New Anna May Wong biopic casts Chinese actress Xin Zhilei as lead

Chinese actress Xin Zhilei has been cast to portray pioneering Chinese American actress Anna May Wong in “Sunset Boulevard – The Anna May Wong Story,” a new bilingual feature film announced by Fundamental Films ahead of the Cannes Film Market. According to Deadline, the production will follow Wong’s rise from Los Angeles-born daughter of Chinese immigrants to becoming the first Chinese American movie star in Hollywood history.

The screenplay was written by Brant Boivin and Jonathan Keasey, with the production planned as an English and Mandarin-language feature. Producer Mark Gao said the production would focus on Wong’s experiences navigating both fame and racism during the early decades of Hollywood filmmaking.

Xin is known for film and television roles including Wong Kar-wai’s “Blossoms Shanghai” (2023), “Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace” (2018) and “Joy of Life” (2019). She won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 2025 Venice Film Festival for “The Sun Rises on Us All” (2025).

In a statement, Xin said Wong’s story “deeply moves” her and described the actress as someone who remained connected to her cultural identity while working in an industry shaped by discrimination and exclusion.

Born Wong Liu Tsong in Los Angeles in 1905, Wong began pursuing film work while still in her teens and became one of the most recognizable Asian actresses in American cinema during the 1920s and 1930s. Her credits included “The Toll of the Sea” (1922), “The Thief of Bagdad” (1924), “Piccadilly” (1929), “Shanghai Express” (1932) and “Daughter of Shanghai” (1937).

Despite her visibility, Wong worked during a period when Hollywood studios routinely cast white actors in yellowface for major Asian roles while limiting Asian performers to servants, villains and heavily stereotyped characters. Anti-miscegenation standards also restricted interracial romances on screen, narrowing the range of leading roles available to her in American films.

One of the defining moments of Wong’s career came in 1935, when MGM declined to cast her as O-Lan in “The Good Earth” (1937), the film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s novel about Chinese farmers. The studio instead cast German actress Luise Rainer in yellowface, and Rainer later won the Academy Award for best actress for the role.

Wong later spent part of her career in Europe before returning to the U.S., where she continued acting in film, radio and television. In 1951, she starred in “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong” (1951), widely recognized as the first American television series led by an Asian American actor. Wong’s life and career have received renewed attention in recent years as historians and film scholars revisited Hollywood’s treatment of Asian actors during the studio era. In 2022, she became the first Asian American woman featured on U.S. currency through the American Women Quarters Program.

The casting announcement has generated debate online among some Asian American viewers over whether Wong’s experiences as a Chinese American woman navigating racism in the U.S. can be fully reflected by a mainland Chinese actress. Much of the discussion focused on Wong’s upbringing in Los Angeles, her Taishanese heritage and the cultural differences between Chinese American and mainland Chinese identities.

On Reddit, one commenter pointed out, “Anna’s a 3rd gen American and they picked a Chinese actress? It’d be weird if she has a foreign accent. And I feel like this is an Asian American story.” Another user criticized the reported use of Mandarin in the film, writing, “Wait hold on they’re doing this in mandarin when Anna may wong was Cantonese this is so disrespectful.” A separate commenter added, “At least represent her heritage instead of ignoring it.”

Other commenters defended Xin’s casting and argued that the focus should remain on her acting ability rather than nationality. Some users also compared the project to an earlier Anna May Wong film reportedly linked to British actress Gemma Chan. “It does seem to make more sense for Gemma Chan, who was raised in the West, to play a third gen Chinese-American.”