Cheers of a football match can be heard buzzing in the background, a soft, warm light brightens the room and the first thing that comes to mind is comfort. “Ah no! It’s now one-one!” exclaims Aimée Kwan with disappointment, as she’s turned her attention away briefly to provide a quick update of the game for me. Whilst the team currently playing is not the team she’s supported since birth (“Manchester United, it’s a multi-generational family thing,” she tells me) I empathise with her concern, as we both have a mutual love of football and understand how a rival’s result can quickly move things around in the league table.
The British East & South-East Asian actress’ demeanour is bright, bubbly, and light compared to the contrasting (slightly dour) weather in North Carolina from where I’m conducting the interview, though even with the time difference, she seems to have far more energy out of the both of us. We both take a beat from chatting over how we think South Korean football star Son Heung-min might be able to win a club trophy before the end of his career before finally getting into brass tacks: namely, John Wick: Chapter 4.
Aimée, the multi-hyphenate actress-screenwriter-and-more has a myriad of experiences and interests that touch on a multitude of subjects; something which is reflected in her work and throughout our conversation. However, her role as Mia in the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4 is the biggest project she has worked on so far.
It must be quite a lot to take in for someone so unknown, and in today’s content-driven world, perceptions are everything to the eye of the beholder. Aimée seems multifaceted in all that she says and does: while she’s bright and chatty in the spotlight, when alone or with those she’s closest to she’s more reserved and quiet. I ask her about her thoughts around social media and the need for every actor, singer, sports star and more to have a well-honed ‘brand’ that helps to manage the public perception of the individual, especially for those up-and-coming like herself. Such glossy curation seems very at odds with the open way she expresses her thoughts on life and her work. What do perceptions mean to her?
“Hm… I would like [people] to perceive me in whatever way makes them feel comfortable,” she says, after many moments pass. “Because at the end of the day, we - consumers - interact with people in the public eye through the emotional impact of their work in our lives, right? A song, a photo, a moment in time that makes us feel a certain way, that means something to us. In many ways, it’s not about that figure or that person at all... so it's not about me either; it’s about what makes the people who see what I do happy, or… to be honest, whatever they hope to feel."
She’s not any different from the majority of us when it comes to trying to find her identity. Who we are to our colleagues and friends are completely different to when we’re by ourselves, and she mentions spending many years as a child and teenager figuring out who she was to people: her parents, her friends, her teachers and so on. Interestingly, she doesn’t mention figuring out who she is or was in relation to herself.
“I feel like I’ve taken until my 20s to actually feel comfortable with who I am as a human being,” she confesses, as she ruminates on her younger years. “It took me a while to even feel comfortable with the concept that you shouldn’t… chase the friendship or approval of people who don't want you. That should be advice for everybody, no? Especially when you're young, there will be certain kinds of people, or certain things or certain ways of being... don't chase that. Don't worry about that. I wish I had been able to tell younger me that.
I don't want to say something cheesy, like break the mould, do what you want… I don't think it's that; because if you don't want to break the mould, that's okay, too. But it's more… do what you want to do because you want to do it. Because it's what feels right. For who you are or what you want to be. And have peace with that. But it's hard. I don't think I'm always good at that, even now.”
But she did know from an early age that she wanted to chase a career in film: there is often a pivotal moment in a person’s life when they realise what they want to do in life and for Aimée, she vividly remembers when she knew film and television was it.
“My mum and dad rented Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring from Blockbuster," she recounts with a smile. "This is when you still used tapes too, it wasn't even a DVD.
There’s a scene in the movie where the Fellowship encounters this cave troll and they're trapped in a tomb. And I was really young when I watched it, right? So this scared the shit out of me. I remember there's this bit where like the troll, he breaks in and he's swinging a club around and he's about to stab Frodo and I was so scared. I actually got off the sofa and I ran behind it. I was so terrified, but also so enthralled with the fact that something could make me feel that extreme about something.”
However, for all the love and romanticism she associates with film and TV, she’s very aware of the ins and outs of 'the business' too. As we talk about how long the Lord of the Rings trilogy is, the conversation swings around to how the industry deals with the growing need to balance both short form and long form video content in order to keep the attention of different audience groups. With apps moving toward shorter and shorter content in order to keep their primary user base’s attention for at least a minute, she wonders how often audiences will experience the same magic that she felt when watching Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring for the first time, especially since John Wick: Chapter 4 is almost three hours long in runtime.
“I think some of what makes those kinds of feelings so special is because you watch a project, feel the buildup for so long and then - wow! A moment! - you know?” she enthuses. “Like in John Wick: Chapter 4, there are so many amazing earned moments in the movie where you're just like, [gasps], especially in the third act. It’s a little harder to feel that in a piece lasting 30, 60 seconds, perhaps, just because the buildup isn’t the same. That’s what makes sports so special too, right? You can watch the highlights of a game or tournament but the joy is in experiencing the long journey of what it took to get there. Like, if you're happy with your team's result it's great of course, but if I haven't been able to catch the race or the game or whatever, I always wish I'd been able to watch it live. The highlights aren't the same!
