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Interview: Benedict Wong Talks About Playing Kublai Khan In The Netflix Hit Original Series “Marco Polo”

With the season 2 finale of the Netflix hit original series “Marco Polo” having just aired, I recently had the opportunity to speak with actor Benedict Wong, who plays Kublai Khan on the show.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
Hello Mr.Wong? (I thank him for taking the time for the interview.) I’m very happy and honored.

Benedict Wong
Oh no, it´s my pleasure.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
We’ve seen you lately in “Moon,” “Better Life,” “The Lady,” “Prometheus,” “Kick Ass 2,” “The Martian,” “Marco Polo” and now we’ll see you in the upcoming “Doctor Strange.” Congratulations! I’m personally a great fan of the 2 seasons of “Marco Polo.” Actually, when I finished the first season I was quite upset that there weren’t more episodes.

Benedict Wong
Yeah, the episodes take some time to make. We are extremely proud of the production.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
The whole production values are incredible, starting with the locations, wardrobe, make-up, all the time according hair styling is on top, besides all the great acting and the great script.

Benedict Wong
Thank you. Exactly, it’s like the Kublai Khan, he surrounded himself always with the best people. I´m happy to be working with John Fusco and all the wonderful actors and stunt crew, makeup and dress. So, it was wonderful to return to it in season 2 and it feels much more embedded, as a character.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
And let’s not forget about you. You are one of the main characters in the show. Kublai Khan is personally a character that I relate to. Whenever there is a scene with him, his presence fills the screen and his decisions are always unpredictable. Could you tell us how this role came to you?

Benedict Wong
Well, at that time there was a big search and I went for a part that was more age appropriate and thanks to Nina Gold, a fantastic casting director in England, she mentioned to John that I should do Kublai, and I went on tape again and I was in Hong Kong at that time and I flew over to Malaysia to meet everybody and we just talked about the story and about where the story could take us as well. And all of a sudden I found myself putting on fifty pounds (laughs) in four months, because he is quite a big guy, you know. That’s a symbol of affluence anyway of that time. So I sat back and did my research about the Khan and obviously it is always interesting when you play historical characters, because nobody will ever really know truly…(break). For me it’s really more about humanizing him and also obviously people felt the fear on the outside, through his actions, but when we are focusing really deep into the character, you see, that the Khan also has his wife, the Empress Chabi, who is also his confidant and his rock. So I did a lot of foraging with books and documentaries and what I decided to do with John Fusco and ……born in the year of the earth pig, so I tried to do something that is very characteristic of the earth pig, which is someone who is very business astute and has many friends, likes to party. And this is very much unfurling in becoming like the Khan. And he suffer a lot from gout. So I wanted to find out what the emotional connection was to gout, and there is a book called ‘Heal your Body’ by Louise Hay. It says the emotional connection to gout is someone that dominates and is very impatient. So that’s how I began.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
Apart from the fifty pounds that you mentioned before, how difficult or easy was it for you to change your accent for this role?

Benedict Wong
Well, I try not to over-analyze that. There is something about being a Mongol and also being nomadic, so I would listen to Mongol advisors and a wonderful man who played my brother in the first season. And I was just gauging how Mongolians speak, holding on to something absolutely east Asian. More importantly, it’s almost kind of animal and kind of like a bear, really, isn’t it?

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
Yeah, he is a very wild character. What is your dream role, dream character?

Benedict Wong
Well, it’s very interesting how things will just sort of fall in front of me and at this moment I’m just ecstatic playing this character of the Khan. Such an intriguing time as well during the 13th century, because of the Khans’ themes of world domination, caring for his legacy and for his family. For me, I love playing complex characters, that’s all I ask for. And it’s just been a dream role to play. It´s been fantastic.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Wong.

Benedict Wong
All my pleasure.

“Marco Polo” is available to watch on Netflix

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