Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham form a dynamic duo in “3 Body Problem,” Netflix’s mega-budget sci-fi saga that starts streaming today.
The series is adapted from Chinese writer Cixin Liu’s globally acclaimed trilogy of novels “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” — named after the first book, “The Three-Body Problem,” in particular — whose dedicated fanbase includes the high-profile likes of Barack Obama, Elon Musk and George R.R. Martin.
Fans will tell you that the story reads like a mystery thriller that blends hard science concepts and mind-blowing themes of alien invasion, end of the world, and the complex human nature.
According to the press notes, it was also after reading the books that the creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss decided that this was the project they wanted to take on following their success with “Game of Thrones.”
And while it still fell under genre storytelling, they said “it’s about as far away” as they can get from what they’ve accomplished on GOT.
With Alexander Woo, recognized for his work on “True Blood,” stepping in as the third showrunner, Benioff and Weiss sought and received the creator’s go-signal to not just reimagine his work but also introduce narrative modifications such as chronological shifts (bringing characters from Books 2 and 3 into Season 1), character tweaks, expansions, additions, and transporting the main setting to the UK.
We haven’t read the novels yet but luckily for non-readers, the showrunners said they took the route that treated the source material with reverence but present it in such a way that doesn’t make the books a prerequisite.
“We’ve all seen a thousand alien invasion stories. But this one’s very different because it really focuses on the humans, and the human response to finding out that we’re not alone in the universe — and the others out there are not necessarily friendly,” Benioff further said of the material’s attraction.
To them, it also felt like a very timely subject to tackle. “Between climate change and the pandemic, we’ve gotten a glimpse into how people in the world react differently to a global threat,” said Weiss.
“We see a similar spectrum of reactions in ‘3 Body Problem,’ which resonates with so many of us now.”
Spanning decades and virtual realms, “3 Body Problem” opens during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, wherein a brutal murder of an intellectual leads to a decision that alters the fate of the universe. In the present day, scientific experiments go haywire and strange deaths happen within the academic community.
A group of young scientists in Britain, also known as Oxford Five, reunite to figure out why. They are played by Jovan Adepo as Saul Durand, a physics research assistant; John Bradley as Jack Rooney, who left the academe to build a multi-million pound snacks empire; Eiza González as Auggie Salazar; a nanotech trailblazer; Jess Hong as Jin Cheng, a genius theoretical physicist; and Alex Sharp as Will Downing, a physics teacher. They interact heavily with the characters played by Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham.
Yours truly had the privilege to interview both Liam and Benedict for their previous roles as the honorable Ser Davos on “Game of Thrones” and as the current Sorcerer Supreme in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” respectively.
But “3 Body Problem” has just given them their latest fan-favorite characters what with their excellent turns as Da Shi (Benedict), an intelligence operative, and his boss, the planetary defense strategist Thomas Wade (Liam), who has all the power players — intelligence services, governments and United Nations — on speed dial.
Benedict and Liam talked more about their roles in the press notes.
Benedict said, “My character’s name is Da Shi, which means ‘envoy, ambassador, diplomat, or the bearer,’ and Da Shi himself embodies these qualities in his role as a counter-terrorism operative. Picture him as a sci-fi version of Columbo with a touch of Liam Gallagher’s swagger.
“Despite being a bit of a loner and ex-MI5, he brings a unique, unorthodox approach to solving the mystery behind a series of suicides in the scientific community. Da Shi is a flawed anti-hero with a genuine care for the greater good, making him the human aspect of the story.”
Benedict also stressed that his character is so focused and driven that everything else falls to the wayside, even his own appearance.
“These types of operatives are a complete juxtaposition of a tuxedoed James Bond. This is someone that just blends in; someone that you wouldn’t look at twice. So I basically just rolled out of bed every morning, and it was quite a nice way to slip into a scene. The hair is not even groomed, it’s unkempt. I liked that level of detail. It shows us that the only thing that ever really mattered was the mission at hand.”
