Exclusive Interview: Ben Wang and Sydney Taylor Talk American Born Chinese, the Importance of Truthful Representation, and More

Ben Wang and Sydney Taylor are two of the stars of Disney+’s must-see new series, American Born Chinese.

Based on Gene Luen Yang’s groundbreaking graphic novel that chronicles the trials and tribulations of a regular American teenager whose life is forever changed when he befriends the son of a mythological god. This is the story of a young man’s battle for his own identity, told through family, comedy, and action-packed Kung-Fu. The coming-of-age adventure features an all-star international cast, including Academy® Award winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, Ben Wang, International Emmy® Award Nominee Yeo Yann Yann, Chin Han, Daniel Wu, former Taekwondo champion Jimmy Liu, and Sydney Taylor.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Ben and Sydney about American Born Chinese, the importance of truthful representation, how they prepared to play their characters, and more.

PC: Ben, you’ve said in the past that you didn’t see yourself reflected in the media that you consumed, and American Born Chinese was one of the first times when you felt at home. What does it mean to you to know that you’re ensuring future generations won’t have to experience something similar? Did that bring a different weight to this project?
Ben: I choose not to think about that too much because it terrifies me. I can tell that this show is going to be big for some people. It’s going to mean a whole lot to some people. I’m glad that I got to play a really small part in that because it takes so many people to make a show like this. I’m just the biggest face on the poster. I was just a piece of it, and I’m very happy about that. I hope people find this show useful to them, especially kids who grow up in the same way that I did, because I know that I would have wanted this show and would have loved this show.

PC: Sydney, you’ve also said in previous interviews that often as a young actress you’re presented with characters that are one note, but that wasn’t the case with Amelia. You brought so much nuance to her journey. Did you channel any of your own personal experience in shaping this character? How did you prepare to step into her shoes?
Sydney: Most definitely. When you’re playing someone as young as they are, it’s very important to make them feel very personal and real. Often younger people, when they’re written by fully grown adults, don’t feel like kids. When I was sixteen, I would read auditions that sounded like it was a ten-year-old talking. That’s not the case with this show, so I brought a lot of myself to Amelia. But there were definitely enough differences where she was still fun to play and fun to turn into this real person that people hopefully enjoy.

PC: Ben, when you’re adapting a character that’s lived in another medium, what’s one thing that you wanted to make sure was translated from page to screen? What’s something new you brought to Jin?
Ben: I knew when I read the graphic novel that this character felt like me in every single way. All the panels felt like they were drawn from my exact life. I had that bad haircut. I had that terrible shirt. There was that girl. I had that stupid bike. People would say those exact things to me. I felt that exact way. Because it was so personal for me, as an actor I knew I was going to use the most truthful and honest parts of myself. Sometimes that can be scary for an actor because we like to hide behind our characters. But for me, it was about taking true pieces of myself and who I am now and who I was when I was fifteen or sixteen, Jin’s age, and bringing it together to create this character.

PC: The relationship between Jin and Amelia is so fundamental to this series. It really highlights how we’re more similar than different. How did the two of you build the bond necessary to bring that dynamic to life on screen?
Ben: Movie marathons.

Sydney: We didn’t have to do a lot of building. We watched all of Harry Potter. We watched all of Twilight.

Ben: Every single one. Every Shrek.

Sydney: Every Shrek. But we started with the second one.

Ben: It was my favorite one, so I wanted to start on a good one.

Sydney: Uh, no. You had never seen them. We forced you to watch them.

Ben: No, I had seen Shrek 2, but I hadn’t seen 1 or 3. That’s why you guys wanted to watch it.

Sydney: You started with 2? Anyways, we did a lot of bonding. We didn’t have to do too much relationship-building because we got along so well from the start. That was easy. When we would build a scene together, there was always so much freedom and connectivity already there that we could just talk and whatever would come out there was a good chance that it was going to work because we had that relationship intact.

PC: You two are such standouts in this series. Is there a particular scene or episode that you’re excited for audiences to see?
Ben: I really loved in the first episode the first time that we see the ’80s sitcom with Ke [Huy Quan]. Ke is portraying this character who is a caricature of how Asian Americans used to be represented in media. Jin turns on the TV and you almost don’t realize that the TV becomes the screen and you become Jin watching it. Then the clip ends and it cuts to Jin. That’s such a powerful cut. It’s like all of a sudden you understand, if you didn’t before, why representation and truthful representation is so important. Because you see in that moment what bad representation can do for a kid like Jin. I love that.

Sydney: I’ll stick with the first episode. My favorite part to watch is the whole fight scene that happens with the Monkey King and Wei-Chen. Then we also see the parallel fight scene between Jin’s parents. They blend together in this amazing way where you’re watching it on the edge of your seat.

Ben: One of them is a kung fu fight. The other is about marital strife. My parents are not fighting fights. [laughs]

Sydney: That would be way cooler. They should do that in Season 2. They filmed that so well. Destin [Daniel Cretton] did such a great job with that one and Kelvin [Yu] with the writing. It comes together so beautifully, and then Jin comes out of his room and puts a stop to things. You and Michelle [Yeoh] put a stop to the fights. But that’s my favorite part in Episode 1.

Make sure to follow Ben (Instagram) and Sydney (Instagram). Watch American Born Chinese on Disney+ today.