Interview: Zine Tseng Discusses ‘Young Sherlock’

After an incredible breakout performance in 3 Body Problem, which saw her win the Gotham Award for Outstanding Performance in a Drama Series, actor Zine Tseng is breaking out in a big way by starring in Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock, which she described in a Zoom interview with Awards Radar as “a very fun challenge.”

Working with Ritchie, who is known for an improvisational directorial style where he will either change the screenplay on the day of shooting or throw it out completely, Tseng, who portrays the dual role of Princess Gulun Shou’an and Xiao Wei, explains that she proposed earlier to the acclaimed filmmaker that “both women should be strong. He asked me to elaborate on it more, and I said,” When they are fighting, the real princess and the imposter are really good martial artists.” I had to differentiate how they fought. Both had different backgrounds. I sold this idea to Guy, and he said, “Okay, let’s do it.” I was so happy about that.” 

Since Ritchie’s direction is frequently spontaneous, Tseng explains that he gave the cast a limited amount of time to decide on their characters’ traits:

“Whenever I want to propose something to him, I’d better do it well, so that I can sell the idea. My original goal was to differentiate the two characters, the real princess and the imposter, because it was very skeptical that to make both women strong, it all comes from one source. I had to talk to Guy and Matthew Parkhill, the showrunner, about how I wished to create the characters by giving them different eyes and different legacies. We had so many conversations about it with Matthew and with Guy. He was calling me out on set, saying, “Zine, the two characters are too similar. Can you change your face?” And then I said, “Yeah, I can do it for you one time, and then you tell me if you like it or not.” I changed it, and he said, “Zine, can you go back to your cold-ass bitch face? I like that one too.” That’s how we were able to [work together].”

Of course, there was so much to dive into, including how she collaborated with Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Dónal Finn to develop the princess’s complex relationship with Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, her process in developing the character’s fighting styles and combat skills, and how working on this show differed from 3 Body Problem.

Watch the full interview below :

[Some of the quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity]