Meet Awkwafina of 'Ocean's 8'
Queens native Awkwafina (aka Nora Lum) is everywhere these days as she charges her way through a banner year. This summer she lights up the multiplex with a slot on Sandra Bullock’s squad of all-female thieves in heist sequel “Ocean’s 8” (June 8), followed by a breakout turn in the highly anticipated literary adaptation “Crazy Rich Asians” (Aug. 17), both from Warner Bros.
Phoning from Barcelona, Spain, the rapper, comedian and actress reflected on her streak of projects, including the Netflix comedy “Dude” and a just-inked Comedy Central deal for a scripted series based on her life.
“I’ve been having this dream where I wake up from the dream that is my actual life,” said Awkwafina, in Spain filming the sci-fi thriller “Paradise Hills” with Emma Roberts, Eiza Gonzales and Danielle MacDonald. “I have that dream maybe three times a week where I wake up and I’m just back in the vegan bodega or at the book company. I can’t believe that it’s real, and I don’t think I ever will.”
Happily, she no longer has to hustle those day jobs now that Hollywood has taken notice.
Awkwafina, 29, brings the same swagger to the screen that made her rap career explode in 2012 when her deadpan feminist single “My Vag” announced the arrival of a fierce new talent equally unafraid to stunt in her lyrics and explode stereotypes and taboos.
Leaning into acting, she scored a small role in “Neighbors 2,” but landing a coveted spot in the all-female “Ocean’s 8” lineup in a cast led by Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway gave her Hollywood career a next-level bump.
“Constance is a person I’ve never seen on-screen before, ever,” she said of the “Oceans” role director Gary Ross and co-writer Olivia Milch tailored to her. “ ’Asian’ is not part of her character — she just is. She’s a kind of New Yorker, this modernized, outer-borough, fast-talking, three-card-monte character, but she’s real.”
Another perk of being part of the “Ocean’s 8” ensemble, which also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson and Rihanna? “We might have a group text,” she teased. “Yes, there is a group text. It’s hilarious. Constant laughter, always a joy. A lot of GIFs. I’m very talented at GIFs, I will say that. I’ll find a GIF for any occasion.”
In “Crazy Rich Asians,” director Jon M. Chu’s slick adaptation of Ken Kwan’s bestseller of the same name, Awkwafina brings the Singaporean new-money character of Peik Lin to life as a brash, blond-bewigged, human adrenaline shot draped in designer silk pajamas.
Peik Lin bridges the stark worlds of the film’s Asian-American heroine, Rachel (Constance Wu), and the entitled, interconnected and snooty 1-percenters descended from dynastic generations on the wealthy island.
“I think that a lot of Americans don’t understand the new-money class that is coming up in Asia. These are kids — kids! — that have five Lamborghinis, they shop at Supreme, they go to Louis Vuitton! In malls here, we have Orange Julius. In their malls they have Prada and Goyard and Gucci and Chanel.
“It’s really cool when Asian people get to tell stories, because then instead of seeing one Asian character you get to see a world of Asian characters,” she added, “and they become just characters at that point.”
Chu cast Awkwafina and tweaked the character with inspiration from outré Asian fashion bloggers and Instagram celebrities. On set, Awkwafina’s knack for improvisation made Peik Lin pop even more.
“She’s so creative,” he raved. “You can write a line, but you really don’t know how she’ll deliver it until she does it. We let her riff a lot, and it raised everybody’s game that she could be bold, and herself, and it could fit within this world.”
Comedy and improvisation have always come easy to Awkwafina.
And with a new EP on the horizon — one not mixed in her bedroom, like 2014’s “Yellow Ranger” — music fans will soon see Awkwafina return to her rap roots.
“I think it’s pretty dope that I don’t have to file for unemployment,” she quipped in her signature self-deprecating style. “The hustle will never end for me, and I’ll want to see what’s coming next. I’m really grateful for what’s happened. I would have never thought that it would.”
Like the “Ocean’s 11” movies that inspired it, “Ocean’s 8” features an ensemble cast playing members of a criminal crew – but in this case, they’re all female. Some of the eight actresses you’ll recognize instantly, though others may be less familiar. Here’s your breakdown of who’s who in the new “Ocean’s” crew.
SANDRA BULLOCK As Debbie Ocean, sister of George Clooney’s Danny, Bullock plays the mastermind behind a heist at the Met Gala. Bullock is a smart choice for the role: She’s a genuine movie star who does virtually no television and chooses her films carefully. Among her biggest recent hits are “The Heat,” “Gravity” and her Oscar-winning “The Blind Side.”
CATE BLANCHETT The Australian actress plays Lou, who was once Debbie’s partner in crime but now runs a nightclub. Though Blanchett was trained on the stage (her breakout role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in David Mamet’s “Oleanna”), she has tackled a range of film roles, from Queen Elizabeth to Galadriel the Elf to Bob Dylan. She won her second Oscar playing the title role in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine.”
HELENA BONHAM CARTER She plays Rose Weil, a fashion designer to the rich and famous who has fallen on hard times. You’ll notice in the film that this British actress decided to play Rose as Irish. Bonham Carter also aimed to bring some realism to the role by spending time with the costume department and learning to sew.
MINDY KALING Initially a television powerhouse – first as a star of NBC’s “The Office,” then creating her own six-season show on Fox and Hulu, “The Mindy Project” -- Kaling has seen her film career pick up of late with a voice role in Pixar’s “Inside/Out” and this year’s “A Wrinkle in Time.” Here she plays Amita, a jeweler who has done some low-level business with Ocean in the past.
SARAH PAULSON She plays Tammy, a typical suburban wife and mother – except that she has a sideline as a black-market merchant. Paulson, 43, has been in television so long (she was in WB’s “Jack and Jill” starting in 1999) that it finally made her a star: She earned a Golden Globe as prosecutor Marcia Clark in FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson” (2016).
RIHANNA. As a singer, Rihanna needs no introduction (14 No. 1 singles, 250 million records sold), but she remains lesser-known as an actress. Her notable credits include the critically panned Hasbro movie “Battleship” and Luc Besson’s sci-fi flop “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” She also played the lead voice role in “Home,” a successful animated film from 2015. In “Ocean’s 8,” Rihanna plays a dreadlocked computer hacker named Nine Ball.
AWKWAFINA Born Nora Lum in Forest Hills, Awkwafina made a name for herself first as a rapper (the title of her best-known track isn’t printable here) and most recently as an actress. Her credits include 2016’s “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,” the indie comedy “Dude” and the upcoming “Crazy Rich Asians” (due in August). Here, she plays Constance, a pickpocket from Queens. — RAFER GUZMAN
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