Two Sides of the Same Coin

 

We’re putting our bets down now – Yong Xi (pronounced ‘Jung-see’) Zheng is going to be a Hollywood star. The Miri native recently went viral across South-east Asia for his supporting role in the popular Netflix series, Bridgerton. The emerging actor is steadily gaining recognition for his dedication to the craft and growing presence in the entertainment industry. The former law school graduate took lessons to hone his skills, putting in the work and time to chase his dreams. Besides the fact that he is the second Borneo native to make it onto the show – which in itself is no small feat – Zheng exudes much of same personable charisma he presents on-screen. Yong Xi’s acting history shows a professional actor with the ability and willingness to portray a range of characters grounded in emotion and depth. We sat down with the burgeoning star to chat about his journey into acting, the ultimate Sarawakian comfort food and how the duality of a life lived in two places shaped him (and two very impressive accents!).

BIG: Could you give us a little bit of background – who is Yong Xi?

ZXY: I was born in Miri, Sarawak, and when I was four years old my family moved to the U.K., then moved back there when I was eight. I was living in Kuala Lumpur from 15 to about 19 before moving to London to study Law at King’s College. I have been performing since young, mainly singing more than anything. In this time, I met my singing teacher who recommended that I consider going into musical theatre with the voice I have. I decided to study more theatre since I was already in London, on his suggestion, and I remember feeling very inspired watching people on stage. Knowing you could act, sing and dance, and do all these things at the same time.

Drama school was the next step because in the United Kingdom, that’s kind of the common pathway into the industry. Most British actors go to drama school. My voice teacher teaches on the musical theatre Master’s programme at the Royal Academy of Music, which he again suggested I audition for which I did (as well as a few others!). One of the big things about drama school in the U.K. is that the best institutions or programmes attract the best agents, who come to the end-of-course industry showcases to scout talent. So from then, I had a few meetings and signed with my first acting agent, started auditioning. My first job was a musical called Miss Saigon, that I worked on for a year. But even while I was training, and even when I signed with my agent, I made it clear that I also want to do film and TV. And the reason why I want to train in musical theatre is because I get to train in acting, singing and dance. I want to do all of it.

BIG: Okay. You basically want to be a triple threat.

ZXY: Yeah. I love musicals, but I also wanted to do (these genres) because I’m very much affected by the screen. After my first musical job,and working in other productions, I got my first TV credit in just two years!  I’ve been building my CV from there. Two years ago, I led a West End musical and got a minor supporting role in the Barbie movie! I’m a series regular on a BBC comedy drama series called Boarders. I’ve done three seasons of that, where I’m in every episode. And then Bridgerton came along at one point, which seems to kind of be the project that most people back home recognised me for. It’s been lovely.

BIG: You mentioned that you moved to the UK at a young age and then spent most of your formative years in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Do you credit your time in either country to your interest in the arts?

ZXY: My parents don’t work in the field but they always had a massive love for the arts be it music, or theatre and even as a four-year old in the U.K. they would bring me to shows. I moved back to Malaysia when I was eight where there were things like singing or talent competitions within the primary school as well. And I just remembered wanting to do it because I’d watched some Disney films or something (laughs). I remember watching Mulan and being like ‘Okay, I love this.’

BIG: Okay. Which character in Mulan had that ‘main character energy’ for you?

ZXY: Maybe Mulan. And funnily, the singing voice of Mulan was Lea Saloma who played the original Kim in the Miss Saigon stage production that subsequently became my first professional acting job, which is kind of interesting. But school is where it all started.

I think my parents recognised the potential and my love for singing lessons. The secondary school I attended in Kuala Lumpur was also a big support in nurturing the performing arts so I had a lot of opportunities to perform and take part in school productions. In the back of my head, I always kind of knew I wanted to perform later in life but I didn’t know as what exactly. At one point I wanted to be a singer-songwriter and I’m still looking to explore this on the side. It was only later on that I became fascinated with acting and the way that it affects people emotionally.

BIG: Were you surprised at where you kind of ended up in musical theatre? What’s behind the attraction to the genre?

ZXY: Yeah, it wasn’t something that I knew I wanted to do early on. It was more when I was in Law school – I was also in an acapella group at the time. Musical theatre kind of came into my mind in the second year of school and the more I discovered about it, I loved it.With musical theatre the song is obviously a big thing and I always loved singing. But I think the acting side of things, it’s just… You watch a good piece of theatre or film, TV – those performances have a big emotional impact on a lot of people.

BIG: Can you share one or two examples that impacted you and have stuck with you to drive you to continue to be an artist?

ZXY: There was this film called Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore. And I remember it being so heartbreaking. Yeah. Performances like that are just amazing and I really want to be able to do that. But I think the art form of acting itself, I find it very elusive. You’re always trying to ‘get it right’. But you just don’t know what it is. You can do 50 shows and you get to show number 51 still being like ‘Oh, that’s how you deliver the line’, or you discover something new about the role. I guess with playing characters you’re always trying to understand their point of view, and trying to create this persona through understanding them and I just find that so fascinating.

