Exclusive Interview: Vanessa Kai Chats Kung Fu Season 2, the Shifus in Her Life, and Her Creative Process

Vanessa Kai is an enthralling storyteller who has brought gripping narratives to life on the stage and screen. Her past credits include projects like New Amsterdam, Orange Is the New Black, Gotham, Ruby, and KPOP. Currently, she stars in the must-see drama Kung Fu.

Adapted from the popular ’70s series, Kung Fu follows a young Chinese-American woman, Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), whose quarter-life crisis causes her to drop out of school and make a life-changing journey to a monastery in China. When she makes her return home, she discovers that her town has been overrun with corruption. Nicky must rely on her community as well as her martial arts skills to protect those she cares about the most and seek justice for those who are unable to. Vanessa Kai shines as Nicky’s shifu Pei-Ling who guides her along her path of self-discovery.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Vanessa about Kung Fu Season 2, how she modeled her character after the shifus in her life, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling?
Vanessa: My passion for storytelling started in theater. Storytelling in theater has significantly changed over many, many years. I actually took a bit of a long break about three years ago. I came back to work about eight or nine years ago. It was a three-year break, probably even longer. When I decided to reenter the field, I realized how much theater had changed. I realized how storytelling had changed from playwrights to acting to what it means to build a whole new world.

That is actually what I became super passionate about. I realized what motivated me was the question of how I could lend my skillset, if you will, to help create these new worlds that have been written by writers and directors and so forth. I’ve had the great pleasure and privilege to work with so many talented writers and directors in my theater work. When Kung Fu came along, within the first few pages that I received for my audition I knew immediately that this (I can’t say it enough) was an exceptional show and how well-written it was. Even in the pilot episode, all the characters were fully fleshed out. I could see the world. I could smell the world.

The other thing that I really love about it is that even though Kung Fu is a predominantly Asian-led cast and has Asian themes and comes with the backdrop of an Asian family, it has universal themes that everyone can relate to. The thing that excites me most about the world that we’re building right now and continuing to build is that it’s still reaching across race, culture, and language.

PC: You have a theater background where you’re telling one specific story in a set amount of time, and you know where your character’s arc is going. But on Kung Fu, you’ve been learning more and more about your character with each episode. How did that change the way that you approached and developed this character?
Vanessa: You’re asking these fantastic questions. There are so many lessons that I’ve learned in theater that I still apply now to my work here on this fantastic show. Truly, it’s about collaboration. I ask lots of questions. It’s one of the things that drove my mother crazy when I was a kid. [laughs] I couldn’t stop asking, “But why? But like why? But, mama, why?” She was like, “Stop.” [laughs] It starts with my curiosity about what is happening and where she’s going and whether I am on the right track.

With that said, our showrunners Christina Kim and Bob Berens have been fantastic in making themselves accessible to answer any questions that I may have. I don’t know if this actually happens on other television shows. But this is how it’s been throughout this experience. I love them so much. I’m so grateful that they have given us a little bit of a preview, a window, of what’s to come, just ever so slightly. Now there are some things that we absolutely do not know. But at the start, we’ll have a bit of a meeting, one-on-one. They’ll give us the shape of where they think this is going, where this character’s going, and then they’ll say, “Stay tuned.” I’m like, “Okay.” Sometimes there are some elements that they give me ahead notice on. For that, I’ll do what I can to prepare.

PC: When we’re introduced to Pei-Ling, she’s Nicky’s shifu. She plays such an instrumental role in shaping who Nicky is. Who are the mentors in your own life who shaped the artist that you are today? Did you use them as a frame of reference while shaping this character?
Vanessa: Oh, I did. I did. Now I want to cry. I have been quite fortunate to have had a number of mentors throughout my life. What inspired me about the mentors in my life has been the amount of grace and patience that they have shown me and the space that they’ve held for me. That is actually one of the things that I tried to imbue Pei-Ling with.

One of my mentors from high school was my acting teacher. He later became a dear friend and was my officiate. He’s fantastic. Harry Shifman is an incredible human. There are others, but he’s the one that stuck out.

Another thing that I’ve tried to imbue Pei-Ling with is the sense that her lessons have been hard-learned. It’s about understanding the journey and how you’re carving out your own space to learn all of that for yourself and for your growth.

PC: Pei-Ling has this beautiful arc in the series. She’s coming to terms with the difficult choices that she’s had to make in her life and how they’ve affected her sister. You already touched upon this a little bit, but how early on did the writers clue you in on her arc? What was your process like bringing this inner turmoil to life?
Vanessa: Our showrunners are great. They let me know from the very start. They said, “Listen, this is the plan that we have for her. This is what we intend to see. This is most likely going to show up in this particular episode.” They said, “A lot of this can be changed, but for now, this is the skeleton.”

