For an actor who’s currently playing one of television’s most electrifyingly cutthroat characters, Ken Leung is refreshingly upbeat. As Eric Tao on HBO Max’s “Industry,” Leung has had a fitting vehicle for the volatility he’s so good at conveying in memorable roles from “Lost” to “Missing.” And in the show’s third season, he gets to fully descend into what Leung describes as Eric’s epic, high-decibel “midlife crisis” — just at the moment he’s being elevated to the highest peak of his career.
But in real life, Leung, who got his first film role as a steely antagonist in 1998’s “Rush Hour,” is a thoughtful Brooklyn dad who says he got into acting because it “gave me a safe space,” and who easily names “standing in front of the actual Millennium Falcon” as a career high. During our recent “Salon Talks” conversation, Leung opened up about being part of some of Hollywood’s most beloved franchises, working with the “incredibly diverse team” on “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and how representation has changed in his decades-long Hollywood career. “I think we’re finally in a place where we can start,” he says. “All possibilities are open to us now.”
