Ronny Chieng hasn't seen mum in Singapore for 2 years due to Covid-19

For the longest time, travelling across the globe was a norm and it wasn't uncommon at all for people to take overseas trips to recharge or to visit friends and family.

Then, everything changed when the pandemic struck. With the arrival of Covid-19, lives came to a standstill as the world hunkered down to combat the virus.

With international travel firmly restricted, people are separated from their families, even if they are just a causeway away.

For Malaysia-born, Singapore-raised comedian Ronny Chieng, he hasn't seen his mum — who's in Singapore — in two years due to the pandemic. Although, it's probably a lot trickier for him as the 35-year-old lives in Manhattan, New York.

Speaking to media during a recent virtual roundtable interview for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Ronny told AsiaOne: "I haven't seen my mom in two years. So yeah, I definitely miss my mom a lot more. I definitely would have seen her more if not for Covid...

"Being able to fly around the world was such a luxury in the first place, but even shutting down just your daily life, I think that makes everyone appreciate your daily life a bit more."

He added: "It used to be, you could just go to Singapore at the drop of a hat — direct flight from JFK [Airport] to Singapore — and you can't do that anymore... Maybe we would never have gone back that often anyway, but the fact that we can't go back now makes us kind of go, 'Damn, all these opportunities we had to go back and visit and we didn't.'"

As soon as travel restrictions lift, the actor (who is also in Crazy Rich Asians) will be flying back home to visit his mother.

"My mum is keeping tabs for me [on] when it opens up so I can go back. As soon as it opens up, I'm on a plane to go visit her for sure."

In Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Ronny stars as Jon Jon, an Ah Beng-like character who runs into Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) at an underground fighting ring as they search for the former's sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang).

The film also stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Wenwu, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen and Florian Munteanu.

'We didn't know if we would walk outside the house and die'

It wasn't just the travelling that was affected by the pandemic, though.

According to Ronny, production on the film was halted back in March 2020 for two weeks and it was a period of uncertainty for everyone.

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He told reporters: "We shut down production because of Covid... We didn't know if it would ever start back up. We didn't know if anything would ever start back up. There was like a good two weeks in March 2020 — I don't know if you remember — when it was the peak of uncertainty, when nobody knew what was going on. We didn't know if we would walk outside the house and die...

"I think for me, the biggest thing I took away was an appreciation for self-expression and appreciation for the kind of good moments in life because they can be rare, and they can be fleeting."

But it wasn't all doom and gloom because hey, he's starring opposite legends like Tony (whom we can't get enough of), Michelle, and Ben Kingsley.

And, he got some acting lessons from them — except Ben as Ronny didn't share scenes with him.

"You literally have the greatest [actors] on the planet. Simu, Awkwafina, everybody holds their own. And I didn't want to be the weakest link. So for me on set, it's always a constant learning process from other people."

He added separately: "I watched these guys growing up — Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh. I'm friends with Simu, I'm friends with Awkwafina. I got to meet Meng'er... It's a cliche, but the coolest part of (the film) was working with your heroes and the peers you respect."

As for Tony, we are all very familiar with his acting prowess and his famous gaze. A gaze which incidentally, was explored in an academic essay, and had co-star Fala Chen feeling hot and bothered.

But what was it like working with him? As the interview was about to wrap, we tossed out this final question. At that time, not much was said about Tony.

Ronny replied: "I don't want to be the guy to speak out of turn about Tony but he's the best. Super down-to-earth, very encouraging, very supportive, very positive guy."

Experience Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in cinemas now.

ALSO READ: We noticed JJ Lin is on the soundtrack of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

bryanlim@asiaone.com