In preparation, my goal is to root it in and ground it in truth. That’s the only thing I can do. Then comes the asking of the questions. It may not necessarily be to the showrunners or creators, but for myself. What does it mean to leave? What does it mean to lose? What does it mean to have regret? What does it mean to hide? What does it mean to watch Nicky on her own path and then do my best to impart all the lessons that I’ve learned so that she doesn’t repeat those mistakes? It becomes a lot of that.

I also had a wonderful scene partner in Yvonne Chapman. Usually, in theater, we would spend more time doing table work and speaking about it. But in this particular process, we had a light conversation. We made it a point to rehearse because, as we know, television is such a limited amount of time, unlike theater. We did our best to figure out what our space was to play within. I wanted to inform myself of our shared history. So that dealt with the people who were playing our younger selves and getting to know Ron Yuan, who plays our father. It’s really about how much we can ground this in truth.

PC: One of the central themes within the series is family, and that comes across on the screen. How did you and the rest of the cast build that bond?
Vanessa: First, I have to say that everyone in the cast is so special. Not only are they incredibly talented, but they’re just incredible humans. In the midst of COVID, we were and continued to be each other’s bubble. When we first started shooting Season 1 back in 2020, we came together. We made a decision to say, “This is what we’re going to do. We love this show. We believe in this show. We’re going to make a concerted effort to make it successful and to make sure that we do our part to support the show and the work.” That in itself has fostered a lot of community, a lot of dinners, a lot of brunches, a lot of outings. We each take a turn hosting.

We’re away from our families. We’ve all traveled, either from LA or New York. In Kheng Hua Tan’s case, she travels from Singapore. That’s a long flight. She needs a nap. [laugh] But recognizing how far we have traveled to be here, especially in the time of COVID, and leaving our family and friends temporarily, we realize that we are each other’s family. We put that bond and effort of getting to know one another into our relationships, and that’s translated onto the screen.

PC: It definitely has. Speaking of community, you and the cast are in such a unique position where you get to see the fan response in real-time through social media. Fans have expressed how much the series has meant to them and made them feel seen. What has that experience been like for you, seeing the support from the fans?
Vanessa: It’s been absolutely moving. I can’t say enough how much we love our fans. To be able to respond immediately and get that feedback on how the show or the characters or the show’s themes are impacting their lives is a privilege and an honor. I can’t say that enough. It really helps motivate me even more to want to do our part to reach out and create engagement with our fans, which I hope that we do often.

PC: You’re one of the actors on the show that’s in a unique position where you’re in on the action and there are these beautiful fight sequences that we get to see, but there are also these more emotional, vulnerable moments that your character has. For you as an actress, is one more challenging than the other?
Vanessa: They’re both equally as challenging for different reasons. But I’d probably say it would be the martial arts. It’s probably the training that’s the most challenging. With the emotional scenes, it’s really helpful when you have such a great scene partner, such as Olivia Liang, Yvonne, and anyone else whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing time and space with on screen.

The martial arts definitely requires some training. I thank God that I come from a dance background. That has been great. But my husband is also a Muay Thai instructor, so I had a bit of a head start, but ever so slightly. But honestly, I definitely needed to train significantly more in martial arts with our great stunt team led by Andrew Chin, our lead stunt coordinator, and to really get into my body. That training was a little bit of everything. It had a little bit of tai chi. It had a bit of Wudang, wushu, and sword training. I learned a bit of the difference between Taekwondo and Muay Thai.

PC: You were speaking of the journey earlier. This is the longest that you’ve lived with a character. Has anything surprised you about the experience? What’s been the biggest takeaway thus far?
Vanessa: Flexibility. It’s the umbrella of flexibility. Flexibility with changes in the story. The flexibility of direction with respect to where the character is going. The flexibility of how we shoot in a day, like if we have a hiccup and have to do it again. The flexibility of maintaining stamina when we have to do take after take. It’s the stamina of consistently training. That’s the biggest takeaway. It’s the flexibility of these changes and stamina…and baths. We really love a good bath. An Epsom salt? Yes. And arnica. Yes, we love them.

PC: Season 2 is airing now. We know you can’t say too much, but what’s ahead for your character? Is there anything you can say?
Vanessa: I can’t. [laughs] But I will say, you do not want to miss it. Pei-Ling has reappeared, and she’s appearing in brand new ways that you might not have seen before. Definitely stay tuned.

To keep up with Vanessa, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Kung Fu every Wednesday at 9/8c on the CW.