“I see the space between action and cut as a holy place. Spirits are in it. There are people who were in that space before, people who are in that space now, and people who are yet to be in that space— who have yet to watch this thing. You don’t know how it’s going to touch them, how significant it’s going to be for that person to be touched. I act to express things I can’t in life.”
-Ken Leung, episode 384 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
For the past couple decades, actor Ken Leung has played scene-stealing characters in films like Rush Hour, Keeping the Faith, and A.I. Or, prestige TV shows like Lost and The Sopranos.
Today, he joins us to discuss his spectacular turn in HBO’s Industry (7:30), how he created his character in baseball-bat-wielding manager Eric Tao (9:55), and his Brooklyn upbringing to a family of Chinese immigrants (17:35). Then, he shares how he found his footing as an actor (23:30), a memory of his late younger brother, Kevin (29:27), and why he views each film and TV set as a ‘spiritual space’ (30:56).
On the back-half, we walk through Leung’s work on The Sopranos (32:30), his present-day collaboration with actor Myha’la (37:45), the arc of this latest season of Industry (44:15), the state of representation in Hollywood (48:06), and why he feels at peace in this moment (53:00).
Clips courtesy of HBO. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.
Show-notes:
- Watch Ken in Industry exclusively on HBO and Max.
- See his previous work in Lost, The Sopranos, Rush Hour, Keeping the Faith, A.I., and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
- Read Ken’s powerful letter to his son in GQ.
- For more episodes, hear our talks with Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Steven Yeun, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi.
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