Ming-Na Wen is 61. She feels like she's in her 30s.

Yahoo

6 days ago

If you're surprised to learn that Ming-Na Wen — best known for voicing Mulan in the Disney films alongside roles in ER, The Joy Luck Club and, more recently, the Star Wars franchise — is 61, it might be because she was playing teenagers into her 20s. It also doesn't hurt that, as Wen herself notes, her skin is pore-free.
And despite being a Hollywood veteran who has weathered motherhood and menopause — the latter of which 'kicked me in the ass,' she tells me during our call for Yahoo Life's Unapologetically series — the actress has managed to embrace aging while maintaining a youthful spirit.
'I don't know what 61 feels like. I mean, I still feel like I'm in my 30s, I guess,' she says. 'And then there are days when I feel like I'm 14 years old when I meet [someone] like Jackie Chan or when I geek out at Mark Hamill in his Jedi outfit on set. ... It just depends on the circumstances.'
Her Karate Kid: Legends co-star Chan, who is 10 years her senior, also set an example for career longevity, Wen says. 'He's still vying for roles, he's still hungry to create stories and content for himself. That's what keeps pushing me,' she shares. Here, she talks about this latest era of her career, her all-natural approach to beauty and why she's excited to play moms after always being cast as daughters.
Wow, no, not at all. ... I think the idea that I would have a long career like this is something you dream about. But you never know. Your fear is always, OK, this is my last job, this is all I'm gonna get. And then you just fade off into the sunset. It happens to a lot of actors. So I'm very grateful.
[As an Asian American actress] you're constantly just fighting for roles, and especially back then, there were so few and far between. So you're scrambling and your agents are scrambling to try to find parts that were not written specifically for an Asian. And I did, you know, obtain a lot of those roles ... but you were just fighting for scraps back in those days.
I feel like it's such a combination of luck, fate, hard work and having the right team of people who believe in you and want to see you succeed. ... Having a belief in yourself, that this is your destiny and that you have to keep pursuing it and not quitting. Those are, I think, some of the elements that keep propelling me. And then I'm always looking for role models [within] each age bracket. I've always looked up to Betty White, especially now. I look up to Jean Smart. You recognize that the possibilities remain endless.
I think being a mom has definitely made me a better actor. When you're a mom, you go through so many emotions and so many intense feelings — everything from vulnerability to inner strength to just growing up and being more observant. And also learning from my own children about who they are and who I am. It's definitely made me a better actor.
I always played the daughters, or the young girlfriend and the ingenue. Now to be able to play the moms, I think it goes deeper and it gives me a chance to explore a lot of these more vulnerable and yet powerful emotions. I'm looking forward to what else I can dip my toes into.
Well, luckily, with my genetics and my Asian genes, I am so grateful now. When I was younger, I was like, Oh, I wish I didn't look so Asian. You know, you don't appreciate being Asian; you just want to fit in. You want to be like the blond, blue-eyed [type] that you see everywhere, that are the 'Miss Popular' or getting all the lead roles. So now I embrace my culture, I embrace who I am. I love the fact that I can play younger roles. When I was in my 20s, I was playing a teenager. So it just perpetuates.
I just hope to always be able to work with great, talented people who can not look at age as the factor in hiring, but instead look at what you can bring to the table. It's about the artistry, it's about the talents, as opposed to how many followers you have on social media. There are people out there who see beyond that, and those are the people that I look forward to working with, because they don't set boundaries for themselves.
My reality is always and has always been that just because I'm Asian doesn't mean I can't play the role that wasn't specifically written for an Asian. So just because I'm a woman of a certain age now doesn't mean I [can't] play younger. We've got AI, babe. They can freaking transform me into a teenager if they wanted to. And what's so great is that I do have a childlike, Peter Pan sort of mentality. So I still play Mulan all the time. I still voice her all the time. So I do get to be a bit of a teenager whenever I'm Mulan.
We are in a world of plastic surgery, Botox and filters to look as [young] as you can — young with no pores. Luckily, I don't have pores. I mean, this is all natural, babe, all natural right there. But I work at it, you know. I eat healthy, I train. I wish I slept better — I don't — but I work out. I make sure that I do my best because [my body] is my instrument. This is what I'm selling and it's important to keep it [in] its best form possible.
With aging, I think if you try to fight what is a natural progression and the honor of getting older, the alternative is you're six feet under. [In] my culture, we do revere the elders and I think it's important to look your best, but it's also important to love the beauty of being more natural. So yeah, I don't mind aging. Sometimes it sucks because parts of your body hurt here and there.
I think it's really important never to label how you're supposed to feel at any age. I think it's really important to just feel the best you can feel and be the best you can be and just say 'eff that' to that number.
You know, I wish that our moms and our grandmothers had the platform to be open about it rather than feeling like they're going crazy or that they're alone in this struggle. It's real. I've never had postpartum [struggles] when I had kids, I never had really, really bad hormonal imbalance during my menstrual cycles. But menopause kicked me in the ass. ... I was getting panic attacks that I've never had before. I would be lethargic and unable to be motivated to even like, I don't know, do dishes or get up.
It was scary because there's a part of me, maybe being an actor, where I can always kind of look in on myself. I'm like, This is not me. This is so not me. Something is wrong, something is happening. And so being able to share that and kind of forewarn younger women that if these things happen to you, be on the lookout, there is help out there, there [are] ways to try to rebalance your hormones and it's nothing to be ashamed about. It's a natural part of our body changing. So why should we be ashamed? You know, it would be like being ashamed that our hair grows. It's so bizarre.
And that's the other hormonal thing about [menopause]: I have nose hair. Why is this my reward for perpetuating the human species by being able to give birth?
Well, I went to see my doctor and got my hormones checked. My testosterone was really low and that's why I had no motivation to do anything. It's crazy that this is so strong in changing your personality, because I've always been someone who was absolutely motivated all the time to do anything, whether it's gardening, whether it's my arts and crafts, whether it's my work, whether it's raising my kids. So that imbalance altered who I am and I didn't like that person. I didn't like not being motivated to do anything. So he gave me some things for rebalancing my hormones. And it really, really helped a lot.
I'm trying to embrace social media because I want to make it fun. It's another way to connect with the audience. ... I just started [TikTok], I don't know why. There's a part of me that's so regretting it.
My whole persona or brand will be just like, I play all these badasses and I have these beautiful red carpet things, but that's not what comes home. That's what my husband's always saying when he sees me in a magazine. He's like, 'Can she come home some night?' So I want to show the real me where I'm a goofball. My kids will probably be hating it and feel embarrassed. But yeah, we'll see. Maybe that's my goal, is just to embarrass my kids.
The advice that I would give to my 30-year-old self is to not give a shit about what other people think. And to cut [those people] out of your lives as soon as possible, or keep them at a very, very good distance. Because those are the people that you don't need to have in your life.
I wish I could have appreciated my youth in my 30s. It's so crazy. I look back at some of my pictures in my 30s and I'm like, Why was I so critical of myself? Look at that hot little lady there. You know, it's so crazy. And I try to instill that in my kids and young people, to just really love being your age right now — or at any age, really.
Now I think that way about myself. If I'm lucky enough to live as long as my mom — my mom's going to be 90 — if I'm able to live another 30 years, I'm going to look back and go, Shit, what was I complaining about? Being 60 was young. So yeah, if you're lucky enough to live long, appreciate where you're at now.
I love that I can right now just live more in the present. I used to always think about the future. I used to always worry about the future. And I love the fact that, knowing that life is precious, I try very hard to be present and be aware of where I'm at and what I'm experiencing.