Eternals' Gemma Chan reconnects with her Asian heritage

Hollywood star, humanitarian and fashion icon Gemma Chan talks to Porter about her surprising role in the highly anticipated Marvel blockbuster Eternals, using her platform to drive change, and how she is reconnecting with her roots

Gemma Chan is in one of those rare moments of relative stillness when you know that life will never be quite the same again, as she embarks on the press tour for Marvel’s latest, highly anticipated blockbuster Eternals: “It’s a very ambitious film. The scale of it is epic, covering the span of 7,000 years,” Chan says. Yet she has already had a whirlwind 12 months: Disney’s animated adventure Raya and the Last Dragon, in which she starred, grossed more than $130million at box offices worldwide, and she will be kicking off 2022 with the release of psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde.

Having previously played Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel, her casting in Eternal came as a surprise. It’s the first time that an actor has been cast for a different role in the same realm. Chan explains that the reasons behind this decision became clear when she started filming: “[When I met] the other cast members and we started working, it made sense. I saw why they had to cast us because they had picked actors who embodied some of the inherent traits of each character.”

Chan grew up with her parents and younger sister Helen in Kent. Her mom immigrated to the UK from China at the age of nine and her dad from Hong Kong in his late twenties – theirs was one of the few families of color in the community. As a child, Chan recalls feeling “like I was kind of between two cultures” and didn’t know how to respond when neighbors would compliment her on her “good English”. She also remembers times when she just wanted to assimilate, to “blend into the background” in public while her tiny yet voracious grandma haggled at the top of her lungs on shopping trips. “No one could out-haggle her, though,” the actor chuckles.

She explains how her parents have responded to her global fame. “They’re wonderfully constant, which I really love, but they’re also not overly impressed by anything. I do know they’re incredibly proud. And more than anything, they’re relieved that both my sister and I are okay.” Before she began acting Chan walked away from a law career to attend Drama Centre London and her parents were nervous for her job security. It was almost a decade later that she landed her first major breakout role on Channel 4’s sci-fi drama Humans as Mia.

The actor also shares the Chinese names her parents chose for her and her sister – hers is 陈静 [Chén Jìng], which means “tranquility or quiet. My sister is 陈平 [Chén Píng] which is peace. So, my parents called us ‘peace and quiet’” – although that didn’t really reflect their personalities while growing up.

Chan’s involvement in the #StopAsianHate campaign earlier this year was crucial and committed. As well as using her platform to speak out about the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes and sentiment, she launched a GoFundMe initiative called Stop ESEA Hate, which has raised more than £88,000 for East and South-East Asian grassroots organizations in the UK. She describes herself as an “accidental activist”, saying of her motivation: “I think a lot about how we can be useful as people, working in media or the arts. How can we work together across different industries to shift narratives and support our communities on the ground?”

Chan credits the Asian community in media, fashion and beyond with helping her to reconnect with her roots: “One of the nicest things about getting older has been reconnecting and feeling like I can embrace and celebrate the Asian side of my heritage. I’ve met so many incredible people, so many more Asians than I knew when I was growing up, in my line of work.”

She notes the significance she feels in having embarked on a career in storytelling and the arts, explaining that it “ensures that we have our stories told and ensures that we have a place in popular culture and consciousnesses… With the absence of that, stereotypes and prejudices grow and it’s incredibly important that we… [as] any group that has been excluded or marginalized before, get to define our own narratives.”

Chan considers the steady and incremental change she has seen in the industry: “I love the fact that it doesn’t seem to be people elbowing each other out of the way anymore. It’s one of the best things about the past few years; it feels like the doors have finally opened a little bit and people are being allowed to tell their own stories and the stories of their histories and the communities. And, naturally, the more we do that, the more we realize what we have in common with each other.”

Chan’s character in Eternals, Sersi, is best known for her affinity for humans, having lived happily among them for thousands of years: “Someone who has been on earth for the past 7,000 years and [has] seen everything that’s happened with humanity: the good and the bad, everything in between… The question [one starts to ask] is: is humanity worth saving?”

Chan and Sersi are in agreement that the answer to this is yes. “We at least have to try. We can at least try and fix things and come up with the solutions. That’s our responsibility for having gotten us here in the first place.”

Gemma Chan on Marvel’s latest, highly anticipated blockbuster Eternals: “It’s a very ambitious film. The scale of it is epic, covering the span of 7,000 years.”

Gemma Chan on being the first actor to be cast for a different role in the same realm: “[When I met] the other cast members and we started working, it made sense. I saw why they had to cast us because they had picked actors who embodied some of the inherent traits of each character.”

Gemma Chan on the central issue that her character Sersi has to grapple with: “Someone who has been on earth for the past 7,000 years and [has] seen everything that’s happened with humanity: the good and the bad, everything in between… The question [one starts to ask] is: is humanity worth saving?”

Gemma Chan on the question, ‘is humanity worth saving?’: “We at least have to try. We can at least try and fix things and come up with the solutions. That’s our responsibility for having gotten us here in the first place.”

Gemma Chan on being one of the few families of color in their community: Chan recalls feeling “like I was kind of between two cultures” and didn’t know how to respond when neighbors would compliment her on her “good English”.

Gemma Chan on how her parents have responded to her global fame: “They’re wonderfully constant, which I really love, but they’re also not overly impressed by anything. I do know they’re incredibly proud. And more than anything, they’re relieved that both my sister and I are okay.”

Gemma Chan on the Chinese names her parents chose for her and her sister: “It means tranquility or quiet. My sister is 陈平 [Chén Píng] which is peace. So, my parents called us ‘peace and quiet’.”

Gemma Chan on her motivation for using her platform to speak out about the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes: “I think a lot about how we can be useful as people, working in media or the arts. How can we work together across different industries to shift narratives and support our communities on the ground?”

Gemma Chan on how Asian communities in media, fashion and beyond have helped her to reconnect with her roots: “One of the nicest things about getting older has been reconnecting and feeling like I can embrace and celebrate the Asian side of my heritage. I’ve met so many incredible people, so many more Asians than I knew when I was growing up, in my line of work.”

Gemma Chan on the significance that her career in storytelling and the arts has: “[It] ensures that we have our stories told and ensures that we have a place in popular culture and consciousnesses… With the absence of that, stereotypes and prejudices grow and it’s incredibly important that we… [as] any group that has been excluded or marginalized before, get to define our own narratives.”

Gemma Chan on the steady and incremental change she has seen in the industry: “I love the fact that it doesn’t seem to be people elbowing each other out of the way anymore. It’s one of the best things about the past few years; it feels like the doors have finally opened a little bit and people are being allowed to tell their own stories and the stories of their histories and the communities. And, naturally, the more we do that, the more we realize what we have in common with each other.”

All items worn by Gemma Chan can be purchased straight from the shoot via the NET-A-PORTER app, available on Android as well as iPhone and iPad, and through NET-A-PORTER.com.

To see the full interview, read PORTER at www.net-a-porter.com/porter/article-54e5fdc236f84895 and/ or download the NET-A-PORTER app for iPhone, iPad and Android.

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