Christopher Chung, best known for playing the abrasive hacker Roddy Ho in the hit spy drama Slow Horses, has opened up about his journey to becoming a leading man, including years of battling unconscious bias and stereotyping in the industry. The 37-year-old actor, who moved to the UK from Australia in 2012, said he often auditioned for roles like “the takeaway worker or the Asian nurse – peripheral characters that don’t have any autonomy”.
To avoid being forced into such roles, Chung began working as a personal trainer, a job he still does today. “If I didn’t have that, then my career might be in a very different place,” he said. He described the work as “really healthy” because it gives him “an external focus, an hour that’s about the client, not me”.
Chung said playing Roddy Ho has been a “dream role”, allowing him to be “as arrogant and obnoxious as you like” without worrying about others’ feelings. He perceives Roddy as “slightly on the spectrum” and “misunderstood”, never “vindictive” or “nasty”, just “egocentric”. He added: “Sometimes, the things that he vocalises are similar to my internal voice. So it’s a really fun character to play: I get to just say what I think.”
In the new season, Roddy takes a more central role, even being shown topless and declared “ripped” by a colleague. Chung admitted he was initially concerned about his physicality, fearing the production might want him to be “this geeky Asian kid”. But the show’s creators embraced his build, telling him: “No, no, no. We’re going to build all of that into the character.” He called that moment “so liberating”.
Working opposite Gary Oldman, who plays Roddy’s boss Jackson Lamb, has pushed Chung to bring his A-game. “You’re trying to meet them at their level so that they don’t have a dud opposite,” he said. Behind the scenes, the cast is like a “dysfunctional family”, with Oldman as a “very supportive” father figure. The two even recorded a version of Let It Be together “just for fun”.
The role has been a “gamechanger” for Chung, leading to parts in Doctor Who, Steve McQueen’s Blitz, and the upcoming Australian Netflix period drama My Brilliant Career, where he plays the romantic lead. “That was the most beautiful thing given to me on this job,” he said of the freedom to challenge stereotypes.
