How Benedict Wong steered his career to '3 Body Problem'

In March, at the afterparty for the premiere of “3 Body Problem” at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Benedict Wong assumed his alter ego. The English actor, known for playing stoic but sly tough guys, morphed into DJ Obi-Wong, spinning electronic dance records, a wide smile on his face and a sleek virtual reality headset (actually a “3 Body” prop) perched on his head. He was clearly having a blast.

He has earned it. A little more than 10 years ago, Wong was wondering if he still had a career. He had lived on a diet of nondescript Asian background players and generic gangsters.

He loved the theater, but it wasn’t paying the bills. He felt like his agents weren’t earning their keep. Today, he’s all over the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a mystic teacher (whose name also happens to be Wong) and playing a bloodhound-like detective in “3 Body Problem,” Netflix’s mind-bending sci-fi series.

He’s become a welcome presence as a character actor in such movies as “The Martian” and “Annihilation,” and on the droll vampire series “What We Do in the Shadows.” He now represents himself, and he’s about to start his own production company, Big Boss Panda. He’s feeling grateful.

“The journey I’ve had, it’s some sort of Asian actor ‘Forrest Gump’ story,” he said in a recent video interview from his London home. “Forces can try and derail you and become an obstacle for you not to succeed. But they just become stepping stones.

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