The Bond Between Daniel Wu & Nick Frost Goes Far Beyond ‘Into The Badlands’

Casts of long-running TV shows are often known to form close bonds. In some cases though, it doesn’t take long at all. Such is the case for Into The Badlands stars Daniel Wu and Nick Frost.

They may come off as an odd pairing at first. Wu is a toned action hero, often taking on serious roles. Frost, on the other hand, is widely known for his comedic chops, starring in films like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Wu was cast as lead character Sunny when the show began, so he had been around the block a time or two before the second season began production. The story for Season 2 finds Sunny locked up, partnered with a cunning mystery-man named Bajie – played by Nick Frost. The two characters spend most of the season together, including an entire episode where they were attached with a set of handcuffs.

With a show veteran and a newcomer put together for such a long amount of time, there’s no telling what kind of relationship could develop. Fortunately, in the case of Badlands, the two stars became instant friends off-screen.

We had the chance to speak with both actors this season, and asked them about their experiences with the other.

Frost revealed that he was a bit nervous going into an established series, but he was put at ease when paired up with Wu.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better co-star. It was difficult going into a show that’s already been established in terms of relationships between actors personally and in terms of the storylines as well, because I hadn’t really seen much of the first one either. So I think that was my big worry, thinking, ‘Oh, I hope Daniel Wu’s all right as a person, I hope he’s a nice man,’ and I just couldn’t have been more thrilled. We’ve become really close friends since the show’s finished, our children are friends and his partner and my partner are friends, and we like a lot of the same things, and I think we share a sensibility in terms of not only work ethic, but how things should be done and how things should look and what’s funny.

“I was just thrilled when he was really eager to get my input on things day to day on set, ‘What do you think about this?’ I was always really happy to be able to go to him and say, ‘What do you think about this line? Or maybe we should try this,’ or he was always really eager to make it, to make the show as good as he possibly could. It was just an absolute weight off my mind knowing that everyday I could go to work with and hang out with someone like Daniel, especially for the first eight or 10 weeks, it was just me and him, where I didn’t do scenes with anyone else apart from him.”

When we asked Daniel about his experiences with Nick, he sang a very similar tune.

“We’re just two dudes talking all day long. He is a lot like the character in some ways, you know. He’s very witty, very sharp, very smart. It just makes every day pleasurable working with him whether we’re doing a fight or whether we’re doing dialogue or trudging through the mountains. It was a pleasure. He is probably one of my most favorite actors to ever work with, just because it was so easy.

“We’re also very similar personalities even though we’re different personalities on screen. In real life, we like the same types of music, we like the same kinds of movies, we’re both movie nerds of different types. I’m a martial arts movie nerd and he’s more other genres, but we’re able to share information with each other that way. Talk about cool movies that we like or that he likes and then I like and then introduce things to each other. We’re also like kind of foodies. There’s so much that we talk about on set.

“Then we help each other out too. Obviously he’s the comedy master so it was very helpful for him to help me out with timing and how to be the straight guy in that situation and then vs with me helping him with the fights. He had anxiety about the first and all that kind of stuff. It was a dream. I loved working with him. I thought it was really funny when they announced that he was joining our cast. That guy can move like mad. He ended up being really good. A great fighter actually. I will put it this way, I would not want to be on the end of one of his punches or kicks. They’re all hard.

“It was fun. I really like Nick a lot, I love him.”

After hearing them both talk about one another, it’s no wonder their chemistry on screen was so convincing. Hopefully fans will get to see plenty more of the Wu-Frost Connection when Into The Badlands returns for its third season in 2018.

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