Jason Wong, British-born Chinese actor, on Matthew McConaughey, his Silent Witness role and his year of living and teaching in Hong Kong
- Jason Wong, ‘born and raised on a west London estate’, talks to the Post about being the first major Asian actor in long-running BBC crime drama Silent Witness
- Wong, who taught drama and English in Hong Kong for a year, also reflects on keeping his cool while working with major stars Matthew McConaughey and Chris Pine
So there you are, comfortably on your way to global A-list status, stock rising with successive roles. Then you infiltrate the cast of a BBC television series so established it has become a national treasure – and suddenly you find this acting lark isn’t so glamorous after all.
“Who wants to swim, in the middle of winter, in the English Channel?” asks Jason Wong incredulously, guffawing at the thought of an especially challenging scene in Silent Witness.
“David Caves can do that!” says Wong, thumping his chest. “He’s the big man on the show! I’m like, ‘You get in there, David Caves!’”
At the crew’s behest, Wong did finally venture a short distance from Eastbourne Beach, “but it was freezing! And we had to wear these ridiculous wetsuits,” he recalls. “He got the cooler one, I got the tan, skin-tight, skin-coloured one. I looked like a spring roll!” Wong can’t quite believe his good fortune, it seems – but is joyfully making the most of it.
The longest-running crime drama in BBC history, Silent Witness follows a team of forensic pathologists as they assist police investigations into some horrific offences. The forthcoming season is its 24th – but the first to feature an Asian actor as a major character.