LOS ANGELES – Asian-American stars Jimmy O. Yang and Chloe Bennet haven’t forgotten what it’s like to struggle in Hollywood and be stereotyped because of their ethnicity.

Thus, they formed a strong bond with their characters in the satirical comedy series Interior Chinatown, which will premiere on Disney+ on November 19 and is based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Taiwanese-American author Charles Yu.

Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, 2019), the film follows Willis Wu (Yang), who is a background character in a crime series but dreams of becoming a hero.

He then witnesses a crime and asks police detective Lana Lee (Bennet) to help solve the case.

At a press event in Los Angeles in early 2024, Yang explained that this role hits right close to home.

“This guy is a background actor, but he’s actually the lead,” says the Hong Kong-born stand-up comedian, who broke out with a small but scene-stealing turn on the hit sitcom Silicon Valley (2014 to 2019).

“It really drew a lot of parallels with my own career,” adds the 37-year-old actor, who stars in the romantic comedy Love Hard (2021) and starred in the comedy show Space Force (2020 – 2022).

But Willis’s story is also universal.

“Like a young adult; He still fights with his family and is kind of stuck in his own life.

“When I graduated from college with an economics degree, I felt like that part of my life was definitely not working out for me,” says Yang, whose family immigrated to Los Angeles when he was 13.

This is also a common theme for immigrant children.

“Immigrant parents have an expectation that the only legitimate thing to do is be an engineer, so I tried that,” Yang says.

“It was very difficult for me, so I finished the easiest course (at university) that would still please my family, which was economics.

“It’s been a long and difficult journey to find what I want to do and admit to myself that I’ve always wanted to be an artist,” says Yang, who is dating Ukrainian-American venture capitalist Brianne Kimmel, 36.

In that sense, the series “is a great metaphor for what it means to be Asian American in this country, but it’s also a universal story of someone who aspires to be something more and finds herself in her career, which I guess I am” she said.