In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’re highlighting the work of a talented Asian actress, Chase Sui Wonders, currently starring in one of the biggest hits on any streaming service, Apple TV+’s The Studio.
Insights: Notes From Chase Sui Wonders
- Embrace your unique characteristics and leverage them to create distinct, memorable performances that set you apart from others.
- Show dedication to your craft by thoroughly understanding your roles and working tirelessly to achieve excellence.
- Remain flexible and adaptable in your acting career, willing to explore various paths and opportunities as they arise.
The Snapshot: Chase Sui Wonders’ Role in The Studio
In this film industry satire, Wonders plays Quinn Hackett, a junior executive fighting for her place at the fictional Continental Studios.
(New episodes of The Studio drop on Apple TV+ every Wednesday through May 21)
Chase Sui Wonders Performance in The Studio
When The Studio begins, senior executive Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) is given the chance of a lifetime, something he’s worked his whole career to achieve: he is made the head of Continental Studios. When it happens, he promotes his assistant Quinn to development executive. After all, this is her dream, too.
There’s a neat mix of desperation, incompetence and expertise at play in The Studio. Everyone involved seems to be good at finding a way to screw things up, while at the same time doing well enough at their jobs to succeed professionally.
Remick loves the movies and lives for the studio, but can’t get out of his own way. This is evidenced by his behavior in the second episode of the season, “The Oner,” in which he keeps screwing up a long, unbroken take on a film being made for his studio. His right hand, Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz), is part bumbling buffoon and part cinematic savant. Maya Mason (Kathryn Hahn) is Continental’s somewhat psychopathic head of marketing. All of them are fascinating in how well they seem to make a mess of things.
The exception is Quinn Hackett, who seems to understand her role and how to get things done. She’s smart, savvy and has the killer instinct and dedication to get where she’s always dreamed of being. She works her tail off, and in the uproarious fifth episode, she goes to war with Sal to solidify her role in the office hierarchy. The episode itself is titled, appropriately, “The War.”
The thing about characters like Quinn is that they are often overplayed. They’re a caricature of a wannabe thrust into a role for which they aren’t ready. We’ve seen it a thousand times — the striver who isn’t prepared for success and flies too close to the sun. An Icarus of the modern age.
However, that’s not what we get from The Studio or Chase Sui Wonders. What Wonders brings is not just a sense of wonder — no pun intended — but also a drive that is believable for Quinn. She knows her stuff and she’s insecure because that’s what that person should be and who that person is. Quinn is perhaps the most mature person of the bunch.
Quinn understands the craziness of the situation, while also fully embracing her part of it. The further into it she gets, the more ruthless, the more cunning and the more whole she becomes. This somewhat horrifying, somewhat stereotypical Hollywood player is Quinn’s best self, and Wonders revels in every moment of it.
This is especially true in “The War,” which showcases Quinn at her worst, which also happens to be her best. Sal is a douche, something even he knows, but he’s also a prototypical Hollywood exec who needs to be spanked now and again. As it happens, Quinn carries a proverbial paddle around with her, and Wonders comes fully into her own throughout the episode.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said the show’s creators (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck and Frida Perez) “really let me be a freak in this show, and that was so liberating, and it empowered me to embrace my inner court jester.”
That’s the thing about the way Wonders portrays Quinn. She’s part jester, sure, but she’s also an assassin, and it’s a delight to watch.
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The Career of Chase Sui Wonders
A Harvard grad who wanted to be a screenwriter, but after failing to find any traction there, turned to acting. Wonders got her first break with a small role in Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks in 2020. She was just 23 at the time and was off to the races. A year later, she landed a role in the HBO Max drama Generation, but it was the 2022 horror comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies that put her on the map. In that film, she plays Emma, one of a bunch of friends stuck at a Long Island mansion with a killer on the loose, who meets an unfortunate end that is equal parts tragic and funny.
Wonders rejoined Bodies Bodies Bodies costar Pete Davidson in the sitcom Bupkis, then had a major role in another Apple TV+ series, City on Fire, playing the young woman whose shooting sets the whole story in motion. While the show was met with mediocre reviews and was canceled after a single season, Wonders’ work was praised, and if you watch the show, the seeds of Quinn are there.
There’s no question that The Studio is a major step forward for Wonders, and her biggest and most important role yet. It’s also clear that there are even bigger things in store.
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