Ming-Na Wen Talks Melinda May, Evil Doubles and Agent of SHIELD’s Midseason Finale
By Eric Goldman: Season 2 has seen Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD evolve into a much more serialized and compelling series, as the entire dynamic of what SHIELD is and who is on the team has been overhauled.
With the midseason finale airing Tuesday night – with the show taking a break until March 3rd, while Marvel’s Agent Carter airs in its timeslot beginning in January – I spoke to SHIELD star Ming-Na Wen. Taking a short rest from filming a very busy upcoming episode for her, Wen gave me some teases on the midseason finale and discussed the joys and technical challenges of playing Agent 33, the Hydra lookalike who looks like a disfigured version of May. We also chatted about May bonding with Skye more, the possibility of popping up on one of Marvel’s Netflix series and more.
IGN: You’ve got multiple villains you guys are dealing with right now. Is it safe to say things are going to come to a head in a notable way this week?
Ming-Na Wen: Yeah, because it is the midseason finale and then we’ll be off the air for about two and a half months. We want to make it a great cliffhanger. We’ve got Whitehall’s team trying to find this alien city and Coulson’s team is trying to get there first. So there’s a race between the two factions.
IGN: It’s been a very notable season because things have changed so much from what the show was last year. Has it been interesting for you as an actress to have the dynamic shift?
Wen: It has been such a challenging, exciting season. I think we definitely have evolved ourselves. The characters have evolved and the storytelling style of our show… I believe that it’s becoming so much more exciting and intriguing. I love it. I love the fact that i get to play two different characters right now between Agent May and Agent 33 and seeing how everybody’s choices in their characters affect the rest of the team. And the team is always evolving and I’m loving that the audience is right there with us. We have such a smart audience. It seems like, especially the Marvel fans, they’re just loving the serialized version of our show.
IGN: What did you think when you got that first episode where you played Agent 33? You probably heard, but when they showed that at New York Comic Con, it went over huge, with that amazing fight scene.
Wen: It was so much fun. Clark [Gregg] texted me, like, “They’re going nuts over here!” When I was told by the producers that there’s going to be a May on May fight I got all giddy because I’ve always wanted to play a twin. It was on my bucket list. And then once I got the script, I started sweating bullets. It was just like, oh goodness, that’s a lot of undertaking. Because it wasn’t even just a fight scene. It had to deal with Coulson and May being able to ballroom dance and going undercover and May becoming this other person in disguise. it was just the most fun, challenging episode and I’m so happy that the fans love it.
IGN: How difficult was it to pull off the actual fight, technically?
Wen: Yeah, I just brought out my clone.
IGN: [Laughs] We all wish we had one at the ready!
Wen: Wow, don’t we. I wish I was the Koenig character where there’s just like twelve of you. Right now, especially today, I would love to have a mommy Ming and then actor Ming and the wife Ming, and the Ming that’s going off to get an award tonight. It’s crazy. For me, I was just so thankful we had this incredible stunt team. Matt Mullins is our fight choreographer and he came up with the most amazing fight sequence. I spent like two three days with my trainer and my double, Sam Jo. We trained and we learned both sides of the fight, which can get very confusing but we made sure that we knew it before we went on set. And even when we went on set there was this constant changing of the wardrobes because believe it or not, there has to be a stunt person there for me to fight with! [Laughs] I really don’t fight myself and we had these crazy special effects.
You know, Kevin Tancharoen directed it and he’s amazing with his directing with the Mortal Kombat series. So we had this really complicated sequence where we do this 360 and it reveals me and it reveals me again and there’s no cut and you wonder how that happens in one of the fight sequences. And that’s because they completely scanned and CGIed my face onto the stunt double. So there’s a tremendous amount of work that went into the fight scenes and we did not have a lot of time to do it. Mark [Kolpack] and the visual effects people were amazing and I love fighting in lingerie so I learned a lot of things.
IGN: [Laughs] Some of the fans seemed to love that too!
Wen: Yeah, I love when I’m tired up in the chair and stuff and people were saying “50 Shades of May.” I love it
IGN: Agent 33 returned still wearing your face, albeit disfigured, this past week. Might she be factoring into the midseason finale since it seems like she’s a pretty crucial member of Hydra at this point?
