star in the upcoming movie Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings – the first Marvel film to feature an Asian superhero as the lead character.
And Awkwafina, 33, has said she is ‘so proud’ to be a part of a movie that is making a difference to audience members from her community as she covers Cosmopolitan’s September issue.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan about her new role as Katy in the new Marvel standalone, she said: ‘These movies make me so proud, just as a watcher, because they contribute to visibility, which I do think has real-life effects.’
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Awkwafina, 33, has said she is ‘so proud’ to be a part of a movie that is making a difference to audience members from her community
‘When the AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community is seen as not ancillary characters, it’s almost like, then people will know that we’re here, you know?’
Awkwafina, or Nora Lum as she was born, is excited to be in an action-packed film after featuring in the 2018 rom-com Crazy Rich Asians and 2019’s drama The Farewell.
‘Dangling off of things and flying, falling backward…it’s really different from, say, an indie rom-com. It’s really cool. It’s so weird to switch from ”friend mode.”
‘It’s really cool’: Awkwafina, or Nora Lum as she was born, is excited to be in an action-packed film after featuring in the 2018 rom-com Crazy Rich Asians and 2019’s drama The Farewell
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings features an almost entirely Asian cast – a feat that would have been welcome when she was ‘growing up’.
‘When I was growing up, I knew how I was socioeconomically classified. I knew that my grandma was a working-class immigrant and my dad was a single dad. I knew that I would have to get through in my own way.’
The star added: ‘That taught me a lot of lessons, like you really have to humble yourself, doing waitress jobs and applying to really hip stores and not getting the job and feeling like, What is even out there? You have to really hit a kind of rock bottom to really want it, to fight for it.’
However, the film is not out of the woods yet. Marvel has come under fire for attempting to use Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings to ‘fix’ its ‘Asian problem’.
The Guardian wrote: ‘And now Marvel has ‘fixed’ its ‘Asian problem’ by announcing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ after a series of ‘problematic’ casting choices in their previous movies.
‘Keen to avoid a backlash when depicting the traditionally stereotyped Mandarin supervillain in Iron Man 3, the studio cleverly cast part-south Asian actor Ben Kingsley as a drunken English luvvie, Trevor Slattery, who was only ever playing the role of Tony Stark’s evil nemesis. The only problem was that this was another role not going to an actor of east Asian extraction.’
Under fire: Marvel has come under fire for attempting to use Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings to ‘fix’ its ‘Asian problem’. Pictured: Simu Liu as Shang-Chi on set
Ben Child added: ‘Iron Fist fell into the problematic ‘white saviour’ trap by casting Finn Jones as kung-fu-kicking New York rich kid Danny Rand, a stereotypical white guy who beats the Asian martial arts experts at their own game.’
Out soon: The September issue of Cosmopolitan is on sale from August 24
The cast also includes Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Michelle Yeoh as Ying Nan plus returning Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Wong (Benedict Wong) and Abomination (Tim Roth).
Abomination was first featured in the second Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.
Wong was first featured in 2016’s Doctor Strange, before returning in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.
Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, Just Mercy) directs from a script he co-wrote with Dave Callaham (The Expendables) and Andrew Lanham (Just Mercy).
Disney also announced in May that their movies such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the upcoming Free Guy will have a 45-day theatrical window before arriving on the Disney Plus streaming service.
The September issue of Cosmopolitan is on sale from August 24.
Theatrical window: Disney also announced in May that their movies such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the upcoming Free Guy will have a 45-day theatrical window