LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen said their characters on The Book of Boba Fett, with new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+, make a good team. Morrison plays the bounty hunter Boba Fett and Wen his partner Fennec Shand.
"I believe Fennec has less patience," Wen, 58, said in a recent Television Critics Association Zoom panel. "She is someone who is used to just being a loner, getting things done and not questioning her choices."
The Disney+ series The Mandalorian revealed that Boba Fett survived the events of Return of the Jedi, and introduced Fennec.
New Zealand actor Morrison, 61, said Boba Fett still prefers not to speak while wearing his helmet.
"You're the brains, I'm the brawn," Morrison said to Wen. "She's got to speak for me because I'm the silent, quiet kind. So Ming-Na's there to do all my talking and be diplomatic."
Fennec has some brawn herself. Wen began her career as an action heroine in 1994's Street Fighter: The Movie.
Wen depicted the video game character Chun-Li and displayed martial arts skills in Street Fighter. By the 2013 Marvel series, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Wen would perform a fight scene in just about every episode until the show ended in 2020.
"I like representing the older strong females," Wen said. "It used to be when women were 40, they'd get put out to pasture. I'm far beyond that now, and it's great that I can still continue to do this."
Morrison said he teases Wen about their action scenes.
"Some long days on the set sometimes, I'm looking at Ming-Na and going, 'Not bad for an old man and an old lady, eh?'" Morrison said. "We'd have a good laugh and pick each other up and say, 'Come on, we've got to represent.'"
Even in jest, Wen objects to Morrison characterizing them as grandpa and grandma.
"I don't think we are," Wen said. "We're way too hot for that."
Morrison entered the Star Wars universe in the 2002 prequel Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones. Morrison played Jango Fett, who was cloned to make armies for the empire.
Boba Fett was revealed to be a clone of Jango, too. Jeremy Bulloch wore the Boba Fett costume in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Return of the Jedi, but never showed his face.
"I must thank George [Lucas] for making me Jango Fett," Morrison said. "Since Boba's the clone son of Jango, somebody at a meeting must've said, 'Well, he's got to look like Jango.'"
Though 20 years older than when he filmed Attack of the Clones in 2000, that actually fits the passage of time in the Star Wars universe. The Book of Boba Fett takes place some 20 years after Attack of the Clones.
Wen said she's been a Star Wars fan since watching the original trilogy as a child. She began television acting at 22 on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and on the soap operas Another World and As the World Turns at 25.
"I was definitely president of my science fiction club back in high school," Wen said. "The Force was with me because I responded so vividly and strongly to the character of Luke Skywalker."
In 1977's Star Wars, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) joins the rebellion after his farmer aunt and uncle are killed. Wen said she related as an Asian actor trying to make it in Hollywood in the '80s.
"It was not a thing that my parents wanted for me for sure and not an easy profession to go into," Wen said. "Being on The Mandalorian and being here with Tem on The Book of Boba Fett is truly the American dream."