Liam, on the other hand, described his character as an amazing mixture.
“I mean, I’m standing here in bespoke three-piece suits, very spoiled. But he’s very rough around the edges. This guy, he knows what the job is and he knows what he has to do to accomplish that job. He has a certain morality, will not let anything get in the way and doesn’t take no for an answer. I don’t know where they got that from. But in my mind, he’s a good guy even though he’s called a certain number of not very nice names in this,” he said.
“It might be a tad hilarious to say his heart’s in the right place. He’s fabulous. I love Thomas Wade. He’s incredibly confident that this war that’s going to take place will be achieved in our favor, even though we’re not as technologically advanced as the enemy that we’re up against.
“His logic is very simple: if these people can do what they’re able to do, then it’s not impossible.”
How they landed their parts is another interesting story to tell.
When Benedict first heard about Da Shi, he thought that he “kind of sounds like me a bit,” sharing that the creators admitted to looking up his Wikipedia page. “It’s been great and really wonderful to, for once, play a version of myself. It’s been a challenge for me to allow myself to be more myself in a role,” he said.
As for Liam, he recalled entertaining other job inquiries when he got a phone call from Benioff and Weiss who went, “‘You’re not going there — you’re coming with us.’” “When the boys call, you come running. So that was essentially my audition process,” he added.
Da Shi and Wade’s dynamics in the series are to watch out for, according to Benedict.
“There’s so much interesting banter between Wade, played beautifully by Liam Cunningham, and Da Shi. They’re both quite anarchic in their approach to the work, and they’re at the forefront of this mission, so I think people will especially like the dynamic we have on screen,” he said.
“There’s a bit of a love story going on with me and Benny. I have nothing but respect for
that man; he is absolutely hilarious and we hit it off from the get-go,” added Liam.
When The STAR interviewed both actors one-on-one, they also pointed out the magnitude of the show as something to look forward to.
Highlighting the astronomical budget that went into this production, Liam shared why the filming was memorable, “I think it’s the scale of this and I mean what you normally get on movies, you may get a lot of huge amount of money thrown at a two-hour story and it becomes a you know, roller coaster or an event you go to the theater.
“When you have very large movie budgets put on a long form storytelling that you can watch at home and it’s like watching this is going to be like watching eight movies at home with enormous budgets. God bless Netflix for putting up the budget for this.
“It’s extraordinary and to give us the scope and the scale which is what we needed because this is a story of the survival of humanity and the scope of the story is from that it begins in the mid-’60s of the last century right up to the end of time. So, you’re not making things easy for yourself and people like Benny (Benedict) and myself, we do like a challenge.”
Benedict added, “Exactly! And also like you know the fact that they can kick down doors and all of a sudden we’re filming in the United Nations and that site specific…
“You know it’s incredible that we’ve got this world, this reality where we’re playing a ‘big what if.’... Actually, filming in the UN and working with the Mission Control in NASA makes it more science fiction for us.”
Liam also appeased fans who are worried about how the beloved books will be reinterpreted on Netflix.
“The guys who are doing the adaptation are the most respectful people. They’ve proven that in two book adaptations. They take it incredibly seriously,” Liam said.
“And in the case of ‘Game of Thrones,’ they got the blessing of George R.R. Martin when they came down and pitched the ideas towards him. They knew their stuff, they’ve done their research and they had the utmost respect for the source material. And we know that the author of ‘Three Body Problem’ gave them carte blanche to use (Benedict’s) phrase, globalize the story, isn’t it?”
Benedict agreed, praising as well the showrunners for coming up with such a diverse, international casting for the intention of representing this idea of a global struggle to survive.
“It’s all varied, it’s like a beautiful mural, the United Nations of cast,” said Benedict of the show’s ensemble cast that also boasts of Rosalind Chao, Marlo Kelly, Sea Shimooka, Zine Tseng, Saamer Usmani and Jonathan Pryce.
“It’s a story about the whole of humanity and that should be reflected in the main characters that we see on screen, whichI think it admirably is,” added Liam.