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Interview: Jessie Mei Li On Playing Cola in ‘The Season’ & What Hong Kong Means to Her
- Jianne Soriano
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 9 hours ago
INTERVIEW
For Jessie Mei Li, Hong Kong seems like a long-distance relative. “I knew a lot about it, but my family had all left, so I hadn’t really gone there. It felt like being introduced to an old aunt,” she tells us through Zoom. The 30-year-old actress is back in London, still recovering from jetlag, she says, after attending the premiere of her latest show, The Season, in Hong Kong a week earlier.
Li first gained international recognition as Alina Starkov in Netflix's Shadow and Bone and has since appeared in Last Night in Soho and Havoc.
Li’s connection to Hong Kong comes from her father, who was raised in the city. So, it feels like a homecoming that she spent last summer filming in Hong Kong for The Season. “[Hong Kong] was fascinating to see, and I loved it. It was just like a whole new world to me,” she says.
The British-Chinese star plays Cola in the Viu Original series. It’s touted as a The White Lotus-esque revenge drama meets Crazy Rich Asians, centered around Hong Kong’s elite. Through yacht parties, horse races, and charity galas, Cola tries to make an impression among the city’s cutthroat wealthy socialites.
The Season boasts an ensemble cast of international actors, some of whom, like Li, have ties to Hong Kong. Taiwanese-American actor Justin Chien spent his childhood in Hong Kong, while Chinese-Canadian actress Yvonne Chapman worked as a model during her late teens and has relatives living in the city. Other cast members include three-time Golden Horse awardee Karena Lam, Korean actor Lee Jae-yoon (in his English-language debut), Japanese actress Kōki, British star Toby Stephens, Australian actor Chris Pang, and Hong Kong-American actress, singer, and martial artist Celina Jade.
“[They’re] dreamiest group of people,” gushes Li. “It was just a beautiful thing, because we were all from all over the world and yet all got on so well. There was just so much love,” she says. Their mixed heritage also provided a common ground and shared experiences. “It means that there were just so many references,” adds Li.
A week after the premiere, CSP Times caught up with The Season star Jessie Mei Li to discuss her experience working on the show and in Hong Kong, as well as how she brought her character Cola to the screen.
All images are courtesy of PCCW and ViuTV.
Jessie Mei Li Opens Up About Playing Cola in The Season, Filming in Hong Kong, and Working With the “Dreamiest” Cast
What made you want to be part of the series? Is there anything about the show or the character that really stood out to you?
The Season seemed really different from what I'd done before. I liked the idea that it wasn’t going to be too serious, but rather a fun show that was easy to watch. It was also a completely different setting from what I’d done before, like fantasy or action. So, I was really excited to try something new, and even though Cola isn't necessarily a comic character, there were still light-hearted moments. Plus, the fact that it was filmed in Hong Kong was the main reason.
You have a connection with Hong Kong through your father's side. Did your impression of Hong Kong change over time while working on the show?
Hong Kong always seemed like a distant relative that I’ve heard a lot about, but I don’t really know. I’ve seen Hong Kong on screen a lot, but my family there had all moved to Canada, so I hadn’t really been there. So, it felt like being introduced to an old aunt that I’d heard of, and it had me feeling like, “Okay, I’ve got cousins and all these people to meet.”
There were so many different flavours to the city. You can walk from one place and see the riches and then, just down the street, it all seems normal. It was shocking, but also interesting. I loved my experience in Hong Kong. I loved the food, and it was just like a whole new world to me.
You’ve been back to Hong Kong a few times after filming last summer. How was it like seeing your long-distance aunt again [Hong Kong]?
My long-distance aunt and I didn't have a lot to do with each other, because I was so jet-lagged. *laughs* I’ve only gone back for work, so it was always hilariously short. Three days in, and I was in complete sleep deprivation, so I didn’t really know or remember what was going on. So, it would be really nice to go back to Hong Kong for an extended time to really enjoy the city. I was busy a lot of the time, even when we were filming. I didn’t have time to go sightseeing as it was quite a busy schedule. We tried to do some sightseeing while on the job, and there were a lot of places where I’d think, “Oh, I would have loved to visit here.”
Tell us more about your character, Cola. How did you approach playing her?
I like Cola a lot. She’s very multi-faceted, and I thought it would be really fun to play someone who’s also playing a character. She’s tried so hard to get into this world [of high society], and she’s putting on a mask that she’s not necessarily that good at. There are instances where she’s trying to think on her feet. Those moments are really fun to play. I tried to find a balance between Cola being tough and likeable. Our director was always reminding me that Cola is like a snake, where she’s observing everyone because she has her mission. But I also want Cola to come across as likeable. She does bad things on the show, so to keep viewers on board with what she does and not hate her for it, I have to make her likeable. But I also couldn’t make her too soft. That was difficult because I naturally have a softness to me, but Cola is tough.
