While recently promoting his latest movie, the screenlife thriller Missing, Ken Leung shared how, when he was cast in his first major film, the 1998 blockbuster Rush Hour, he told its director Brett Ratner that he wanted to treat the part as if he’ll never be in a film again.

The 53-year-old actor meant it as a reminder to himself. “Every project you’re on could really be the last thing so experience it as fully as you can and let that take you to whatever you’re going to do next. I’ve always had that kind of mentality,” he said in a recent Zoom interview.

Born and raised in New York, Leung found his spark as an actor. while studying physical therapy in New York University, as a space to express himself creatively through theater.

For a longtime, he was one of few Asian American actors in substantial roles in Hollywood projects.

He starred in the long-running ABC series Lost in a role that was tailor-made for him after its creators became fans due to his intense performance in the award-winning show The Sopranos.

Leung also received praises for his performance as a high-finance boss in HBO and BBC’s drama Industry. It ended its second season last September and was recently renewed for a third.

The actor has been a familiar face in superhero and fantasy films having starred in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). He’ll be seen next in the genre through the series Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing fan-favorite Commander Zhao in the Netflix live-action show that’s likely to come out later this year.

In Missing, directed by Will Merrick and Nick Johnson, he plays the enigmatic new boyfriend of Grace (played by Nia Long), who disappeared while on vacation in Colombia, which triggers her online savvy daughter (Storm Reid) to start investigating on her own what could have happened.

How do you pick your projects?

Sometimes it’s not so much that I’m intentionally picking projects, but I’m open to — I’m kind of open to projects picking me because I can recognize something that I’m supposed to be part of. Sometimes you’ll, you know, hear a ring inside your head, or you’ll feel something. And sometimes it’s fear. Sometimes you’re like, ‘Whoa, you know, I — I don’t know if I can play this role.’ Or, ‘Hey, this reminds me of this part of my life, that doing this project could help me kind of face things like that.’ I look out for things that call to me. And if you are open that way, you’d be surprised how much calls to you. And there’s things where you don’t hear a ring. It’s very, very, very obvious. ‘I’m not supposed to be a part of this.’ Not because of the role or me or anything. It’s just I think this role is meant for another actor. Another actor needs to play this role. Another actor will get something that if I knew what that thing was, I would want this actor to play this role. And so that’s how I approach it. You can’t mastermind up your path in this field. You know, you can’t say, ‘Well, if I do this and I do this, if I play this kind of role, then I’ll be somewhere that I want to be.’ I mean, ultimately, we live where we’re working in a fantasy, play world. So, you’re lucky to be in it for a day, you know. So, I try to remember that, and I try to listen to those rings. So yeah, not so intentional, but open.

Let’s talk about the twists and turns in Missing. When you were reading the script, how did they land with you?

I was curious about how it was made. You know, I had watched Searching and so I had a sense of the style and the conceit of it. I liked it. I was attracted to the character and, you know, his — How do I say this? It’s so hard to talk about it without giving away stuff. (laughs) I liked the character, and I was curious about what was really happening underneath. If it was what I was seeing, or if there was stuff underneath and the character is designed such that it creates this looking deeper and so I was attracted to that more than anything.

Your job is playing in this make-believe world but Missing being technology-based, what was it like compared to roles?

Yeah, it was unusual. It took some getting used to because it’s not just an actual phone that I’m talking into. It’s a rig setup that the phone is a part of, and you have to know where to look. But it’s a new kind of storytelling, and I thought it was really effective. We did film it obviously during the pandemic where we become just as a society used to — maybe more used to — being on devices and connecting with people, talking to people, having Zoom meetings, and having birthday parties and whatever all on our devices. And so, it came at a time where that made sense more than maybe at other times.

What was your experience playing the character in Industry?

I would say that the main thing, if I were to boil it down — It’s set in this financial world that is so foreign to me. Was and remains foreign to me. And I started from this place of distance like: how do I enter this foreign world and the character? Take away all the finance stuff, the character comes from a place of confidence and bravado etc… And I realized at some point that my approach was the opposite of where this character was coming from, you know. There’s, ‘Oh, how do I learn about finance such that I can play this role? Oh, I don’t know this. I don’t know that.’ Whereas the character knows everything. The character, it has no doubt. And so, once I made that flip, it was a carnival ride. It was just a blast. Like I could do— I could try things. I wasn’t afraid to make mistakes. Improvised things, do things for the hell of doing it. And it created this character that had real bravado. That it wasn’t to pretend that my approach to the character matched the kind of personality of the role I was playing. So yeah, that more than anything stands out for me for Industry.

You started in Hollywood when it was not easy for Asian actors to be cast in substantial roles. How did you deal with the limitations that the industry put on people of color and particularly Asians?

I started in the theater and, you know, I never came into this profession with any kind of expectations. I don’t think it’s realistic for any actor to. I knew I loved acting. I loved learning about it. I wanted to keep doing it. I wanted to get good at it. And anywhere that I could do that I went towards that thing. It wasn’t so much of, ‘Oh, well. I’m only going to be satisfied if it looks this way.’ Or ‘If I get this over here, I get to do that over there.’ It was just, hopefully I’ll find a way to work in such a way that people will be interested in sharing that experience with me. Beyond that, it’s sort of out of my…It’s none my business where that goes.

You know, Rush Hour was my first major film, and I remember sitting in a restaurant in Hong Kong with the director (Brett Ratner), and I was like, ‘You know, I want to treat this film like I’ll never get another film.’ And I think I have a little of that in each project. The next thing is not promised in this field. Maybe in this field in many ways more than other fields. Every project you’re on could really be the last thing, so experience it as fully as you can and let that take you to whatever you’re going to do next. I’ve always had that kind of mentality.