BIG: Do you feel like acting has made you more empathetic as a person then?

ZXY: Absolutely. Some of the most famous actors and actresses talk a lot about this trait in interviews as well; that one of the most important things to being a good actor is empathy. Because you’re trying to understand someone’s point of view and sometimes you don’t agree with their actions, but you learn to understand why people behave certain ways. Whether it’s playing a villain, or even if you’re playing a good person who just makes certain choices that you wouldn’t make in your daily life. You kind of learn to understand why they do that. I think that as an actor, you have to have a reason for doing something otherwise it comes across lacking that authenticity. So I definitely think the process makes you more empathetic as a person. I’m not saying that actors are all nice people, though (laughs).

BIG: On that note, what would you say is the most challenging emotion to emote?

ZXY: I think that the emotions itself, playing different characteristics… there are characteristics that are tougher for every actor, depending on what your real nature is. There are certain roles you gravitate towards more easily. In terms of emotions, anything that pushes you really far or is very high stakes is always difficult because you don’t necessarily experience them much. If you’re doing theatre, for example, where you’re revisiting that emotion for eight shows a week, or if you’re doing a film or TV show where you have to do 12 takes of it.  I once filmed a scene for a series where I was grieving over my sister dying in front of me. That was hard to get through. I’ve auditioned for but never done a horror film yet either. But getting to do a scene like that or where you feel like someone’s about to kill you, those are hard things to accurately emote maybe because you don’t really experience them in your daily life. And I think you kind of really need to get there mentally to deliver the performance.

BIG: So how would you kind of disassociate or decompress from your roles? How will you decompress from this current Bridgerton role?

ZXY: To be fair, I was on the set of Bridgerton for maybe only six, seven days. Plus, it was a nice role. But last year, I did a play about relationships and there was some heavy themes in it. One day I was talking to my therapist, and I was just like ‘I need to talk about this’.  For me personally, I don’t think it’s necessary all the time that you have to revisit past trauma to get to dark places, to find emotion. I think there are techniques that actors use as well to portray feelings because at the end of the day, from the audience’s side, what I believe is that you’re either convincing or you’re not. It doesn’t matter how you get there.

I feel like in the UK, especially with the massive theatre culture, those actors are very good at like switching on and off. There’s a famous interview that Emma Thompson did where she talks about that – when you’re on stage, you’re on. And once you’re off, you’re done with your job. Not to say I don’t use my inspiration from my own life but I try sometimes to not.

BIG: Yeah, I understand. Going back to your Malaysian-Borneo heritage, could you share more about that? Are you still very connected to Miri?

ZXY: Oh, I still feel very Malaysian. And I still feel a lot of Sarawakian pride. I go back to Malaysia at least once a year. My family is still there, my extended family, most of them are in Miri. I just visited last year. And I spent a large part of my childhood in Malaysia growing up. So I actually get a lot of the cultural references. Even my accent because I’ve kind of grown up half in Malaysia and half in the UK, I’ve developed two English native accents and I code switch. I think most people do switch accents after they live abroad, but I can do that quite heavily. Yeah, I speak in this accent, which is very British, and it’s very proper. But in Malaysia, when I’m surrounded with my Malaysian friends, I speak in a completely Malaysian-English accent.

BIG: Can you bust out the lah’s and the bah’s when you need to.

ZXY: Yeah. I can actively turn it on. Like, this is how I usually speak back home.

BIG: Oh my goodness. That’s impressive.

ZXY: Yeah, it’s so funny; I think people here think that when I speak in that accent, I’m putting it on. And then sometimes my Malaysian friends think when I speak in (my British-English) accent, I’m putting it on. But it’s because I’ve kind of had this duality of my childhood. I also think as actors as well, like we use accents a lot as a part of our skill set. But yes, I feel very Malaysian.

BIG: Okay. I need to ask you, because obviously Malaysia has this huge food culture. What’s the ultimate dish for you when you’re back in Miri?

ZXY: Sarawak Laksa!

BIG: What’s the key to a good Laksa then for you?

ZXY: The broth. The broth is the identity that defines whether you like one stall more than the other. But Sarawak Laksa is so hard to find here compared to other dishes like Nasi Lemak.

BIG: What’s coming up next for you?

ZXY: I’m currently in the American Psycho theatre show in London which is based on the novel. And we’re playing for two more weeks. I’ve been doing that for the last one, two months.  There’s the final season of the Borders series, ending in March. In terms of what I’m going to be doing next, we’ll see. That’s the both anxiety-inducing but also exciting thing, about an actor’s career – we sometimes don’t know what we’re doing next. I’m auditioning at the moment and will see what project bites. There’s a lot of rejection that comes in this career but I’m excited to see what’s next.

BIG: We’re excited for you and I’m sure our readers will be as well!