Five minutes with... Chai Hansen and Josh Thomson

With Netflix's The New Legends Of Monkey back for series two, Georgia Humphreys meets stars Chai Hansen and Josh Thomson to talk.

Mon, 10 Aug, 2020 - 06:00

Georgia Humphreys

WHERE DO WE FIND MONKEY AND PIGSY AT THE START OF SERIES TWO?

Josh: Running for their lives! We do a lot of running.

Chai: They put the camera up on this huge wire, which was like a 100m long — a cable cam. It looked like we were running like a 100 miles hour. It was amazing.

Josh: Chai was at the front; he was setting the pace, so we had to keep up with Chai. And we did take after take... They did the wide shots with Chai at the front and then they did a single of everybody, with me in the background!

SO DO YOU FEEL REALLY FIT AFTER FILMING THEN?

Chai: Oh yeah! After I finish a season of The New Legends Of Monkey, I have my six-pack back and everything — and two months after, it's gone.

Josh: There's heaps of action in the second series - there's a lot more action than in the first series. But, without going into it, Pigsy gets incapacitated, so I didn't have to do as much running.

These guys were fighting around me, trying to carry me up a mountain, drag me around on a stretcher; that was really good.

Unfortunately, Chai sort of accidentally dropped the stretcher and sat on my head which I found quite funny. But not from my angle...

Chai: The whole crew was on the ground laughing. I hope they use it in the show!

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT PLAYING THESE CHARACTERS?

Chai: The costumes. I love getting into costume. It just makes me feel like an actual superhero.

Josh: You've got a very hero-y vibe — I'm basically wearing a blanket. We filmed in winter, so it was very snuggly.

When I was young, and I would watch TV, there was a lot of fun action stuff that I could watch with my family, and I think being part of something like that is something really rewarding because I've got friends that watch it with their kids and they get a kick out of it.

And knowing the messages that are in it, friendship, strong female characters, and it's got an incredibly diverse cast, it's a good buzz.

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A ROLE MODEL IN A SHOW THAT'S SO DIVERSE?

Chai: I'm half-Chinese, half-Australian, and throughout my entire career, I constantly get just mainly Asian roles.

There's a lot of people out there who are half like me, and to see people messaging me saying, 'You're an idol because I'm just like you', it does make you feel so much better to just be able to represent a community like that.

And especially because this is such a historical source material... It's reimagined in a very multicultural context which, as the West we are now, we're a huge melting pot, and it's great to see more diverse casting in shows.