Yahoo News Wu Assassins' Byron Mann talks racism scene and Hell on Wheels connection
Note: This article contains spoilers for Wu Assassins episode 7.
Wu Assassins has received acclaim for its choreography and action sequences, but the show's quieter moments have also been resonating with viewers.
One moment that has had people talking comes in the seventh episode. In the episode, Kai Jin and Uncle Six go on a road trip. They order breakfast at a diner, but are bothered and otherised by a racist waitress.
It's here when Uncle Six, played by Byron Mann, responds by giving the waitress a brief rundown on Chinese American history – from being railroad workers in the 19th century to the Geary Act, which prevented Chinese people from becoming citizens until World War II.
"It's funny because when you do these shows, you never know which scenes are going to pop for the audience," Mann said in an interview with Digital Spy. "I certainly don't. You just don't know until it comes out and the audience responds.
"The audience have certainly responded to this scene, which catches me by surprise a little bit actually. I thought, 'Oh, this feels like a history lesson, and I don't know how people are going to respond to a scene that's laced with racism'.
"But from reactions online, on Twitter, on Instagram, almost everyone has been responding to that scene. It's the highlight for a lot of people."
Mann dropped an interesting detail that the waitress is played by Gail Matthius, the wife of showrunner John Wirth. In fact, he has actually worked with Wirth before on 1860s-set drama Hell on Wheels, playing labour contractor Chang in the two-part final season.
In season 5 episode 3, Chang is attacked by a group of white Americans. They try to hang him, but Chang is saved at the last possible moment by Tao and Cullen (Tao, incidentally, is played by Tzi Ma, who also stars in Wu Assassins).
In the aftermath, Chang delivers a speech bringing up those who travelled from China to America to work on the railroad. He demands justice, although he does not get the trial he wants as Chinese people were, by law, not allowed to testify against white people back then.
"The other day, I was joking with John Wirth and I said that I actually gave a similar speech on Hell on Wheels!" Mann said. "I said, 'I wonder why audiences are responding so heavily to this diner scene [in Wu Assassins], because I kind of gave that speech on Hell on Wheels'. They probably didn't watch Hell on Wheels!
"And that's the beauty of Netflix. The beauty of Netflix is people in New Zealand, Cameroon, Turkey, Indonesia, people are watching everywhere. Everyone's watching the same thing. It's amazing."
Mann was full of praise for Wirth, and revealed that Wirth was the reason why he signed for Wu Assassins before he even read the script.
"I had such a wonderful experience working on Hell on Wheels with him," he said. "He's a very collaborative producer... He takes your opinion very seriously and it really allows you to have the freedom to create.
"When he came around to do Wu Assassins and he said, 'I think I have the part for you', I just said, 'Sign me up'. I didn't know what the part was or what the show was about, really, until they were making formal offers and sent over the scripts.
"The show turned out to be a better and bigger show than I expected, and certainly my role of Uncle Six turned out to be bigger, better, and more colourful than I ever expected."
Mann also discussed a shift in Hollywood for Asian and Asian American stars, with more Asian American TV shows and movies being produced recently.
"I attribute it to the Crazy Rich Asians phenomenon," he said. "The fact that it was an all-Asian cast in a major studio movie that made money – and also a crowd-pleaser and by and large critically acclaimed – it was a resounding success.
"We're seeing the effects of that. We're seeing movies and television series where leading roles can be Asian. We're seeing a much greater awareness of Asian presence from the audience.
"Casting directors have for a long time gone, 'What about this role that's written as a white guy, maybe it can be an Asian guy?' It's just the producers of the directors or the financers, that's where the hurdle needs to be overcome. A lot of times, they're not particularly racist. It's more about precedence. It's, 'Have we seen this before? Have we seen a movie that's made money featuring a person of colour?'
"Look, it's not an overnight change. But we're seeing rumblings. These things take time to filter."
All ten episodes of Wu Assassins season 1 are available to watch on Netflix right now.
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