Kara Wang

Ahead of From Ember’s release, actress and entrepreneur Kara Wang sat down with Timid to discuss her role in her newest film and to reflect on her past year.

2024 has been a year of endings and beginnings for Wang. “This was the year that everything wrapped up,” she said. Freeform’s Good Trouble, in which she played Sumi Liu, wrapped up in March after five seasons.

With some downtime, Wang started her wine label, Amryn. “It's been a hobby of mine for years,” she shared. The certified sommelier released her first vintage last month, which sold out in only two weeks. “I was very blown away by the support, and because the first one went so well, I'm gonna launch my second vintage in December.”

But before that, From Embers recently had a limited release in the United States on October 25. Wang played the leading role of Lily Xu, a recently widowed mom of an autistic son Kevin (Alexander J. Lee) whose husband died in a lab fire. When Lily realizes that the circumstances around his death were suspicious, she tries to figure out what happened the night he died.

As Timid continues to explore the theme of “Connections,” it felt fitting to do so with Wang, whose character is at the center of so many. Over the course of the film, Lily reconnects with her son, forms an unexpected connection with her neighbor Marty (Matthew Morrison) and his daughter Chloe (Kayla Bohan), and finally connects the dots around her husband’s death.

Wang’s performance absolutely shines in this film, so it was unsurprising that the thought and care she put into her work was felt in every part of our conversation. “I wanted to make sure that there was as much authentic storytelling as we could do,” she emphasized.

During our interview, she opened up about her preparation and research for the role, and how she drew from personal experiences to better understand Lily’s relationships and motivations.

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Timid Magazine: First of all, what drew you to the project?

Kara Wang: [When] I got a copy of the script, the director and I met up for a coffee to chat. I was really compelled by the character, because not only was she the lead, she was a very multifaceted character. In the movie, she plays a mom, and I thought that that would be a great challenge because I am not a mom. I'm not even in a relationship. I'm fully single. [laughs] So this is a full difference to who I am as Kara. And the character—how resilient she is, all of the things that she has to go through to raise her son—I haven't gotten a chance to encounter a role like this. I really had to use my imagination and put myself in this character's shoes.

TM: Speaking of putting yourself into your character’s shoes, did you have to do any research to do so?

KW: Actually, one of the first things I did a huge amount of research on was autistic children. When I first read the script, I was like, “Okay, this is a huge part of the storyline.” It's a huge part of the dynamic between Lily and her son. I wanted to make sure that we were getting that part of it right, especially because this is a subject that so many families hold so dear to their hearts. This is just everyday life for a lot of families.

I reached out to a couple of my friends who work with autistic children. I have a friend who works specifically in music education and autistic children. We had a lot of really good conversations, because, as we know, autism is a spectrum, right? It was interesting to delve into that. One of the questions I asked many of these teachers is—when you talk to the parents, what are their methods for… for example, when their children are having an episode or are getting overwhelmed—what are their tactics to help calm them down? What are the first signs of a child starting to get uncomfortable? And what have these parents learned on how to get ahead of that? I wanted to make sure I was bringing as much of that into the character of Lily as possible.

TM: Well, that work definitely showed. You were particularly great with Alexander, who plays your son Kevin. What helped you build your onscreen dynamic?

KW: Yeah, Alexander was so great. I was very impressed by him. We would spend time together in our trailers and talk about random kid stuff. I am lucky that I have two godsons who are 10, and Alex is around that age as well. So I had a bit of knowledge and experience with talking to children that age. In my experience, they react best when they're being talked to like adults, and when they feel like what they have to say is actually being heard and that we're genuinely interested. It doesn't matter if it's Fortnite—or whatever it may be—but that there is a genuine rapport. Kids are smart. They can tell when you're not really present and you're not really listening.

TM: How did you balance the emotional weight of Lily’s struggles with the need to maintain a sense of hope and resilience, both for herself and her son?

KW: I always reminded myself about my main intention in the film, which always comes back to [Kevin]. My strength for wanting to find out what happened with my husband always came back to wanting to provide a better life for my son. The surface area of [that] was what happened with insurance money and what really happened so that we can go back to the normal life we had before all of this, but on a deeper level, it was wanting to have the truth and answers so that I could give that to my son. He is eight in the film, and he already has so many questions about what happened with Dad, and those questions are only going to get deeper as he gets older. And this feeling of helplessness, of not being able to give that truth to my son was a huge driving factor.

TM: While Lily was not closed off, she was definitely cautious. She lets Marty in but doesn’t confide the extent of what she’s going through—understandable, given they hadn’t known each other that long. She keeps her visits to her burn victim friends private, too, even when it could have solved the misunderstanding. I’m not sure how much she has told those friends either. The one she seemed to trust the most was Angela, who betrayed her in the worst possible way…

KW: You know, it's interesting… When I think about Lily, the parts I connected with were what you were talking about—the masking. As women, we have learned how to mask growing up, because of society and because it’s what is asked of us, what is expected of us. There's another layer of that [for Asian American women]. In Chinese, we say gei mian zi [給面子], to show face. We have a whole phrase for that because everything is about masking. Who are you giving face to? A lot of it is so ingrained in who we are as Asian women.

When she's with Kevin, she's a mother; when she's with Marty, she's the cautiously optimistic neighbor. And then with Angela, there was that hopeful possible female friendship, which I relate to. I have so many incredible female friends in my personal life that I draw my strength from.

TM: What do you think Lily’s emotional healing looks like after all that?

KW: After the conclusion of the film, she, for lack of a better word, finally gets hers. There's this final relief, a burden off her shoulders. There's a lot of healing that needs to take place because a lot of this insurance fraud and all this stuff came pretty soon after her husband died, so there wasn't actually even time to process the grief.

Now that she has the money and a little bit more time to breathe, there's definitely a process of grief that needs to happen. To grieve her old life, grieve what it means to be a widow, and grieve that friendship too. The one character that she let in, to be so betrayed by them, and to know that Angela has been sitting across from her this whole time while having this major secret is a massive betrayal. There's a lot of healing that needs to happen from that as well, but at the end of the day, at least, she does have her son, and her son is safe. That’s the core of it.

TM: Now that they’ve gotten their old house back, what do you think would be next for mother and son?

First, it's about resettling back into a schedule, which is important for children, especially autistic children, because they thrive so much better in a schedule. That was also something I thought about a lot, like taking Kevin out of his old home and his old school, and what that would do to his psyche. So going back to what he's used to, establishing that day-to-day stability and comfort would be Lily's priority. But now that there has been a financial burden lifted off, but also a mental, emotional, and psychological burden lifted, Lily can finally have a little bit of space to think about what she would want to do instead of working at that shitty motel.

TM: What is one thing you hope audiences take away from the film?

One thing that I would love for audiences to take away is to never underestimate women—never underestimate a determined woman. I'm constantly reminded in my personal life how strong women truly are.

And also, the feeling that there is hope, and there's also hope that comes in different forms in life. Sometimes it's good to be open. I know the thing with Marty didn't necessarily pan out—it's kind of an open-ended question there, but it was such a bright light in Lily's life, even for a moment. It was lovely to see her be open to that because it’s just as easy to be like, “There's simply no time. Who has time to go on a date?” But it was nice for a moment for her to enjoy herself. Because that is what life is like. We all go through shit, but there are also bright spots. And we somehow juggle it all.

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Disclaimer: This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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