THE ACTOR AND ADVOCATE HAS MUCH ON HER MIND, AND IS CHANNELLING HER ENERGY INTO ACTION
GEMMA CHAN AND I ARE WALKING down the idyllic, leafy paths of Regent’s Park, one of her favourite spots in London, talking about how the pandemic strengthened our relationships with nature. ‘I think it’s probably something I took for granted before,’ she says.
She tells me about a family visit earlier that week to the BBC Earth Experience, an immersive exhibition narrated by David Attenborough. It made a deep impression on her, but it doesn’t take long for her tone to jump from wonder to concern as our conversation turns to the climate crisis. This summer has seen devastating heatwaves and wildfires in Europe and the US. It’s a lot, and Chan feels it. ‘I’m lying awake pretty much every night thinking about it,’ she says. She reels off worrying statistics with sharp accuracy, including a 2017 study indicating that just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. It’s one of several facts she cites throughout our conversation – there’s much on her mind, so it comes as little surprise that her current read is Rafael Behr’s Politics: A Survivor’s Guide.
Nevertheless, she still has hope. Climate anxiety might be keeping her up at night, but she’s putting that energy into understanding the latest research and campaigns that can actually make a difference. ‘Changing the system, not perfecting our own lives, is the point,’ she says, quoting environmentalist Bill McKibben.
‘Changing the system’ aptly describes Chan’s work as both actor and advocate. Within the entertainment industry, she has supported the Time’s Up initiative against sexual harassment at work, and has shared her experiences of, and has spoken about, the lack of opportunities for East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) actors. Chan, 40, made her acting debut in 2006, after growing up in Bromley, London and studying law at Oxford University. Nearly two decades later, does she still feel there are challenges in speaking up? ‘It’s still inherently risky, I think, to bite the hand that feeds you,’ she says. ‘And there’s still a lot of bad behaviour in the industry. It’s very difficult to change that culture.’
Chan’s efforts to change cultures go far beyond Hollywood and on-screen storytelling. She tells me with pride about her her role as an ambassador for Unicef, which she started in 2021. In the same year, prompted by the rise in anti-Asian racism connected to the pandemic, Chan lau
