'Red Eye' on Paramount+: Richard Armitage, Jing Lusi show makes 'bold and original choice' to end thriller
"Very moving as a human, really, to hear my words reflected in a story like this," Lusi said
Jing Lusi and Richard Armitage star in the recently released thriller series Red Eye (now on Paramount+), a story about a British doctor accused of murdering a woman in Beijing. While the story has political drama, mystery and action elements, it also packs an emotional punch, particularly with Lusi's character Hana.
In Red Eye, Dr. Matthew Nolan (Armitage) arrives back in London after attending a medical conference in Beijing, only to be arrested and sent back to face charges in China for the death of a woman from Beijing. Officer DC Hana Li (Lusi), who previously lived in Hong Kong, was assigned to escort Nolan on the plane ride back to China.
But on the flight a number of mysterious deaths occur, raising questions about foul play and how they're linked to Nolan, and death of the woman in Beijing, including concerns from the head of MI5, Madeleine Delaney (Lesley Sharp).
"She's so badass and I think she's a role that you kind of typically see men play," Lusi told Yahoo Canada about what appealed to her about playing Hana. "So that was very exciting for me."
"Also to see an East Asian in that role is something that we've never really seen in this country before."
Watch Red Eye on Paramount+ with 7 days free, then plans start at $6.99/month
Lusi added that initially she only had the first three scripts, which made her particularly curious about where the story would turn out by the end of the season.
"I didn't know if Nolan was guilty or not, so that was very intriguing for me to journey down that road and see what happens," she said.
It's that question of guilt or innocence that also really resonated with Armitage.
"I just love the idea of a character that we should trust on paper, just because of his profession and his reputation, but actually he's a bit of an enigma," Armitage said. "We're kind of led down one road to trust him and then in the middle of the season you suddenly start to think, I don't know if this guy is who he says he is. Is he a spy? Is he a courier? Is he some kind of mule? I liked playing with that kind of jeopardy."
'What a gift and what a recognition of something that perhaps is under-expressed'
While trying to solve this mystery is a core element of the story, there is also a significant focus on learning about Hana throughout Red Eye. As the story progresses, we get information about Hana's mother's death and why Hana hasn't been back to China since she left with her father.
Additionally, Hana's half-sister, Jess Li (Jemma Moore), is striving to build her credentials as a reporter by trying to get the scoop on Nolan being extradited to China. But there is significant tension between the sisters, after Jess previously pursued a story her sister was involved in.
Lusi said it was "beautiful" that Red Eye allows the space for the exploration of Jess and Hana's relationship, and Hana's family dynamic more broadly.
"To have this grounding for this character, you understand why she is the way she is, you understand why she's so guarded," Lusi said. "She's had this wound that she's been living with, which is the death of her mother that was never explained, and then she's got this half-sister who seems to have all the privilege that she doesn't have, which is being half white, having a mother."
"She comes from a less than typical family unit, which I think is so beautiful to see this nuanced, blended family that we rarely get to see on British screens. So to have that understanding of where Hana comes from was very easy to kind of navigate through her journey and why she's so mistrustful of Nolan. Why she's so desperate to not step back to East Asian soil, all of that, ... which we get to discover with her."
Watch Red Eye on Paramount+ with 7 days free, then plans start at $6.99/month
In fact, there are also moments in the series that are taken from a conversation Lusi had with the team behind Red Eye, including a moment where Hana is talking to Nolan about the privilege Jess has, living the U.K. with their father and her white mother.
"I’ve always felt that the other part of her is what lets life be that bit kinder. At least that part of her belongs," Hana says in the series.
"I was having a chat with [creator Peter A. Dowling] and [executive producer Julie Gardner] at Bad Wolf, just kind of talking about the series, talking about the character, and I just expressed some of my experiences and shared that with them," Lusi explained. "The next thing I see is that this part of that conversation has been reflected in a rewrite of the script, and that was some of those scenes with Nolan where she starts opening up to him at the end."
"To have a writer and a production company literally hear you and take your words, and feed that into the character, I thought, what a gift and what a recognition of something that perhaps is under-expressed, or not expressed. And that is the lived experience of an immigrant and how she feels in the west, and how she feels against her mixed-race counterpart sister. ... It was very, for me, very moving as a human, really, to hear my words reflected in a story like this."
'Brave, bold and original choice' to end 'Red Eye'
While many may assume that Red Eye would spend a lot of time at the end of the season leaning into suspense for a possible Season 2, there's actually a particularly tender moment Hana shares with her father at the end of the season. We see Hana able to connect some dots about her mother's death, with the father and daughter connecting in a way we haven't seen throughout the series.
"It was such a beautiful scene and such a lovely way to end a thriller," Lusi said. "To end on a real character moment, and an emotional one, I thought was such a brave, bold and original choice. It is one of those things as an actor, you read it and you're like, 'Yes, I can't wait to get into this and show off my acting chops.'"
"But also to play into the realism of the character as someone who's quite emotionless, and coming from an Asian family, we don't do emotion. So to kind of find that sweet spot of still inhabiting the emotional depths of what they're feeling, but kind of resisting showing it almost, because that's what an Asian family would be like. To have that relationship with her dad, which is quite mirroring of my own relationship with my dad, and to have those tender moments of connection between an Asian daughter and an Asian father is so rare and so lovely to see. I loved that ending for the show."
