Benedict Wong

“Let's bang the gong and chime for more Asian superheroes. The gatekeepers can certainly open the door - there's a wealth of East Asian talent around, and that needs to be tapped into.”

“It's really hard because obviously people label you as a British East Asian actor. And I'm just from Salford; it's where I was born.”

“Kublai noticed this uncommon perception that Marco Polo has, with the idea to explain and talk about his country so vividly that he can see it.”

“Customer freedom! Don't dictate how I want to watch my TV!”

“Honestly, I was watching Marvel films and was always crestfallen: Where are the super-Asians? People are looking to be represented by their heroes.”

“I've been really pleasantly surprised by 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' I'd never really heard of that gang before, that comic series before. And I think when you go into those, watching those sort of films, you watch them with no expectation as well, so you're always kind of pleasantly surprised, I think.”

“Bruce Lee has always been a hero of mine, and the choreography in 'Enter The Dragon' is amazing.”

“I'm in the loners' society. I don't want to classify myself as anything.”

“In terms of representation, television is reflecting an era that has passed. It's the wrong time; it's the wrong period. In all sorts of television, it doesn't feel like the 21st century.”

“We watched a lot of Hong Kong action movies in my house when I was growing up.”

“In America, you're just an American. You're accepted. It doesn't matter that you're of whatever race. If anything, I'm British, and that's it. So let's just get on with it, really.”

“Khan let Polo be his eyes and ears. He was the first one to build a bridge between East and West.”

“Ridley Scott is a cinematic master and a great man. It was a real honour working with him on 'Prometheus.'”

“When you're a kid that's spent all your pocket money buying Spider-Man comics, and then as an adult, you're in the Marvel Universe, and you get to meet Stan Lee - it's wonderful.”

“Occasionally, when you do a take, and - what I kind of sort of like is asking for a PPB - Personal Play Back.”

“I'd like to helm my own series. Something British.”

“People call me Benny. And as long as they put Benedict on my paycheck, I don't care.”

“In Kazahkstan, you would drive five hours outside the city to where roads sort of stop being roads, and it was just in the mountains and deathly quiet. And you could only really hear the clumping of the horses, and it was a sort of a beautiful silence. Like it enveloped you.”

“I feel like we are reintroducing historical figures, with the explorer Marco Polo and the grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, the ruler of the Mongol empire, the trading place that everybody wanted to get involved in.”

“I remember getting my mum to drive me to watch a Jackie Chan film when I was, like, eleven and trying to tell them I was fifteen.”