Wen: She is definitely under… You have to really feel sorry for Agent 33 because not only did she lose her face, she lost her will, really. I mean she is completely controlled by Whitehall and he’s done some other stuff to her. She was a very competent, strong SHIELD agent and has been completely brainwashed into sort of idolizing and worshipping Whitehall and willing to do his every bidding. It’s sort of a sad character for me to portray because she’s so opposite from May. May is so confident and knows exactly what she needs to do and can get the job done based on her own opinions and with Agent 33, not only is she disfigured, not only doesn’t she have her face anymore, she doesn’t have her identity anymore. So whether she shows up for the midseason finale, that’s anyone’s guess right now. I do hope she comes back often, because I think it’ll be interesting to see how her character gets resolved or how her character evolves down the line.
IGN: Skye right now has kind of got a pull between two very different father figures with Coulson and the Doctor. At the same time, it’s been interesting because May has taken a much more active role in Skye’s life this season. She’s training her. What do you think May makes of all this, of the Doctor looming out there and the potential for what he could cause in Skye’s life?
Wen: Well I think for May, her first priority is always for Coulson. To make sure that he’s okay and to make sure that he remains stable because there’s always that looming in the back of her mind that he could snap at any moment depending on how this alien blood GH.325 is going to be effecting him the way it effected Garrett and all these other people. She knows his love for Skye, as a paternal figure, is very strong and I think over this time period she’s really learned to respect and care for Skye herself. I don’t know if it’s on a maternal level but definitely on the level of being her S.O. and they know that the Doctor will only do her harm. So for May, she now I guess is kind of like the tiger mom or the big momma bear. She wants to protect her family.
IGN: I don’t think we’ve seen May in a scene with the Doctor yet. You’ve known Kyle [MacLachlan] for a long time, and did a film together [1997’s One Night Stand]. What’s it been like having him on set and could we maybe see some interaction between your two characters soon?
Wen: I would love to. It is strange this season, there are several characters that I don’t get to work with every often. Definitely Kyle, as well as Brett [Dalton]. We’ve had like one scene together in this entire season and that was last week when Ward takes Skye away. It’s very odd. It’s an odd season for sure. I don’t know. The writers are always surprising us. I love watching Kyle, that’s for sure. He’s just really created such an interesting character with the doctor so yeah, we’ll see. I’m hoping!
IGN: There’s of course many theories about this hidden city and I know you can’t say anything specific, but is it fun for you to see the fans going crazy over what this could be and how it may or may not connect to what we know from Marvel Comics?
Wen: Well I think the whole hidden city as a big surprise for all of us. I can’t talk about the hidden city! I can’t talk about anything about it. it’s hidden. That’s all I can tell you. [Laughs]
IGN: It’s like Fight Club rules here, right? First rule, do not talk about the hidden city?
Wen: I can’t talk about the hidden city but there is a race to find it between the two gangs here, because it’s very vital. Right now, everything’s lead up to this moment and I think the midseason finale will answer some questions for fans but will definitely leave them with a lot more questions. I’ll just say that much.
IGN: We’re about to get a whole lot more Marvel TV series launching in the next year or two. Would you love if it were possible for you to pop up on Daredevil or one of the other Netflix shows or vice versa to see that world and to see your character interact with all these other new characters?
Wen: Absolutely, and I think it would be so much fun for us as actors to be able to go into other worlds and for the fans too if that is the intention for Marvel, with their whole motto of “It’s all connected,” I’m all for it! It’s just such an exciting time to be part of this world and I know any time we have a new guest star come on, they get all giddy and excited too because I think everyone is starting to feel the potential of what all this can be and it’s just such an unbelievable endeavor for Marvel. Lots of credit to Jeph Loeb and our writers and to the Marvel Cinematic people. To me, what they’re doing right now is so ambitious and I think they’re doing an amazing job and I’m very happy to be a part of it. If they want me to work somewhere else, sure. If they want me to play five characters, sure. Why not? It’s so great.
Original article at IGN
