by Gill Pringle
Game of Thrones had just finished its final season in 2019, and the hit show’s writers/showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were eager to try something new, entering into a partnership with Netflix.
After dining with Peter Friedlander, Vice President of Scripted Series, he suggested the duo read Liu Cixin’s acclaimed sci-fi trilogy The Three-Body Problem.
Chronicling the threat of alien invasion, the books already had a huge following, receiving endorsements from such disparate fans as former US President Barack Obama, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.
Alongside the more epic elements of the story – vast virtual reality landscapes; the threat of highly sophisticated alien invaders and an ominous countdown that can inexplicably overtake a person’s vision – is a simple story of five brilliant, close-knit college friends who must reunite to figure out who’s responsible for their crumbling universe before time runs out.
“It was, in so many ways, unlike anything we’d ever read, and certainly unlike anything we’d ever contemplated bringing to the screen,” says Dan Weiss.
“Making Game of Thrones was the greatest experience of our lives. But we spent ten solid years living in that fictional world, so we wanted something that presented a new set of challenges on every level, and this story really does. It’s still genre storytelling but, under that large umbrella, it’s about as far away as you can get from what we’d just done on Thrones.
“That’s where both the excitement and the fear have come from; you’re doing something new, so you need to start over. You can’t use the template that you used before and just plug new characters and dialogue and story into it. Even the tone is different; the look of it is different. Everything about this show is different,” he says.
“It’s such an ambitious story, and it opens up so many possibilities for an adaptation,” adds Benioff, who was quick to cast some of their old GOT stars including John Bradley and Liam Cunningham.
The story begins with a young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China, reverberating across space and time into present day. When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel before their eyes, the five scientists – known as “The Oxford Five” having all first met while studying physics at the famed British university – join forces with Benedict Wong’s unorthodox detective, Da Shi, to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.
Casting around the world for key players, the series also features Eiza González, Jonathan Pryce, Jovan Adepo, Rosalind Chao, Alex Sharp, Sea Shimooka, Zine Tseng, Saamer Usmani and Australian actress Marlo Kelly [below].
Set in various far-flung locations, although mainly in the U.K. and China, this global saga called for a multi-national cast – one of the key roles going to New Zealand actress Jess Hong, a newcomer to the international stage.
Stepping into the role of genius physicist Jin Cheng – a character flung into a breathtaking world of virtual reality – Hong found herself swept into a dizzying new arena, having studied at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, and working primarily in local theatre.
“It was a wild experience because I’d never worked with VFX to that degree. The most I’ve ever done was be an onion for my friends’ short film!” laughs Hong, 27.
“The game world was also one of the first things that we shot. So, John Bradley and I spent three months inside studios not seeing daylight, that whole time in London winter/spring.
“It as a real collaboration between all the different departments and the set department did an amazing job. You would walk onto the stage and the floor is covered in sand, and you get to walk up a hill. And then the next day, the sand has gone and they’ve built half a castle there for you to actually go up to the second level and look out – but you definitely fill the rest of it with your imagination.
“But as someone that comes from theater, that came naturally to me. What was new for me, was emoting to like a piece of tape on the camera, or sometimes just thin air. But I got pretty good at that over the months,” says the actress who previously starred in TV series Inked, and guesting on The Brokenwood Mysteries.
Talking about her first impressions of the award-winning Game of Thrones team, she says, “They were incredible. They’re such laid back dudes, actually. And I was super surprised because the first time I met them on Zoom, I was super nervous. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna meet these guys. I’m just someone from New Zealand, just chillin’.’
“But they genuinely wanted to talk to me and get to know me, so that it informs their writing process when they’re thinking about the character. They want these characters to be as three-dimensional and complex as possible in their relationships with each other. So, they actually drew upon their conversations with you, like your vibe or your idioms. They even added in like, ‘Hey, buddy’, because I say that a lot of my real life, which I didn’t know. So, suddenly all these ‘buddies’ were popping up in the script. And they do these things to make it real; to make everything feel as tangible as possible.
“It felt like – even inside this big machine – there was still this artistic dialogue happening, which I was super grateful for,” she says.
No stranger to altered universes, Brit actor Benedict Wong [below] was on the set of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness when he was first approached by Benioff, Weiss and Alexander Woo to play the central character of Da Shi.
“I met them on Zoom, and I was a bit intrigued by these three showrunners on this mystery project. And they gave me a character breakdown, which read something like: ‘He came from Hong Kong. They moved over to Manchester in the ‘70s and lived there for 20 years and moved down to London’. And I said. ‘Hang on. This sounds an awful lot like me…’ and Alex then confessed that they had copied my Wikipedia page!” he recalls, deadpanning: “I got wooed by Woo.”
As a member of the ‘Oxford Five’, Eiza Gonzalez’ Auggie Salazar was originally written as a Brazilian character – but when the show runners heard that she might be available, they switched tack.
The Mexican singer and actress, known for her roles in Baby Driver, Godzilla vs Kong and Fast & Furious, was immediately intrigued, particularly at the prospect of playing a quantum physicist.
“That was something that felt very close to my heart when I chose this role, especially coming from my background and the type of roles that we see Latin women play. Also, I think there is a stereotype of what supposedly a scientist should look like, and I liked that they changed it and chose someone like me. Like, I would have never probably gotten offered a scientist role, right?” she muses.
“So, I think that is a problem within itself. Like, we have this idea that you have to be a certain look or a certain style to play certain roles,” says Gonzalez, who proved the perfect fit to turn gender norms upside down.
“And, actually, I love quantum physics. I’ve read tons of books about quantum physics over the years and it’s something that I’ve always been passionate about, and hence why I chose to do this role because it’s something that fell very close to my passion.
“What I love about Dan and Dave and Alex is that they’re choosing people to not judge a book by their cover, and especially for women. It’s really exciting to see women like Ros [Rosalind Chao], Jess [Hong], Zine [Tseng], Marlo Kelly] and myself have such strong characters in a story, which is very strong on female characters. We rarely see that and we’re very grateful that they balanced the cast in such a beautiful way,” she adds.
Returning from the Game of Thrones fold, Irish actor Liam Cunningham [above] plays Thomas Wade, the unethical boss of a shadowy organisation tasked with wiping out the threat of alien invasion.
Ask how Cunningham might cope in such a predicament, the actor has no doubts. “I think I’d just steal a very fast car, because there’s no point putting you in prison because the aliens are on the way. So, just take the car and go for a nice Michelin three-star meal in my very expensive stolen car…” he laughs.
3 Body Problem is streaming now