But then maybe audiences get that same emotional payoff from following a YouTuber for years, or with prestige TV you can still get those really well-earned moments too across a season. And I live for falling in love with a new album, that rare moment you hear a song on a record that’s your song! One of my favourite albums recently was about sixteen minutes long, I think. So what do I know?”
Of late, there have been many public conversations surrounding how people get jobs or have a fulfilling career in the entertainment industry, with a lot of questions regarding nepotism and how it plays a part in how artists or actors get careers. It’s known that having a career in this business isn’t a straight line, as we’ve seen from the careers of Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Octavia Spencer, to name but a few. Aimée is very honest and realistic with how she sees the whole machine.
When recounting whether or not she felt that she would ever get to be be apart of a franchise film such as this, she muses, “Since I can remember, this is all I've wanted to do in this industry. So I've always wanted to be apart of such a project, even if I didn't imagine it happening precisely this way. [But the] industry is not predicated solely upon hard work either… I talk with other actor and writer friends about this a lot. It’s the hardest thing you learn when you go into the industry properly because you obviously train really hard and you hope it will pay off if you just keep working hard. So my honest answer is no, I didn't think I'd get a role in a franchise like this because actually, I think it's very complicated why someone gets booked for any role.
It's not solely about how skilled an actor or performer is; I think pretty much everyone, consumers too, are hyper aware of that. It's like many other industries, really. You might never know why, for what random reason - your voice, your look, your whatever - you don't book something. So you can't even go home try and improve yourself for next time. I think that can be frustrating to a lot of actors especially, but other creatives too. That’s just how it is in this business, and you’ve gotta make your peace with that for the sake of your mental health.”
When recalling whether or not she’d felt nervous going into filming John Wick: Chapter 4, Aimee takes a beat before saying, “You know what? I can genuinely say no, because I had no idea it was John Wick: Chapter 4 for a long time. I didn't know anything for 100% sure until I got there, and then I finally got my sides and I saw Donnie Yen and so on. But also, I love being on on sets, so that dampened any nervousness too.
Some people purely love acting and solely love that process. For me, I love all of this, it's always always been fun; and that's reflected in the fact that I just love being on sets. You could just get me to like, get you coffee, I don't care. There's something about being on set that feels so comfortable. I feel like it's home. So it was just really cool, I was really happy.”
When I catch up with her briefly after she’s back from hopping around Europe for the London, Berlin and Paris premieres of the movie, she tells me how she spent her second and third watches of the movie analysing different elements every viewing, from the colour grading to different shots and more. She tells me with much excitement, that at the Paris afterparty she got to talk again to director Chad Stahelski about all the little details she’d picked up on, to ask whether she’d noticed some of his creative intentions correctly and to ask how he created some of her favourite moments.
“I didn’t want to bother him too much,” she tells me. “But it was amazing to hear him talk about it. When it comes to film and TV, it really is the everything for me. Acting, being an actor, being a part of what gets a movie made, is just the best.”
Over time, it's easy to get a sense of how many things in her life have influenced her, from early years watching football, Formula 1 and figure skating growing up, being involved in music from a very young age, or how certain movies and actors have impacted her. Such as the movie Hero featuring Donnie Yen, who plays Aimée’s father in the movie.
“It is one of the most influential movies to me ever, ever,” she gushes to me. “[Donnie Yen] plays an assassin called Sky in it. I told him that was my favourite movie of his and he was like, “Oh my God, that's really old movie!” I was like, “Yeah, but you're wonderful in it! My mum and dad love you in Ip Man!” He said thank you and at this point I had filmed a few of my shots before he did. So I guess he had a chance to see some of what I had done, and he told me what I had done was really wonderful. I’m sure he was just being kind to a young actor but I had honestly been questioning my place in the whole industry even just a week before.
When I was being driven back to the hotel, I told my mum and my dad and told them what he said to me what and honestly, I just cried. Full-on bawled for a long time. His kindness to say that to me when he didn’t have to, was so meaningful.
Rina was so kind as well. I'm a big gift giver and I knew that I would see her on my last day on her set and I really like her music. “LUCID” is a total love of mine. So I wanted to get her something but I wasn’t sure what to get her. In my mind, if I can’t get someone a present that isn’t useful or meaningful, then I want to get them food I appreciate: I’m a big foodie so it’s like, if I share food I love with you it’s like sharing a bit of my heart with you, you know? And hopefully you feel that expression, that enjoyment, too.
Pierre Hermé is my favourite pâtissier so I got to hand her a box of macarons I’d picked out for her and then we spoke about music and film and stuff on the drive back. This sounds really cheesy but in general I really treasure small things and small moments, I’m rarely impressed by big sweeping gestures or anything flashy like that. So simply being able to listen to her talk about her work, her process making an album, how she crafts her music videos, all that stuff... plus to be able to give her something that reflected how much I loved what she did… does… that was so special. Both Donnie and Rina were really wonderful.”
As we talk more about how music is not only an incredible influence to her in her daily life, she mentions that she listened to a lot of music by the groups SEVENTEEN and TOMORROW X TOGETHER during the entire shooting process, spending whole days with only their music on shuffle.
