Amazon Studios' Spider-Noir, which is streaming on Prime Video, surprised audiences in a major way. Many believe it's an incredible example of how Sony should be using the Spider-Man IP and the vast web of characters at its disposal.
A character from Spider-Man's world that fans have been dying to see come to life and wanted to be part of Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat. That day has finally come, kind of. Spider-Noir puts Cat Hardy, played by Li Jun Li, in the spotlight as one of the show's leading characters. In fact, Cat and Ben Reilly's romantic chemistry is one of the main plots of the story,
Though in classic Black Cat fashion, that romance doesn't work out, and Nicolas Cage's Ben Reilly (yes, not Peter Parker) is betrayed by the woman he thought he was falling in love with. Despite Cat choosing another man, by the end of Season 1, Spider-Noir star Li Jun Li doesn't think that the two's love story is over just yet.
The Direct sat down with Spider-Noir star Li Jun Li to talk about her unique take on Felicia Hardy, aka Cat Hardy, working with Nicolas Cage, and how she thinks there might still be a future for Cat and Ben.
Li Jun Li Thinks Cat Hardy & Ben Reilly Could Still Happen
"I Absolutely Believe That Cat Has a Real Connection..."
- The Direct: "In iconic Black Cat fashion, Cat Hardy does portray Ben Riley for Flint. I know the show goes over in a lot of ways, but can you break down what's going through her mind immediately when she does that, but then also why by the end of the season she still stands by her actions? And was there any love between those two characters?"
Li Jun Li: I think so... I do think, despite the fact that Cat Hardy is the femme fatale of 'Spider-Noir,' I think that she is just an inherently good person trying to make a difficult situation work. Flint disappeared, not once, but twice. She has been technically abandoned by Flint. She doesn't know where he is. He's turned into something else. She hasn't heard from him, and the connection that she has with Ben is real. This is the first time they've seen a match in each other, someone who is equally as intelligent and quick-witted and sharp and sarcastic, and their banter is something that Cat does not share with Flint, so, and I think as human beings we are so emotionally complex that I absolutely believe that Cat has a real connection and takes real interest in Ben Riley, and I absolutely think that she was falling for him... I mean, I still have hope for them.
Working With the Intense Nicolas Cage
"He Forced All of Us to Bring Our A-Game..."
- The Direct: "You obviously shared a lot of scenes with Nicholas Cage, who described his approach to the character as playing a spider pretending to be a person, which is obviously a wild mindset to go into. Were there like specific times on set with him that kind of stood out, or where you were surprised by his approach to a scene, and you just had to like adapt and go, all right?"
Li Jun Li: Yes the latter, because I obviously—you have your ideas of how you think a scene is going to go, and then the first table read was the first time I met at Nick, and I'm just thinking I'm just gonna go in like a cool cat... and just calm and glamorous, and he immediately started our scene with this quick banter, and I now know, through all of the interviews that we had done that his process, [which] wasn't shared with me. I didn't know what his process was when we first began. All I knew was that he knew all of his lines from the entire season, from the first day we sat down. He's very, very intense. However, he locked in with me immediately, forced all of us to bring our A-game even at the table read, even though we're still trying to figure each other out. But we locked in immediately, and I was just surprised at his rhythm [and] the speed in which he was working with, but I loved it. Some of my favorite scenes are with Nick.
Li Jun Li on Creating a Unique Black Cat for Spider-Noir
She Was "Given a Blank Canvas" to Create Cat Hardy.
- The Direct: "I know this version of the character of Felicia Hardy, or Cat Hardy, as she's called in this, is very different than the classic ones, say, in the comics or whatnot... Were there any particular iterations or versions of Felicia Hardy that maybe you kind of looked towards or took inspiration from, whether that be from a comic game or what have you?"
Li Jun Li: Yes, 100%. So this is a full or new iteration to this world, this universe, and we, as actors, were all given a blank canvas, essentially to work off of, and his inspirations for Cat Hardy were the classic noir femme fatales, Rita Hayworth, Ida Lupino, Kim Basinger from 'LA Confidential,' and Barbara McCall... And then when we sat down to build her background, we spent a day with Harry Bradbeer, our director for the first block, and pulled from Felicia Hardy's own story, but we kind of tweaked it so that it was a little bit more grounded. Felicia Hardy's father is a world-renowned cat burglar, and our version was that her father was actually a petty thief, and he has since been imprisoned, and she had to grow up surviving on her own, but she wasn't unfamiliar with the world of crime, and she has learned how to adapt from that past up until the day she met Silverman, so things like that, we definitely pulled from the original [but] not without making it our own, just like all the other characters.
Our entire interview with Spider-Noir's Li Jun Li can be seen below.
