Gemma Chan shares her bit on Anna May Wong biopic: ‘An icon'

Gemma Chan has given an update on her long-in-development Anna May Wong biopic, confirming the project now has a script and expressing deep admiration for the trailblazing Hollywood star she is set to portray.

Speaking to the Associated Press ahead of The Five Star Weekend premiere, Chan said the biopic remains "still in development" with producer Nina Yang Bongiovi and Working Title Films, for which Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang has adapted Graham Russell Gao Hodges' 2012 biography Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend. 

"We have a script," Chan said. "Hopefully more soon."

Her enthusiasm for the project was palpable. 

"She's an icon. She was a woman ahead of her time. I feel like she never properly got her due, and I feel like it really resonates today, her story. Who gets to call this place home? Who gets to be American? That's something she was wrestling with her entire career and her entire life, so I feel that it's a really resonant story."

The project was first announced in 2022, with Chan attached to star and executive produce. 

Wong, born Wong Liu Tsong on 3 January 1905, was the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood. 

After spending her early career in stereotypical supporting roles, she relocated to Europe, where she found more substantial parts in films including Piccadilly, Daughter of the Dragon and Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express alongside Marlene Dietrich. 

She later used her platform to portray Chinese-Americans in a more positive light, continued working into the 1950s through television, and left behind a lasting legacy as a fashion icon and champion of Asian-American representation. 

She died on 3 February 1961.