Ming-Na Wen & Iain De Caestecker – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

By starrymag | August 3, 2016

By: Melissa Kralik

 

Q) It was quite an emotional arc last season. Will we be seeing more of that having been through the ringer? Fitz has been through so much in the season. May’s character went through a lot too.

Iain: We were just saying that any period of happiness is followed by a period of tragedy. You can kind of expect that as the nature of dramas.

Ming-Na: Because who wants to see happy people for forty-five minutes? [laughs]

Iain: Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a whole episode…

Ming-Na: Where everybody is happy!

Iain: No, we’re just going to be sun bathing. I presume there will be more.

Ming-Na: I think so. I think, in a way, there is a fresh start in the sense that we did defeat Hydra and did defeat Hive. So, I think there might be a sense of relief and uplift for a moment. For a second. Then maybe a chance to rebuild and a chance to learn from our mistakes before the new wave of evil people pursue us.

Iain: Good answer. Good answer, Ming.

Q) Will we see more romance between Fitz and Gemma and then with May and Agent Coulson?

Ming-Na: Everybody wants that! They want the “Philinda” thing. I think “Philinda” would be a good “Moonlighting” thing. Where it just goes on and on.

Iain: Also, he’s got a robot hand.

Ming-Na: I am loving this new Iain. I have so been wanting to open up this flower.

Iain: Ming is the queen of double entendres

Ming-Na: That is so not true!

Iain: No?

Ming-Na: I am sure as this white dress. [laughs] I am the mother of two children. There is nothing about me that is naughty, at all. But Coulson’s hand, man. You know he does take it off every now and then.

[Laughter}

Q) Do you think after everything May has experienced she’d be willing to take the director role?

Ming-Na: That question gets asked a lot. My answer to that is that it is a surprising question only because May has always been so reticent about coming back to Shield. I think for her it would be a very interesting choice to make. She’s capable, but it’s about whether she wants to or not.

Q) Aside from being killed off, what is the worst thing, to you, that could happen to your characters?

Iain: May asks Fitz on a date and he says yes.

[Laughter]

Iain: I suppose that something would happen to Simmons. That would suck.

Ming-Na: That would totally suck.

Iain: You know, like something serious happens to Simmons.

Ming-Na: Last season was so tough on us as actors because we get so close as a family and to lose some of our family members like Brett [Dalton] and Luke [Mitchell] and even in the past season, it is very traumatic for us. A lot of times when we do certain scenes it’s mixed on with real emotions. Selfishly, after having done thirty-three I never hope my character ends up being disfigured and I’d always constantly have to go into prosthetics and makeup every time I have to be in front of the camera.

Q) How will we see May adjust to life without Andrew?

Ming-Na: I think she just buries it. I think she is very capable of not coping with those traumas. And even in the instance of being there with him and seeing his body and that he’s dead…She just shuts it all down. She might kill more people.

Q) After last season, are we seeing some of the agents going back to their Season One characters? May kind of opened up for a while there, but as you said she will kind of be closed off. Will we see other characters reverting back to their safe place?

Ming-Na: Possibly. You know, it’s so difficult for us to answer those questions because we might want our characters to go one way or another and we really have no control over it. We’re basically just pawns that our chess masters move around, our amazing writers, and I wouldn’t want their job. They do an incredible job with in figuring out this jigsaw puzzle of all the storylines together and make our characters do things that we normally wouldn’t think they would do. Like me and you dating…[looks to Iain] And having little babies.

[Laughter]

Q) Is this the first time you two have split up together?

Ming-Na: Yes! And I’m trying so hard to torture him.

Iain: I’m with Elizabeth all the time and she’s just the best. They could have eased me into Ming a little bit.

[Laugher]

Ming-Na: Wow Did you just say that?! Did you just say that in front of me?! Ease you into me?! [laughs] I love you! Let’s end it on that note.