James Hong has had a storied career in Hollywood. Starting out in the 50s, Hong has worked with everyone from Groucho Marx to Clark Gable. Known as a character actor, many people might find his voice familiar as he’s voiced characters from Mulan, Jackie Chan Adventures, Teen Titans, Kung Fu Panda, and Turning Red. A familiar face in the industry, he’s long worked to increase Asian American representation in Hollywood. Recently, he gained new critical acclaim for his role as Gong Gong in Everything Everywhere All at Once and appeared in the series American Born Chinese.

In Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Hong voices Grandpa Wing, Sam Wing’s (Izaac Wang) grandfather. Grandpa is a whimsical character, one who understands the magical and mystical mogwai and naturally comes off as a bit aloof. He is a sort of guide to Sam before he is taken by Riley Greene (Matthew Rhys), forcing Sam and his friend Elle (Garielle Nevaeh) to go and save her. With a first season under the belt and a second season on the way, we spoke with Hong about his time in Hollywood and his recent work in these award-winning projects and Asian American-created stories.
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COLLIDER: So, let’s just start from the top, how did you get involved in this project for Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai?

JAMES Hong: Well, I’m very happy to be so-called involved in the series because, you know, I’ve heard of Gremlins for a long, long time. How many years has it been since the previous one? About five years or more?

Since the original, it’s been like 40.

Hong: It’s been a long time, so obviously I’ve looked forward to being in a major hit and something that has gone into the families of all of America and foreign countries. So, to be part of the new one, it’s really an honor.

You have a prolific history as a voice actor. I have to ask, when do you go to sleep? I feel like you’re always working!

Hong: Oh gosh, I don’t! Unfortunately, now after the awards and the star on the Walk of Fame, it’s been a constant of interviews with all the stations and newspapers. And I guess, being the senior member of the Asian acting community, they want to hear what I will have to say about this industry, the 70 years that I have been in Hollywood.

Image via Max

Yeah, I attended the CCA event that you spoke at last year honoring Asian Pacific Islanders, and your speech was so moving. I’d love hearing it, I cried when you were talking about it. I want to know, did you ever expect that you would end up at this spot when you were just starting out in the industry?

Hong: When I started, I was still a civil engineer. In other words, I was studying in Minnesota, UFM, and then transferred my credits to USC because I thought there were opportunities here in Hollywood, and almost none for me in Minnesota. So I transferred all my credits from UFM to USC and graduated as a civil engineer, you know, and worked for the LA County building roads. So it was then, even when I was going to USC in the last year, I was spending my time earning money as being an extra, you know, so I was exposed to that industry, and pretty soon my agent said, “No, you’ve got to be an actor.” So right away, she got me jobs, and lucky enough, in a sense I was prepared. I was averaging 10 movies and TV a year, so I was what they were looking for here in Hollywood.

I started the first acting class for Asian Americans here in Hollywood, and so it’s been a great adventure traveling from that instant to what it is now, where we’re getting awards, winning Best Director, Best Movie, and there’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s shocking, shockingly amazing because I thought, “Well, this is just another movie,” you know? But little was I aware that the audience was waiting to see a film as such. It still amazes me. I can’t believe that we won the Best Picture award at the Oscars, and when I got hold of that Oscar, I was supposed to pass it around, but I grabbed onto it, and they wheeled me out to the Governor’s Ball and I still hung on to it. They tried to come to the ball and said, “James, they want to get that Oscar back,” and I said, “Well, let them come and get it!” [Laughs] And so I went on eating because I hadn’t eaten for about seven hours, so soon another bigger guy comes, says, “We really have to have that Oscar because we’re gonna engrave the name on it.” Not my name, of course. So I was like, “Okay, take it,” so I had to give that Oscar up [laughs]. One day maybe I can have one of my own.

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Image via Max

I’m glad you got to hold it! I feel like you deserve to hold it just as much as everybody else. I mean, I have to congratulate you on Everything Everywhere, that was my favorite movie of last year. I grew up in a Chinese American family, my parents speak Mandarin and Cantonese, and watching that on screen was very– it just felt very surreal.

Hong: Oh, that’s interesting! Do you speak Cantonese? But your mother and dad speaks Cantonese, I suppose, huh?

My dad speaks Cantonese. He’s from Shanghai, so he also speaks Shanghainese, which I also understand, so it’s a lot to take in.

But I have to ask, I just watched American Born Chinese, too, and of course, Secrets of the Mogwai, and you have so many elements of Chinese mythology being included. What has it been like seeing that being presented to the mainstream English language storytelling, and seeing that people watching it and liking it?

Hong: American Born Chinese, I haven’t even seen it yet. You know, I was there acting in it one day, so I’m very anxious to see what the whole thing looks like. It was a very different set. I mean, there was a stage and I climbed on the stage, and I just sort of did things out of a dream. It wasn’t really a reality set, nor was the story, at that point, a reality, so I’m looking to see how all that fits in.

And the same thing, I’m looking now at other scripts and other people doing things, and Asian American vehicles are totally different, and I’m so glad that creators, directors, producers are looking to different aspects of American Chinese life, you know? And pretty soon, it’ll be commonplace. Right now, it’s still just at this starting stage.