Mulan's Yoson An Waited Almost Two Years To Hear If He Got The Role of Hongui

Yoson An is sharing the unbelieveable story of how he heard he had won the role of Chen Hongui in Disney’s Mulan.

During his interview with The Laughing Place, the 28-year-old actor revealed it took almost two years for him to know if he truly got the role.

“This audition tape came through in– believe it or not– 2016,” Yoson revealed, remembered all he went through for the part. “I’ll tell you a little bit [about] before the audition process, though. I think it was back in 2015, or even late 2014, when I heard through the grapevine that Niki [Caro] was set to direct this. And I was walking back home one day as I was scrolling through my phone, I was like, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I was involved in this film?’ And just a little image of realization: “You know what? It’s never gonna happen.”

He continued, “Fast forward to 2016– I did the tape, put it down, sent it through, and I didn’t hear back for a whole year.”

Yoson was convinced that when he didn’t hear anything, he hadn’t gotten the role. But, he was wrong.

“After a couple months, I’m like, ‘I didn’t get this. There’s no way I got this. And whatever, it’s fine.’ But then literally a year later I get an email from my agent going, ‘Hey, remember that tape you put down a year ago? Disney wants to see you again.’”

Yoson went in for another audition over Skype with Niki and casting director Debra Zane. After that, he was then flown to Los Angeles for an in-person audition.

But then it was a waiting game again.

“I didn’t hear back for another nine months,” Yoson laughs. “One day, I sat down at my agent’s office, and my lovely coach Mike sat down with me, and he was like, ‘You got it, bud. You got it.’ And I was like, ‘Really? Really?’ And everything just started unfolding from there. Bit of a long story.”

Yoson‘s character Hongui is Mulan’s equal in the live action film, and takes cues from the animated character Li Shang. Find out why the character was split into two new ones here…