Earlier this week we had the opportunity to attend the Star Wars: The Bad Batch mid-season roundtables with head show writer Jennifer Corbett, director Brad Rau, and star Ming-Na Wen. Here we look at the Ming-Na roundtable.
Ming-Na Wen voices Fennec Shand in The Bad Batch, and portrays her on-screen in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. She is known to many for her role as as Mulan in the 1998 Disney animated classic and for her role as Melinda May in Marvel’s Agents of Shield.
The roundtables were attended by some of the biggest Star Wars fan sites/podcasts, including George Bate (Star Wars Holocron), Teresa Delgado (Fangirls Going Rogue), William Devereaux (Ion Cannon), Mark Newbold (Fantha Tracks), Sarah and Richard Woloski (Skywalking through Neverland), David Yeh (Endor Express), Bryan Young (Star Wars Insider), and Dan Zehr (Coffee with Kenobi). We were all very pleased to be talking with Ming-Na.
This is what I asked her: –
Your reaction to seeing your LEGO minifigure [of Fennec Shand] was just fantastic [June 5th on Twitter], so how do you feel when you see yourself immortalized as a toy? [I showed her the LEGO minifigure on screen]
“It’s fantastic, I’m so jealous you have one. How do you have the in? So my in is through you, I would say – I think that has to happen.
I’m gaga over all of this, everyday I go on set I’m just it takes me a little bit to focus and work and be a professional actor, because I’m always having like these little moments or nerdgasms.”
As a Star Wars collector for all these years, getting products of your own to bring into your own collection must be amazing.
“It’s ridiculous, I think I’m going to have to work harder because I’ll be spending a lot of money picking up several, I just won’t buy one!”
At least your holiday presents for this year are sorted because you can buy everyone figures of yourself.
“Or everyone can just buy me figures, there you go!”
Here are some of the other questions asked: –
George Bate (Star Wars Holocron) asked what other medium (besides a Disney+ series) she would like to see Fennec in, Ming-Na paused for a moment, then a goofy grin spread across her face.
“Anything, anything at all. Bring back the Holiday Special – whatever! I’m excited about any venture into this universe. Of course, If I got to participate in an a cinematic release of a film in the future that would pretty much make me pee in my pants! I’m just excited to see the dolls and the toys coming out. I hear one of the Black Series is coming out, and I’ve collected Star Wars toys since I was little, so this is insane, it’s just unbelievable.”
Teresa Delgado (Fangirls Going Rogue) asked how Ming-Na felt to be representing an Asian character in some a big property like Star Wars.
“It’s kind of funny, Jimmy O. Yang says, ‘it’s not really my choice I’m representing. When you’re born looking Asian it’s just going to be an automatic thing. For me, I’m just grateful that there’s been more characters that’s been incorporated, we have green aliens, blue aliens, and what was lacking early on were Asian characters and now there’s been so many in Rogue One. I think it’s wonderful and I’m so thankful that the fans like her. because as a huge Star Wars fan myself, it’s a gift. I hope that this sort of success story will only encourage them to create more Asian characters.”
William Devereaux (Ion Cannon) suggested that Fennec Shand seem to care about Omega, and asked about the dynamic between the two.
“Fennec, especially young Fennec, she is good at reading people and manipulating, and playing a certain quality to invite herself into that particular person’s trust. I’m not sure how sincere and genuine her care for Omega is, or she just sees her as a bounty or a gig she had to fulfill. I appreciate you think there is this side to her, I’d like to think there is a quality and side to her that she connected with Omega in a certain way, but we’ll see…”
Mark Newbold (Fantha Tracks) asked is she plays Fennec in the Mandalorian era the same as Fennec in The Bad Batch era.
“As actors we have to draw from ourselves and infuse our own life experiences and soul to a character to bring them to life. And I know that the 22 year old me is very different from me now. But at the same time I’m still that geek nerd girl that every time I get on a new set and see new toys I geek out and freak out like I would if I was a teenager. So those are the elements I try to bring into the younger Fennec. There’s definitely less experience, more ambition, more of a drive to prove who she is and make her mark in the world. Her energy and her focus and her tactics might be a little more raw and different. And I give her a slight little pitch change, but not too much. The difference between her and a seasoned Fennec is in the energy.”
Sarah Woloski (Skywalking through Neverland) asked Ming-Na Wen how foxes informed her voice acting, and this is how she answered….
“I watched a lot of videos of foxes, especially fennec foxes. There’s a slinkiness to their walk and they’re loners. And they listen – the fennec fox has huge ears, they’re very very alert and aware. Fennec can read people really well or she thought she could read people well, except for that one time with Toro…[from The Mandalorian Chapter 5]. For the voice I wanted to kind of give a little bit of that quality of her. There’s a more elongated, slinky rhythm that came from the fox, and so when she talks there’s a little bit of an exaggeration and a stretching of words here and there and whenever she does speak there’s a pointed reason for it. My natural voice is much higher.”
David Yeh (Endor Express) reminded us the Fennec was only in the first season of The Mandalorian briefly, and asked if she knew if the character was a bigger part of the [Star Wars] galaxy all along?
“No, as a matter of fact I had no idea, but boy am I happy it’s happened the way it’s happened. When Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni offered me this role I was really excited because my entire life has been trying to manifest this moment where I got to participate and be part of a Star Wars project. But when I read the script [to “The Gunslinger”] and she dies I was just like, ‘oh…that’s kinda sad…’ So I wasn’t sure, but hey, this might be the only opportunity for me to participate, so I got to check this off my bucket list. Talking to Jon and Dave, I mean it’s like three people talking the same language who all love Star Wars so much and are really knowledgeable about it. So, I took the job and Dave directed, and we got to know each other and discovered that we had both grown up in the same town and went to the same High School. I might have used that as a little bit of an edge to try to guilt him into keeping Fennec alive! But I’m really hoping that it’s between them loving the character, and what I brought to it, and the fans’ reaction to the character when the episode aired, that all this other stuff transpired. I’m so grateful and so, so happy.”
Bryan Young (Star Wars Insider) asked how did your fandom start, how has it influenced your work, and how has it changed since you’ve been part of it.
“[Talking about Star Wars in 1977] The experience I felt from the moment the music came on and the big Imperial cruiser going over our heads, as a young kid it’s endless and it just went on forever, and I just knew I was in for an amazing adventure. The connection I felt, especially with Luke Skywalker at the time, when he looked at the binary sunset and this might be for all of us, that one moment, 30 seconds of celluloid, but with the music and him staring out there and thinking will I ever fulfill my dreams, will I ever be who I want to become. That was me, I totally understood that, a kid stuck in Pittsburgh, and wanting and dreaming about being an actor. Being Asian, a woman, and knowing the obstacles ahead of me. It was just all of that. The Force, it became a religious experience, and I’m sure for you guys too on many levels. It united us all. And then, when I got on the set of the Mandalorian and that Volume lit up and it was Tatooine with the binary sunset, you should have seen how much I freaked out. I cried, I literally cried, I was so happy and I asked the AD to take a picture of me looking at the binary sunset.”
Dan Zehr (Coffee with Kenobi) asked about voice-work and the difference between that and live-action, and she explained what happened due to COVID, with her voice recording for The Bad Batch.
“Because of COVID, they brought in all this equipment — the computer, the microphone they delivered it all, and I had to set it up in my home. And the only place I found to be really good for sound buffering was in my closet because of all the clothes. So I did this season of Bad Batch in my closet. So can you imagine you have to create and bring this character to life with your imagination, and you’re surrounded by your clothes, it’s pretty crazy!”
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is available now on Disney+ with new episodes arriving every Friday.
