Maybe you first “met” Ming-Na Wen in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s as Lien in As The World Turns, June in The Joy Luck Club, or Chun-Li in Street Fighter. For some of us, she’ll forever be Jing-Mei in ER or the voice of circa-1998 Mulan. These days, she’s carved out a definitive space for herself in nerd culture, playing badass characters in Marvel-universe hits like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Mandalorian, and The Book of Boba Fett. But when Scary Mommy caught up with Wen recently, we couldn’t wait to pick her brain about her particularly nostalgic current role: voicing a character in Max’s animated prequel series to the 1984 cult classic, Gremlins.
In Gremlins: The Wild Batch, the second season of the prequel series, Wen brings to life Fong Wing — the mother of the show’s young protagonist, Sam Wing. Remember how the original movie doesn’t really ever tell the full story of how Gizmo (and, later, his gremlin cohorts) came to be? Well, here’s your chance to find out. In Season 1 of Max’s prequel series, 10-year-old Sam meets the young Mogwai we all know as Gizmo. He then ends up on a perilous journey through the Chinese countryside, occasionally stopping to — oh, you know — battle monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore. The Wild Batch takes place one year after the events of Season 1, following Gizmo, Sam, and Sam’s friend Elle as they sojourn from their home in Shanghai to San Francisco.
Just ahead of The Wild Batch’s early October premiere, Wen filled us in on what she and Fong have in common as moms, just how far back her card-carrying nerd status goes, and what holiday OG Gremlins belongs to.
Scary Mommy: This series is so much fun! What really drew you to playing Fong?
Ming-Na Wen: I was a massive fan of Gremlins, and Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante’s original films back in the day. And I just feel like I’m sort of reliving my childhood with all these projects that I loved as a kid. Fong is probably one of the closest characters of who I am: a mom kind of stuck in a sandwich generation of having kids that we’re still taking care of, even though they’re semi-adults now, and then having older parents that we have to take care of as well. I feel for Fong a lot, and I understand a lot of the things that she goes through in Gremlins.
SM: In what other ways are you like, or different from, your character as a mom?
MW: I’m a little bit more free in how I relate and how I treat my kids, but I do believe in setting strong boundaries, especially when they were younger, just to sort of set the foundation. With Fong, she went the opposite of her dad because Grandpa was this adventurous, loving, free-spirited guy who loved magic and mystery. [For her] everything’s got to be by the book. She’s very protective of Sam and doesn’t want Sam to fall prey to Grandpa’s antics.
For me, my mom was more straightforward… very straight and strict about a lot of things, and old-fashioned. So, I went the opposite direction of her and became an actor, which now she takes all the credit for. And I’m sure we will, too, when our kids are successful. It’s like, ‘It’s all because of us.’
SM: It is WILD to even say this out loud, but the original film came out 40 years ago this year.
MW: Don’t say it out loud. No, that’s amazing.
SM: Had your kids been introduced to it before the series?
MW: Come on, I’m a nerd mom. I would introduce them to everything that I grew up with. I even introduced them to all my ‘80s music that I love, and now they love ‘80s music. It’s fabulous. I can relate to them; they can relate to me. So, yeah, they love Gremlins, and it’s just so fun to see their reaction to Mom being in all these cool projects.
SM: What do you think it is about this particular story that has such staying power?
MW: Between Brendan [Hay, executive producer] and Tze [Chun, executive producer/showrunner], I think they really captured some of the original essence of Gremlins. There are moments where I jump when I’m watching the animation now. And that’s great, because that was also what was so enticing and fun about Gremlins. I think it was one of the first near-R-rated kind of kids’ films back in those days. They were able to keep all the scary parts of it, but then still the heart about family and love and understanding these creatures. That’s the staying power… just great stories.
SM: So… you are a huge nerd mom; is that accurate?
MW: Oh, yes, completely. I mean, all my fans know it’s authentic. In fact, I started off my career being a very serious actress. Not that these projects are not serious, but I wanted to do Shakespeare, and I wanted to be in theater, and I wanted to do… just movies like Joy Luck Club. That’s still a huge part of projects that I would love to venture into again.
But somehow, life imitates art, art imitates life, and all these amazing projects came my way, and they just feed my nerd heart. I mean, I was the president of my science fiction club in high school.
SM: Love that for you.
MW: Dungeons and Dragons, yeah.
SM: Another one of our favorite TV nerds is BD Wong, who also voices a character in The Wild Batch and whom you worked with for the first time on Mulan. Is there another project you’d love to do with him in the future?
MW: Love him. Actually, when I first came out to LA, I was a guest star on All-American Girl, Margaret Cho’s show, and I played his girlfriend. After Mulan, that was my first finally getting to work with him in that. The crazy thing is I also worked him in… come on, my menopausal brain — it’ll come to me. Oh, SVU! What’s the first part of that?
SM: Law and Order?
MW: Yes, Law and Order.
SM: Our brains were going to get there eventually.
MW: I know; I feel like I’m always playing charades with my friends these days. “That blonde actress who was in”… “She’s married to”… It’s horrible. Horrible.
SM: Heard! So, you and Wong worked together on SVU.
MW: So we worked together, and James Hong [The Wild Batch’s Grandpa] was actually in that project as well. So, it’s funny that we were in this project together. It’s kind of like a little mini-reunion.
I would love to do something with BD — and James. Seriously, that man never stops; it’s incredible. He’s so inspiring. But I would love to work with BD in anything. Maybe a romantic comedy, maybe a drama… something we could really sink our teeth into.
SM: Can’t wait for that. One more very important question: Do you think OG Gremlins is a classic Halloween movie or a classic Christmas movie?
MW: Ooh, I want to say Halloween. But I think the original was a Christmas one, right? Yeah, I remember the Christmas tree. It could be both. It could be any holiday movie.
Part 1 of the two-part season premiere of Gremlins: The Wild Batch hits Max on Thursday, Oct. 3. Check out our exclusive clip from the season below!
