Olivia Liang may be an unknown talent to some, but after her starring role in The CW’s midseason series Kung Fu, she may just become The CW’s new IT girl. You may recognize the actress from fellow CW series Legacies, where she played the character Alyssa Chang. In the reimagining of the 70s series Kung Fu, however, she is front and center of the action-adventure family drama, ready to kick ass and take names.
Liang recently appeared at WonderCon along with her cast members and showrunners to preview the updated series. Here she talks about what drew her to the show and the importance of Asian representation.
Interest in Kung Fu came easy to the actress, who says that just the pure fact that the lead is an Asian-American woman, is what drew her to the role. She explains that as Asian-American actors, roles like these don’t come by often. “It’s usually an ethnically ambiguous character, or they’re open ethnicity,” Liang says.
Having someone who she knew she could for sure represent was exciting in and of itself, she shares, and adds that preparing for the role wasn’t too difficult. “I was reading the script and the sides that were provided, I was like, ‘Okay, so I don’t have to act at all. Nicky (her character) is just my experience. It just felt like a continuation of all of our experiences and the stories that we are already living out in the world.”
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She credits show creator/co-showrunner Christina Kim for writing the script “so beautifully” and for capturing what it feels like to be an Asian-American first-generation daughter to immigrant parents, adding, “and just to be seen was attractive for me. Nicky is a girl who is trying to figure out her path in life and what she’s meant to do, and I think everyone can relate to that. There’s like a double fish out of water story that I think a lot of Asian Americans can feel.”
The representation on the show is groundbreaking, however, as she explains, it does have its challenges. “We talk about it a lot,” Liang says of her whole cast, “how historic this show is and how important it is for our community, and not just for our community to feel seen, but for other communities to see us and remember that we’re part of their lives and their narrative, too. If we’re constantly thinking about that, I think that would just be a lot of pressure, so I try to keep it away, keep it at bay and just focus on telling this story that just happens to feature our faces.”
“Representation is larger than us wanting to see ourselves and feel seen and heard,” she continues. “It’s so that other people remember that we exist, too. Because of the lack of representation, their worldview isn’t opened up to include us in their narrative.”
And just because the show has a predominantly Asian cast, its star wants you to know what the show really is about. “This isn’t an Asian show,” Olivia Liang says. “We happen to be Asian, but this story is universal. It’s about family, it’s about friendship, it’s about finding oneself and figuring out what their purpose is.”
Kung Fu premieres Thursday, April 7 at 8pm on The CW.