Set aboard the SS Varuna, a luxury cruise ship sailing down the Mediterranean Sea, Death and Other Details is a new murder mystery streaming on Hulu/Disney+.
It’s not your standard who-done-it show, though. The 10-episode series features multiple Asian diaspora characters and storylines. New Zealand actress and writer Angela Zhou stars as Teddy Goh, the ship’s crew manager.
Cold Tea Collective interviewed one of the show’s writers and actors, Angela Zhou.
Leveraging her heritage in Hollywood
Born in China and raised in New Zealand, after completing her education in England, Zhou eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue opportunities in Hollywood.
Zhou’s beginnings in Hollywood were “lucky,” she says, as she had worked both as a writer and actor. She recalls not needing to hide her heritage or take on traits to fit into particular situations for roles. “I could see a space for more Chinese and U.S. co-productions. I’d heard from mentors that people were looking to cast people who were Chinese and could speak English, Cantonese or Mandarin.”
She notes that the only thing she downplayed earlier in her career was that she was also a writer. “When starting out, and you’re picking a lane, you’re throwing all of your effort into that to try and get noticed in the market first,” she recalls. Now, Death and Other Details accredits Zhou for co-writing eight out of ten episodes, a unique role to take on in front and behind the cameras.
Using language to support character development and storytelling
What makes Death and Other Details unique is that there are not one but two main Chinese families in the cast. The Chun and Goh families lead very different lives — the Chuns are wealthy guests on the cruise, whereas the Goh’s work onboard. Seeing the depth and dimensions of these characters through their interactions and specifically through the use of language goes farther than simple translations. Death and Other Details’ use of interchanging dialogue between English and Mandarin or English and Cantonese reflects what we’d more likely see in real life, which is a rarity on American television.
A long list of AAPI actors featured in the show include Rahul Koli, Lisa Lu, Karoline Xu, Annie Q. Riegel, King Lau and Leslie Kwan.
Kwan, a first generation Chinese Canadian actor, plays “Simon Goh,” a crew member onboard and Teddy’s cousin. Kwan speaks Cantonese with his real life and fictional family on Death and Other Details. He is proud to be part of a show that can help preserve the language. “What we’re able to do in media and entertainment showcases how important Cantonese is, inspires more people to take pride in it, and encourages them to explore that aspect of their life more.”
When Zhou first read the script, she was in genuine disbelief. “I can’t believe there are this many Asian characters – and it’s authentic and nuanced. It’s not an Asian show about being Asian. It just so happens that there are Asian people on this cruise ship, and then they have their specificities.”
Cantonese has a lot of nuances and idioms; both Kwan and Zhou credits creators Heidi Cole McAdams and Mike Weiss’ openness to collaboration which enabled actors to deliver lines more naturally and genuinely. “It’s hard for somebody [who speaks] another language to tell you which words you might say in which language. and it’s nice to have the freedom to decide for yourself… It’s a collaborative process, and it starts from the top,” Zhou shares.
Breaking free from stereotypes for Asian women on screen
Throughout the series, Teddy is caught between a rock and a hard place, trying so hard to hold it all together. Over time, viewers see multiple aspects of her that we wouldn’t usually see. For Zhou, playing a character with multiple facets to their personality was important so Teddy was not put into one stereotype.
“We debated a lot about this [in the writers’ room]… If you don’t do anything outlandish with her character, then you end up with a bland character that maybe nobody likes… because you’re so worried about hitting some stereotypical box,” explains Zhou. “Luckily, Teddy is not the only Asian female character. She didn’t have to carry the weight of representing everyone so she could be a little more out there.”
And as a piece of advice to emerging Asian creatives, both on screen and behind the scenes, Zhou shares: do not hold yourself back. She says, “At the end of the day, you’ll hear a lot of ‘no’ from others. You don’t need to give yourself your own ‘no,’ just need to be true to yourself… You just got to stick with it, and one day, all those ‘no’s’ will become ‘yeses.’”
Stream Death and Other Details on Hulu and Disney+ today.
See also: Celebrating the Year of the Dragon at 88rising’s inaugural Moonrise Gala
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