Benedict Wong is in complete control of his own career.
In a new interview with Vulture, the British actor opened up about not having an agent—and having to negotiate huge contracts with Marvel, and mostly recently Netflix, for his new role in 3 Body Problem.
“I signed my own Marvel contract, and that is a credit to me as an agent. That isn’t anyone else’s but mine. That isn’t anyone else’s but mine,” he said. “It’s been quite baffling though, because I’ve been trying to pass my momentum over to a new agent.”
Womg explained that he eventually does want to sign with a “big agency.”
“I need more," he explained.
When asked what the process is like for signing with behemoths like Netflix and Marvel, Wong responded, “Fundamentally, it’s about understanding your worth, isn’t it? That is a form of negotiation. What I find interesting now is that I don’t have an agent who has their own personal agenda for me to take a job. For me, I’m either going to do it or I’m not going to do it.”
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Though the 52-year-old doesn’t have an agent, he does have a close relationship with his lawyer, Bob Wallerstein, whom Wong called, “utterly fearless.”
Wong met Wallerstein through Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was Wong’s castmate in Ridley Scott’s 2015 film, The Martian. That’s when Wong caught wind of those behind the then-impending Marvel flick, Dr. Strange, in which Ejiofor was also cast.
“I go online and I see this character Wong, and I cannot believe there’s this character,” Wong shared. “I say to [Ejiofor], and I’m not joking, I said, ‘Mate, I’m doing a petition and it’s called Wong for Wong. You sign it, [Benedict] Cumberbatch signs it.’ This is my Salford kind of negotiation, the path of least resistance. To which [Ejiofor] says, and quite rightly so, ‘Look, I’ve jumped through many, many hoops. I don’t know if it’s a good idea.’ So it dies.”
Wong eventually received an email from Disney, asking him to audition for the character of Lee, which later turned out to be Dr. Strange’s Wong.
Catch Wong in Netflix's 3 Body Problem streaming now.
