Jan Le has been waiting for this moment. A born and bred Londoner, she has heard the words that are a common refrain for many actors of Asian descent in the UK: “There’s nothing for your look right now.” But now, with a starring role in the new BBC series Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, she’s proving that a lack of roles was never about her talent. It was about the industry.
The series, which premiered on MGM+ and is now coming to the UK, is a plane crash mystery from renowned writer Anthony Horowitz. It sounds familiar, but Le promises a fresh, gruesome spin. A small group of strangers crashes in a Mexican jungle, and while the bodies are all recovered, a shocking discovery is made: only one of them actually died in the crash. The rest were murdered, one by one, after they survived the initial impact.
Le plays Amy Maclean, a young heiress on her honeymoon with her new husband, Dan. “Amy comes from a very privileged background, and the journey throws her into a situation she never could have imagined,” Le says. The show uses flashbacks to show the aftermath of the crash and the chilling sequence of events. Le found a lot of depth in her character, a person grappling with internal pain that she must confront while also fighting for her life.
When it comes to playing a character with such a difficult and specific backstory, Le finds a powerful source of inspiration in her own family history. Her parents are refugees, and she grew up listening to their stories of resilience and sorrow. “My parents are refugees, and I grew up hearing their stories of resilience and sorrow. I think that background has given me a deep sense of empathy and a real connection to these kinds of intense, emotional roles.”
Le believes her family’s history is an emotional resource that informs her work in a very personal way. She’s incredibly proud of her heritage and the sacrifices her parents made to give her a better life. Her mother, for example, re-mortgaged their council flat to open a restaurant so Le would have a safety net. It’s a powerful reminder of the foundation of hard work and sacrifice that her career is built on, something she never takes for granted.
“I was also drawn to the idea of an East Asian character in this kind of a setting, which you don’t see very often,” Le explains, noting that the title itself, Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, was immediately intriguing. Reading the scripts sealed the deal, and the opportunity to work with Anthony Horowitz, a writer she grew up reading, was an absolute dream. She says that when she told her boyfriend’s parents she was working with him, they were very excited and familiar with his work, from his books to Foyle’s War.
Filming in the Canary Islands was another highlight for Le. The work-life balance was perfect, and she even learned to surf. But the best part was having her parents fly out to see her work for a week. Her dad is quiet, but her mom was overjoyed, living vicariously through her daughter. The fact that she was able to convince her mom, who is so attached to her restaurant, to take a week off was a huge achievement. Seeing how proud her mother was made the whole experience even more meaningful.
Le was intimidated at first by the rest of the cast, which is filled with famous faces from shows like Yellowjackets, Happy Valley, Derry Girls, and Severance. She felt like a “newbie” because she’d only had smaller roles before, and she thinks she might be one of the first British Vietnamese actresses in a main role on a UK show. But her worries were unfounded. The cast was professional, kind, and hilarious. She describes watching Eric McCormack and David Ajala work as a masterclass, and says that Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Siobhán McSweeney were like her adopted parents on set.
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The experience validated that her hard work and persistence had paid off. She acknowledges that the landscape for Asian actresses is changing, but there is still more to be done. The key, she says, is seeing more Asian writers and creators, who can write roles that feel nuanced and help normalize their presence in the industry.
In the end, Le isn’t a fan of the “hard sell.” But if she had to give a pitch for the show, she says, “if you love a good puzzle, if you think you’re a fantastic detective, then you have to watch this show. You’ll be trying to figure out who the murderer is from the very first minute. It’s a really fun, smart, and twisty thriller with an incredible cast—you’ll be hooked!”
Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue: Saturday 27th September, 9.25pm, BBC One
Photo by: Stewart Bywater
