From stand-up comedy to movies: Ali Wong takes on Hollywood

Asian-American comic Ali Wong shot to fame in 2016 with her Netflix stand-up special Baby Cobra. And now she’s one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood, writing and starring in a new romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe.

• Stars stepping away from spotlight to improve mental health
• Martin Garrix: ‘I am a f**king computer nerd producer’

Ali Wong just wants to be normal. It’s a tough ask — some might say an impossible one — when you’re one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood.

The wildly popular Asian-American comic shot to fame in 2016 with her Netflix stand-up special Baby Cobra. She was seven months pregnant with her first child and took a sledgehammer to the picture-perfect perceptions of pregnancy.

She was back at it again two years later — and again seven months pregnant with baby number two — with follow-up special Hard Knock Wife.

This time she had some solid mothering experience up her sleeve and was ready to unleash.

“I love her so much, but I’m on the verge of putting her in the garbage,” she says of her daughter at one stage.

Wong, 37, had been on the comedy circuit for a long time, appearing on shows such as Chelsea Lately and Inside Amy Schumer, and was writing for popular ABC sitcom Fresh Off The Boat.

But her raw and hilarious Netflix specials, both of which attracted a mountain of media coverage across the globe (almost all of which was positive), catapulted her into a whole new world of stardom.

MORE ENTERTAINMENT STORIES FROM DAVID MEDDOWS:

END OF AN ERA FOR VEEP FANS BUT STILL WORTH THE BINGE

DAY ROBERT DUVALL BLOOPER CHANGED ANGELA BISHOP’S CAREER

In the scheme of her longer career, this rise happened almost overnight. It’s a position that makes her husband Justin Hakuta, who she jokes (roasts might be a more appropriate term) about regularly in her shows, quite uncomfortable.

“My husband … is not a very Hollywood person at all and the whole red carpet thing terrifies him,” she tells The Sunday Telegraph.

“For him, it’s a waste of his time and it’s awkward and it’s strange.”

Wong completely understands her family’s trepidation and is keen to avoid the kind of intrusive interruptions that come with such celebrity.

“It’s not just my life, it is literally our life that changes,” she says.

“We are really out and about with our kids a lot and it’s at a nice comfortable place right now.

“We don’t want to turn into weirdos, live in the suburbs in a house and just buy all the toys in the world because we’re just too scared of going outside.”

Wong shot to fame with her Netflix special Ali Wong: Baby Cobra.

She points to her Instagram page as an example of just how “normal” a family they are.

“I am a normal person and if you follow me on Instagram you can see that I’m not a very celebrity-ish kind of person,” she says.

“You can see my messy-ass house.”

But with more than 1.1 million followers, it’s clear Wong will have a struggle on her hands.

“What we don’t want is for people to act strange around us,” she says.

Wong first realised things were looking up when she no longer had to offer incentives for people to come to her show.

“When I was warming up for (Hard Knock Wife), in my home town we had to put half my tickets up on Groupon,” she laughs.

“Now I have to worry about scalpers selling my tickets — it’s a different set of worries.”

Wong stars opposite friend Randall Park in Always Be My Maybe. Picture: Sheryl Nields/Netflix

Always Be My Maybe is Wong’s first venture into the rom-com space. She wrote the script with friend and co-star Randall Park, whom she met years ago while a student at the University of California.

Park had graduated several years earlier but was involved in the comedy scene there.

While they are romantically involved in the movie, Wong says there were no sparks back in the day and is surprised the pair even became friends.

“I still can’t believe he even wanted to be friends with me,” she laughs.

“I looked like one of those kids from Stranger Things — I was wearing these backwards hats and really into hip hop and Hedwig And The Angry Itch and Strictly Ballroom … and I was really into drinking 40s (40 ounce cans of beer).”

The pair share a hilariously awkward sex scene in the back seat of a car. Is it more or less difficult to do such a scene with a friend?

“I would say it’s easier because we can talk about it but it was surreal,” Wong says.

What was easy for her was getting to make out with almost all of her male co-stars, including Park, Daniel Dae Kim and Keanu Reeves, who makes a substantial cameo in the movie.

“I made out with possibly the three hottest Asian-American men in existence in this movie — it’s like ‘who wrote this, right?’ ” she laughs.

* Always Be My Maybe is streaming now on Netflix

Originally published as From stand-up comedy to movies: Ali Wong takes on Hollywood