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Actress Gabby Wong on her first major role in Netflix series 1899, Star Wars spin-off Rogue One, and her love for Wong Kar-wai

  • Hong Kong- born actress Gabby Wong is coy about 1899, a thriller set on a ship full of immigrants: ‘It could be supernatural … then you think it’s sci-fi’
  • Wong acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre before appearing in Star Wars spin-off Rogue One, and would love to work in Hong Kong

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Gabby Wong and Isabella Wei attend the Netflix “1899” series premiere in Berlin, Germany. Wong, for whom this is her first major role, is coy about the thriller series. Photo: Tristar Media/WireImage
James Mottram

When you’re an up-and-coming actress, auditions mean everything. Just ask Gabby Wong, who had given birth to her son Henry four weeks before she was asked to self-tape for the new Netflix thriller 1899.

“I was actually left holding the baby,” she says, explaining how she had to repeat the trick a couple of days later when she met her director, Baran bo Odar, and co-star Isabella Wei over Zoom. And she nailed it.

“The period after you’ve given birth is a very raw time, [but] I just had to do it. There was no other way. And I just didn’t really think about it.”

This stood her in good stead for shooting 1899 in Berlin during the pandemic.
A still from 1899, which is set aboard a passenger ship. Photo: Netflix
A still from 1899, which is set aboard a passenger ship. Photo: Netflix

The Hong Kong-born actress joins an impressive international cast including British actress Emily Beecham (Cruella) and actor Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk) for a mystery story that has binge-watch written all over it. Set on a passenger ship loaded with immigrants, things start to get creepy when they encounter a second vessel adrift on the open sea.

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