It was fun to try and find that balance. I still want Cola to seem like a little girl. There are flashbacks of her when she was young. Athena Rose, the actress who plays young Cola, is amazing. She’s only five years old, but she made everyone cry on set. And she knows she’s good. She would always tell me after a take, “I think you can do better than that.” *laughs* For me, it’s important that we see that little girl in Cola and have that child-like quality to her. At the end of the day, she’s just a little girl who misses her father.
Do you relate to Cola in any way? Are there more similarities or differences between the two of you?
There are more differences, even just down to Cola as a person. She’s just really hardworking and someone who wakes up, goes to the gym, does her full day of work, and then executes her plan to save her father. She’s doing all these things, whereas I’m quite laidback. I do work hard, and I love my job, but I like to take it easy as well. I don’t take things very seriously. I was also born in the Year of the Pig, so I’m a through-and-through kind of person. But I admire people like Cola. I think, “Wow. You’ve really pulled your socks up.” She’s a really well-accomplished person.
In terms of similarities, we’re both quite bold. When it comes to Cola, I’d go “Whoa, you just did that?” and I think that’s the same with me. There’s a certain fearlessness to her that I definitely have as well. At times, I don’t really care, and if it feels right, I’ll just do it. That’s something I learned from her as well. It’s interesting because I don’t feel like I have a lot in common with her at all, but I want to give her a light-hearted quality in certain scenes when it makes sense, especially when she’s around the characters who aren’t from high society, and she’s letting her guard down a bit. It allows her humour to shine through a little bit.
Now that you mentioned, she’s really hardworking. She’s doing a lot of things at the same time, within a day.
Yeah, I want her to look strong, especially in comparison to other female characters in the show. Cola can fight you if she needs to. I talked a lot about this with the director and the team, but I see Cola as a warrior. She’s like a fighter going to war. In fact, in the last episode, I said to our second unit director that I imagined Cola getting ready, and drums are playing in the background. They ended up using that. It seems like everyone’s getting ready for the big battle in the end. Cola’s strong, and she can hold her own.
The show touches on the themes of legacy and bloodline. Cola even talks about them during the opening scene. What does legacy mean to Cola? How is it reflected in her character?
She has an obsession with it because she’s seen how the legacy of the privileged, rich, and powerful people gets passed down, and their actions have consequences. It’s not something that she has. It’s not a privilege she’s been afforded, and her father doesn’t have a legacy. So, it became something that she’s obsessed over and something that she has to have. She seems determined to make something out of herself because of what her father said to her when she was a little girl, that he’s counting on her to make life better for everyone. So, she’s taken that seriously, in fact, too seriously to the point that she’s become cold. She worked so hard to get to this point in her life, and then she finds out it’s all for the wrong reasons.
What was the experience like filming with such an international cast?
[They’re] the dreamiest group of people. I asked after getting the role who else had been cast. At that time, it was just Toby Stevens as Christopher Hext, Karena Lam as Fiona Lam, Chris Pang as Andrew Fung, and Justin as David Ho. I remember reading the cast list, and I could just see everyone’s characters so clearly. The casting was brilliant. It was such a beautiful thing to have because we’re from all over the world, from different continents, yet we all got on so well. There was so much love. A lot of us are also from the Asian diaspora, so we had a connection to Eastern culture, and a lot of us have mixed heritage or a second nationality. There were so many references and things that we all had in common. Everyone was really kind and generous. They’re a group of people who really have your back, so the experience was peaceful and calm.
I had to miss out on a lot of the socialising because of work, but we still had nice meals and walks. It just felt very wholesome. I love having scenes with Toby because we’re both English, so we have a lot to talk about. And with the boys, it was just so much fun. It’s very rare for a large group of people to be sat in a green room, all crammed in, next to each other, and for everyone to genuinely feel that they want to be there and enjoy the conversation, so that was really special.
What locations stood out to you while filming? Are there any places you’d love to go back to?
There’s so much I want to do again. There were also many restaurants that I couldn’t go to. I liked being outdoors, and although I enjoyed the city, it can also be a bit too much for me. I really loved the nature in Hong Kong, especially when we went on hikes. I could hear all these birds tweeting, and I wondered, “Who are you?” and it was just really exciting being around them and all the exotic flora and fauna. I also loved the beautiful beaches. It was so hot when we went to Lamma Island. The restaurant that we filmed in had really delicious food, but it was awful for us since it was 40 degrees. We bonded a lot on that day as the conditions were so uncomfortable. We were sweating without the fans on, as it would affect the sound, and there was no breeze. So, I’d like to go back to that seafood restaurant and have the meal that was put out in front of us.
What does The Season tell or show us about Hong Kong?
I didn’t live in Hong Kong nor did I grow up there, but I think The Season shows a very specific, dialled-up, and niche part of the city. An average person who lives in Hong Kong may say, “This isn’t what Hong Kong is about,” but the show only shows a certain part. Our showrunner [and executive producer] Yalun Tu had this real experience, and that is what some people do. The show isn’t a representative of Hong Kong en masse in any way, but it’s a kind of hidden world that, to many people, may seem ridiculous and flamboyant. The Season isn’t a slice-of-life; it’s a soap opera and a fun show that’s not to be taken too seriously.
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