Nicky Shen, Olivia Liang’s character in Kung Fu, is a refreshing depiction of Asian-American society. Before filming, she had to put in weeks of training in order to acquire the choreography for the martial arts sequences.
Many people think of martial arts as an Asian cliché, but Olivia has remarked on how Kung Fu transcends stereotypes and adds deeper meaning to the origins of the art form. Here’s all you need to know about Olivia Liang, who is swiftly becoming a millennial celebrity in her new lead role on Netflix’s Stranger Things: Season 1.
For her part as Nicky in ‘Kung Fu,’ Olivia Liang had to master martial skills.
Rotten Tomatoes recently spoke to Olivia Liang about how she began training in martial arts and battle choreography while shooting Legacies. Before working with Sam Ly on the Kung Fu pilot, she learned some basic techniques from the Legacies stunt coordinator in between takes. For the next two weeks, she was required to labor for three to five hours every day. Olivia explained, “They molded me, and they whipped me into shape.”
No matter how much an antiquated stereotype it may be, Olivia is eager to play Nicky as a means to show the diversity of her race. Olivia told Entertainment Tonight,
On Kung Fu, we are going to put meaning behind the fighting that we do, behind the martial arts. The audience is going to get to see what these characters are fighting for, which makes the fighting all the more powerful and more meaningful.
Olivia enjoys portraying Nicky because she gets to perform a lot of the fighting herself. Megan Hui, her stunt double, does the more risky tasks while she handles the other 35 percent.
We may recognize Olivia from her performances in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Legacies.’
She’s worked in movies and television since 2016, but Kung Fu will be her first leading role. She really went through the same thing as her character, Nicky, in real life. Olivia intended to continue acting and dancing after high school, but her mother encouraged her to go to college. Olivia’s mother ultimately relented after two years, and it all worked out in the end!
She joked to Bustle, “My mom is finally not asking me if I want to go to law school. [She’s] like, ‘You know what? I always knew. I always told you you were funny!’”
Before Kung Fu, Olivia had previously featured in the second Vampire Diaries spin-off, Legacies, as Alyssa Chang. However, in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy in 2018, she played a teaching assistant for the first time.
When it comes to her personal life, Olivia Liang doesn’t reveal much.
Olivia may be a successful fashion designer despite her acting career. When it comes to her Instagram profile, she has a stunning collection of images depicting an idyllic world seen through rose-tinted spectacles, enticing meals, and books that make you want to curl up and read. One of Olivia’s recent tweets reveals her pride in being Chinese-American, according to our knowledge.
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That being said, it seems Olivia is single at the moment and we’d all want to know who her significant other is. She did, however, appear on a More Wong Fu Lunch Break video and discuss why she doesn’t use internet dating. Olivia confessed. “It’s hard to package yourself in this. You’re like ‘I have to sound witty, but I can’t sound like I’m trying too hard. My pictures need to look cute, but I can’t be like she posed for this.”