“You know, I take my music very seriously,” she says with a laugh, before she gets out her phone and parses through her library of playlists and albums to share with me in greater detail what she listened to back then. Her music library spans across different genres (RM from BTS, Taylor Swift, Aya Nakamura, Bilal Hassani, Kali Uchis and PURPLE KISS have been high on her frequent music selections lately), but when I ask her to pick her seven most favourite or most impactful tracks from that shooting period - if she could even dare to narrow it down - she spends much time considering her final selections.
“I want to start with “CROWN” by TOMORROW X TOGETHER, not just because it's my favorite song by them, even all these years later, but also because I really remember being in that hotel room and watching their live concert online, the day after my first shooting day. And there's always something special about when a group performs their debut song again.
Then take “Heaven’s Cloud” by SEVENTEEN. That was the very first song that I listened to on that very first drive to set. “Healing” by SEVENTEEN…” she continues to muse. “I mean, that song literally heals you. I listen to it a lot anyway, but I certainly listened to it a lot then. “AH! LOVE” is my second favourite SEVENTEEN song, so let’s put that and then… “Can't you just leave the monster alive?” It’s a TXT song and whenever I'm stressed, or whenever I feel bad, I put it on.
Then if I add “Come To Me” by SEVENTEEN, that’s a legendary song to me… I’ll round off with “Silent Boarding Gate”, which is by JUN from SEVENTEEN. That was actually one of my most played songs that year. Oh my gosh, it's such a wonderful song. It’s very sad but it's very, very comforting. It makes my mum sad whenever she listens to it, but honestly, it's great. So that's my seven. Maybe I’ll reorder all the songs now into a flow I think would work best…”
Comfort, home and finding who you are seems to be at the core of most of the songs on the playlist. I wonder if this is intentional: if any of this connects all the way back to the kid that started playing piano at four and violin soon after, and all that came after that. As we talk more, she muses that perhaps it is. Perhaps it is a way to find firm ground for a person with so much to say she doesn't always know where to start, for a person wishing so much to honour all her various heritages and cultural influences even though she knows ("from much experience," she takes care to emphasise) many of them don't always accept her: not fully, anyway.
"It is what it is," she says simply. "I'm at peace with that, mostly. It's all a process. To be yourself, and to survive, being yourself... That's hard, you know? For everyone. All you can do is... like Anna says in Frozen 2: "do the next right thing"... even if you end up being wrong. Wait, that sounds very John Wick, no?! Like, he makes choices because he feels it's the 'right thing', and be damned otherwise.
But anyway, these days, I try to at least be myself, as fully as I can. Because that's a 'right thing', right, being yourself? Before, I covered up a lot of things that made me happy, put up with a lot of racist comments, for the sake of that. And then you know, you get frustrated, sometimes you act out, I don't know... I still get angry at myself about it sometimes, it doesn't matter that I was a kid or that I was 'still learning': I wish I'd been a better or stronger person. But now, the friends that have known me in my latter years actually know the 'truest' me, I think. So this also helps remind me to keep living well for everyone I love, too. So see, music helps, haha! Frozen helps!
Chad explained to me a lot about how he envisioned Mia. That she's very lonely, that she yearns for connection; because she's had so little family in her life, she's been so isolated; so music is her way of expressing herself. Music is her voice that helps her to connect with people. It is a way she that she can be herself. I guess Mia is like me in that sense, where I use the music I love to hopefully connect with people. I could relate very deeply when he explained that. So I suppose, in relation to that playlist: I listen to a lot of upbeat songs, or at least songs that remind me to keep going, keep doing the next right thing, and somehow there'll be sunshine tomorrow. That's the music that I come back to the most."
Being cognizant of the fact that it is now nearing midnight in the UK - and given that she is six hours ahead of me - the match we were watching is well past over and we wrap up our chat by contemplating who Manchester United might get sold to and where Son Heung-min and Mitoma Kaoru's careers might take them. Even with all her other interests, there are no signs of Aimée slowing down any time soon. We take a beat to check back in with the Premier League table before we swerve back to movies and I ask her about her future plans and endeavours. As a someone with many things always going on, Aimée has several projects along the horizon: from a few acting and modelling possibilities, working to get another original screenplay produced, potentially putting out another book, and more work with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in her hopes to help make the industry better and brighter. And rest, she reminds me. She wants to find time for that too.
There’s no doubt she’ll continue to make waves in some way… while another SEVENTEEN or TOMORROW X TOGETHER album plays in the background.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is out now in cinemas worldwide. Aimée Kwan can be found on Instagram and Twitter.
CREATIVE TEAM:
Creative Editors: Yin Ting Lau & Francesca Verceles-Zara. Styling Consultant: Kaitlin Kimbro. Hair & Makeup: Isabel Galwey. Visual Editor: Joa Yang. Lighting Assistant: Robbie Ewing. Creative Assistant: Maddie Armstrong. Graphic Design: Brooke Colao. Production Assistant: Ray Chan. Photographed in the Arch Photo Studio, South East London, and Bermondsey, South East London.
