![]() ![]() She remembers feeling most out of place when she went shopping with her paternal grandmother, a tiny but formidable Hong Konger who single-handedly brought up her father and his five siblings while working three jobs. “I would say he has a lot of natural talent.” Shooting during the pandemic, thankfully, mitigated the perils of having a musical heart-throb on set in Los Angeles. “We’ve sort of seen each other on and off over the years – it was nice to see him in a different environment. “We first met a long time ago,” she adds of Styles. Over a span of a thousand years, how do you play a normal relationship? The good thing is, Richard and I have known each other for over 10 years.”īut wait, I say accusingly, are you secretly the best-connected woman in showbiz? Don’t you and your Don’t Worry Darling co-star Harry Styles also go way back? (A 2013 photo shows them playfully tucking into a giant plate of spaghetti.) “It’s quite a small world, the British acting community, and when you’ve been doing it for as long as I have, I think you meet pretty much everybody,” she cries in mock defence. ![]() “Between us,” Chan confides – at which point I start nervously waiting for a Marvel lawyer to materialise next to us – “she and Ikaris are kind of immortal soulmates. That is her strength, so I leant into that.”Ĭhan joins a cast that includes Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, as well as her long-time friend Richard Madden, better known as Robb Stark from Game of Thrones, who plays Ikaris, another superpowered immortal. “She has a connection with humans, and with the world and the earth. The main thing is she’s an empath,” Chan says. What can she tell me about her role before the NDA kicks in? “Sersi is not your typical superhero: she’s not necessarily the best fighter, she doesn’t have the most obviously impressive powers. She brought a beautiful sense of gentleness, compassion and vulnerability to Sersi that I believe will invite viewers to rethink what it means to be heroic.” “Gemma was very interested in this idea as well and took on the challenge. “It has always been a passion for me to create a nuanced female superhero that is rarely seen in this genre,” Zhao emails. Marvel’s intriguing choice of director has paid off – on its first day, the Eternals trailer clocked in a staggering 77 million views. The Chinese indie director is best known for the film Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand, about “house-less” van-dwellers at the edge of society, for which, earlier this year, Zhao became the first woman of colour to win Best Director at the Oscars. “I think this is going to be a really different, special film,” she says, noting that Zhao is the woman at its helm. So far, so Marvel? Not quite, according to Chan. Eternals is the newest instalment of the all-conquering universe, with Chan playing Sersi, one of a group of immortal beings who come out of hiding to save humanity. ![]() Most Marvel films follow a crowd-pleasing formula: extravagant fight scenes, tongue-in-cheek gags, plenty of Easter eggs and, most of all, grand CGI-enabled spectacle. Yet in the coming weeks, Chan will slip into movie-star mode as never before. As the world begins to stir after the slumber of lockdown, and after a distressing year of rising anti-Asian violence, Chan is unveiling herself as a new kind of star: unashamedly political, community-oriented and entirely capable of fronting a $200 million superhero franchise. Her most recent release – Disney’s animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon – has grossed $132 million at the box office, in a year when most cinemas were shuttered. There’s her lead role in Eternals, this autumn’s feverishly awaited Marvel blockbuster, directed by Oscar-winning auteur Chloé Zhao, which will be followed by the psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling, by Booksmart director Olivia Wilde, opposite Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. Hanna MoonĪfter the blowout success of 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians, in which she played the immaculately put-together but piercingly vulnerable socialite Astrid, Chan, now 38, is finally hitting her stride. Gemma Chan wearing Huishan Zhang sequins in the September 2021 issue of British Vogue, which explores the theme of new beginnings. ![]()
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