Daniel Wu: Exclusive Portraits Of The ‘American Born Chinese’ Star

By:

Elissa Anderson

June 23, 2023 2:31PM EDT

‘American Born Chinese’ star Daniel Wu stopped by HollywoodLife’s photo studio. See exclusive portraits of the actor.

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Daniel Wu Stops By HL’s Portrait Studio

Daniel Wu Stops By HL’s Portrait Studio — Daniel Wu is an actor currently starring in ‘American Born Chinese,’ which is available on Disney+. He plays Monkey King/Sun Wukong alongside Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Ben Wang, and more. In the series, the Monkey King has a song named Wei-Chen, played by Jimmy Liu.

The actor admitted he was excited to take on his role in ‘American Born Chinese’ and experience the show with his daughter. He noted that ‘most of the work I’ve done is not stuff that she can watch most of the time. It’s really dark and violent. This is the first thing that she was really excited about that I was doing.’

Daniel previously starred as Sunny in ‘Into The Badlands.’ He also had a role in ‘Westworld’ season 4. The actor has a number of film roles since his debut in 1998. See our exclusive portraits of Daniel Wu in our gallery now.

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Daniel Wu On Playing The Monkey King

Daniel Wu On Playing The Monkey King — Daniel admits it was ‘intimidating’ at first to see such a ‘fresh take’ on the legendary Monkey King. ‘He’s a father now. He’s got responsibilities. He got a job up in heaven where he’s got to make sure everyone’s safe. But also, there’s a war going on. He’s got to make sure that doesn’t get out of control. He’s got a son, who now thinks he can solve this problem, and he’s going to run off and go on this mission on his own. So that version of the Monkey King no one’s ever seen that before,’ he said.

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Daniel Wu On His Monkey King Transformation Process

Daniel Wu On His Monkey King Transformation Process — ‘In the Journey to the West, which is where the original stories of the Monkey King comes from, there are various interpretations of how he should move, should he move more monkey-like or not,’ he told HL. ‘We retained some small elements when he does the head scratching and things like that. That was a very kind of iconic tic that he has that we kind of made it a little more subtle.’

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Daniel Wu On Monkey King Being A Father

Daniel Wu On Monkey King Being A Father — ‘A lot of what was going on with this character I felt reflected on how I was raised in some ways, so I reflected on that relationship with my father and me. And then, I’m also going through it myself with a daughter of my own,’ the actor explained in our interview.

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Daniel Wu On Why He Joined ‘American Born Chinese’

Daniel Wu On Why He Joined ‘American Born Chinese’ — Daniel revealed that Michelle Yeoh being a part of the cast was a ‘final factor’ in him joining the show. ‘We’ve known each other for a long time and tried to work together many times,’ he said.

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Daniel Wu On ‘American Born Chinese’ Season 2

Daniel Wu On ‘American Born Chinese’ Season 2 — ‘American Born Chinese’ hasn’t been renewed for season 2 yet, but Daniel is hopeful about being able to tell more stories. ‘I think it’s great to set up the next chapter and what that journey is going to be for all the characters involved. I’m excited. I have no idea what’s in store at all. Nobody’s told me anything yet,’ he said.

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