Desmond Chiam made his childhood dream of being part of the Marvel Universe come true with his role in Disney’s highly-anticipated new series “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.”
He plays alongside Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in the highly-anticipated Marvel series. The Singaporean-Australian actor is passionate about the value of positive Asian representation in Hollywood. After realizing that a law career was not for him, he found a passion for acting. Along with a story about his jumping into shark-infested waters for a scene in his series “Reef Break,” he also offers some insight into how we can be better people and change some issues in America with awareness, activism, and education.
The new Marvel series starts Friday, March 19th on Disney Plus.
Colleen Bement: Disney+ is the hottest network right now with the success of “Wanda Vision” and “The Mandalorian.” This Friday, March 19th fans will have a new show to explore: “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.” Congrats on your role! What can your share about your experience?
Desmond Chiam: Oh man, there’s so much I can’t say, and all of it would blow your mind – but I’m so, so intensely excited. If we bring even an iota of the energy from set to screen, it’s going to be a tentpole affair. I will say, I’m really proud given my background, to be playing the character that I am – as to what that is, you’ll just have to wait and see!
CB: I read that when you were young you dreamed of becoming Captain America. I wanted to live on the Moon, LOL. Tell your fans how it feels to now be a part of the Marvel Universe.
DC: Dude the moon thing is way cooler. I aimed way too low.
It was wild – being able to get on screen in what has been, in both comic book and MCU form, a totemic force for me is a feeling I can’t describe. And I’m so happy that it happened in this corner of the MCU too. Cap Stans assemble.
CB: What did you do to prepare for your character in “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier?”
DC: I’ve always been relatively in shape, but c’mon – you get a call from Marvel and you most definitely jump into a workout regimen. That was particularly challenging during the pandemic – I had a barbell, some plates, and about eight square feet of carpet to work with. But we kept it up!
CB: Fans love you for your role as Detective Wyatt Cole in “Reef Break.” Do you have any stories from the set?
DC: So many juicy ones. I have – I guess you’d call it, a fear of deep water, water in general, thalassophobia – whatever you want to call it, I have it, and then I booked a show on an island all about boat chases and oceans and such? My dad called me laughing and said it was, “character building.”
Specific to that – there was one shot where my character Wyatt gets pushed off a boat. I assumed we’d be on stage in a water tank, but nope – call sheet comes out, and we’re going out. Like, open ocean out. So we have some extras on set who are all ex-military boys, and they’re talking about their training experience – specifically their nocturnal beach landing training, where these tough lads basically land a rubber dinghy in pitch black, waves going over six feet. Sounds like hell. But they’re all here to tell the tale, so I tell them, “Ahh thank God you boys are here saying this. I know if you can do all that, I’m gonna be fine doing this tiny little dip,” and crustiest fella looks at me dead on, and says, “Oh nah mate, not this water though hey, I wouldn’t go in. Bull sharks nest three hundred feet that way.”
That was about thirty seconds before rolling was called and I got shoved in.
CB: What can you tell us about “We Were Tomorrow?”
DC: “We Were Tomorrow” is a super slick YA sci-fi series put together by a force of a woman, Madeleine Kennedy – it follows twin siblings navigating a dying world, searching to return to earth. It’s a first of its kind independent production in the TV sphere to come out of Australia, launching during Comic Con in 2019. Being independent, Covid has caused a number of delays, but they’re currently in talks with major SVOD for release soon!
CB: I understand that you studied law at the University of Melbourne. That’s quite a leap from law to acting. Can you share with us how your career plans morphed into show biz?
DC: Almost incidentally, from discovering that Law very much wasn’t for me. In Australia, you jump directly into what might be considered post-graduate courses like Law, but we make that choice at undergrad instead.
This is great for 17-18 years olds who already know what they want to do, but outside of that tiny group – yeah, look, I had no idea. Law wasn’t really working out, and I’d done some commercials and figured I’d pursue that while figuring things out. Lo and behold – I stumbled into what I was meant to do. I enjoyed it, and less than a year out of school I just made the choice to change and haven’t looked back.
CB: Switching to a more serious topic, I wanted to ask you your thoughts on how Asians are being mistreated in America. It seriously breaks my heart. What are your thoughts? What can we do to help?
DC: It’s such a difficult multilayered question that a whole thesis could be written on. Suffice to say the big button solve is solving white supremacy – for that it requires big movements. Awareness. Activism. Education. Visibility. All things I think everyone in this industry with our background is working on.
But just like a patient brought into the hospital, we have to do triage first. Stop the bleeding, and right now, it’s our elders and our people bleeding on the street. For that, I think I’m looking reliably towards community solves – my mate Chris Pang recently put out a call that if anyone’s parents were nervous about walking around their neighborhoods or doing their errands, he’d escort them. That’s a great example of an individual action we can do, assuming we make it safe in the context of a pandemic.
I’m making that same offer to everyone – but the second part of the equation is also looking inwards and having that dialogue with our parents that it’s okay to rely on our wider community to provide that support. Our elders come from a different mindset – very self-reliant, strong, and sometimes there’s a reluctance there to accept the help. I know if I had the conversation with my own dad about escorting him to the grocery store, his response would be, “Aya son, it’s fine, please lah. No need.”
But I want to get the message out that – it’s okay. We’re all here in the same boat, let’s get through this together.
Written by Colleen Bement
Lynn Makes
Evan Conroy
Ron Peterson
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