Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’: Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham on being ‘unlikely warriors’ saving Earth

Malay Mail

From the creators of Game of Thrones, comes Netflix’s much-anticipated, mind-bending sci-fi epic series 3 Body Problem.

Transcript

00:00 To have three showrunners on this particular project,

00:04 I knew something was going to be very special.

00:07 And especially from Dan and Dave, you know,

00:10 former Game of Thrones, you know, what their next project,

00:13 you know, I had great interest.

00:16 Someone or something is targeting scientists.

00:24 They're going after our best and brightest.

00:29 There's someone behind everything.

00:32 You just have to dig.

00:35 Whatever it is,

00:39 it's watching and listening.

00:43 Tree Body Problem is a very big and mind-bending story.

00:50 But I want to know, Benedict,

00:52 what was the thing that really first drew you to the book or the script?

00:57 I was filming Doctor Strange at the time.

01:00 And then Nina Gold, the casting director,

01:03 and Robert Stern, the other casting director,

01:06 had told me that Dan and David and Alex Wu

01:11 would like a conversation with me.

01:13 So I opted on a Zoom.

01:15 They gave me a character breakdown,

01:17 which came across as some, well,

01:21 very familiar as if it was where I grew up.

01:24 My parents are from Hong Kong.

01:26 And Alex had confessed to copying my Wikipedia page.

01:33 So having been wooed by Alex Wu,

01:36 I was convinced to come on board.

01:40 I mean, to have three showrunners on this particular project,

01:46 I knew something was going to be very special.

01:49 And especially from Dan and Dave, you know, former Game of Thrones,

01:53 what their next project--I had great interest.

01:58 Diving straight into the books, I mean, just utterly incredible.

02:02 Very hard to read for me.

02:04 For me personally, how dense the science aspect was,

02:08 and I was kind of wondering how they were going to kind of tell the story

02:13 through the game and sort of feeling a bit confused within that.

02:17 But yet they've managed to tell this story.

02:22 And it's a feast for your eyes.

02:27 You know, Liam, both of your characters in the story

02:30 have sort of a love-hate relationship.

02:34 But what was your favorite part about filming with Benedict,

02:38 and how did you two develop that kind of chemistry with each other?

02:42 It came very quickly.

02:44 First of all, you start from the script,

02:46 and when I read these two characters who work together,

02:49 it just leapt off the page.

02:52 It made me smile when I was reading it.

02:54 And then when I was introduced to this gorgeous human being,

02:58 we started working together and rehearsing.

03:01 We have different methods of getting to the same place,

03:04 which complements the two characters wonderfully.

03:07 And we just had so much fun shooting the stuff.

03:10 And there wasn't a day we were working together that we didn't laugh.

03:15 But at the same time, we took the stuff incredibly seriously,

03:19 because we're both long enough in the game to realize

03:22 that these two characters are so different to each other,

03:26 and yet they complement each other beautifully.

03:28 And that gives real life to the relationship

03:32 where they're unlikely warriors in this battle for planet Earth,

03:39 which is sort of an ironic aspect to it, isn't there?

03:44 That these two are charged with protecting the human race.

03:49 - I'd also like to chime in, just working with Liam,

03:52 who's just absolutely fantastic.

03:54 I think it's sort of, yeah, we get on great,

03:57 and it's developing that relaxed atmosphere.

04:01 For me personally, it's really conducive for me

04:04 to allow an area to play and feel playful.

04:08 And we're grafters at heart,

04:11 and we're serious with the work, but not with ourselves.

04:17 - Well, thank you for having me here.

04:19 - No problem. Nice talking to you. - It's been a pleasure.

04:21 [MUSIC]

04:34 - They are coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop them.

04:39 [MUSIC]

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