The sweet and true story of how two stunt doubles got engaged on the set of ‘Kung Fu’
“Kung Fu” stunt double Megan Hui was ecstatic when the assistant costume designer asked to measure her fingers for matching “custom rings” she wanted to make for her and Olivia Liang, the star of the CW series.
“Maybe they’ll let me keep them because they’ll only fit my hands,” she thought, excited at the prospect of free, personalized jewelry.
But when the time came to film the Season 1 finale of the action drama, Hui was a tad disappointed. “I guess I never got any custom rings,” she lamented to her fellow stunt double and longtime boyfriend, Ken Do, on their way to work.
Little did Hui know she would soon receive a very special ring from Do, who planned to propose to her while shooting the season’s final episode. Though the freshman season of “Kung Fu” wrapped production in April, Hui and Do didn’t go public with their engagement until after the 13th installment premiered last week.
“The best best best part of shooting the finale was planning the engagement of our superstar stunt doubles,” Liang, who stars in “Kung Fu” as college student-turned-warrior Nicky Shen, tweeted along with a video of the proposal.
“Megan Hui and Ken Do are the kindest, most generous, and most mega talented people i’ve ever met. so proud to be Megan’s acting double.”
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Hui, 33, and Do, 28, have a meet-cute story fitting for two Hollywood stunt performers. On Sunday mornings in 2017, Hui began attending Taekwondo classes led by Do and popular among other stunt professionals interested in sharpening their skills.
One weekend, as Hui was about to leave the studio, Do noticed a flat tire on her car and offered to help fix it. Together, the pair of highly trained martial artists — capable of executing complex fight combinations involving high kicks, swords, knives and aerial acrobatics — huddled over a YouTube tutorial on how to change a tire.
“She was like, ‘Oh, I think I can make it home’ — she lives like 45 minutes away from the place,” Do said on a recent video call. He and Hui spoke with The Times remotely from their home kitchen in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.
“I was like, ‘You can’t drive. Your tire’s gonna explode.’ And so I helped her change her tire. ... I guess it kind of started from there.”
About five years later, Do decided he was ready to propose to Hui around the time “Kung Fu” returned from a pandemic-induced hiatus. That’s when Jon Prasida, who plays Ryan Shen on the CW series, suggested Do stage the proposal during production.
“I was like, ‘What? I’m not gonna take up time on set. What if I get yelled at or something?’” Do recalled, laughing. “He’s like, ‘No, no, no. It’ll be fine. Come with me.’”
With Do in tow, Prasida made a beeline for his TV sister, Liang, and her onscreen love interest, Eddie Liu, who plays Henry Yan. (Do and Hui perform stunts for Liu and Liang, respectively.)
The three actors immediately began scheming, determined to help Do pull off his most ambitious stunt yet. Soon the entire cast and crew were involved — including assistant costume designer Dawn Grey, who came up with the clever excuse to obtain Hui’s ring size.
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On the day of the finale shoot, Do was a nervous wreck. Between scenes, Liang and Liu attempted to calm his anxiety with words of encouragement. It’s just “another stunt,” they told him. “You’ve got this.”
“My heart was beating all day. I don’t think I slept at all,” Do said of the nights leading up to the proposal.
“He seemed really serious and concentrated,” Hui said. “When he is really focused on something ... he can get really serious. So I just figured he was thinking about something else.”
Hui was stressed too. As a stunt double for the show’s lead actor, her demanding shooting schedule involved an intense fight sequence that required her to perform six challenging maneuvers while suspended on a wire — all with limited rehearsal time.
Because of her laser focus on the daunting task, Hui failed to pick up on certain cues that threatened to upend the whole operation, which the cast and crew had code-named “Ken’s Stunt.” Subtle hints dropped by Liu, who asked Do if he had “the package” (the box) with “the equipment” (the ring), went straight over her head.
After completing the climactic battle sequence, Hui assumed she was done for the day. Imagine her surprise when she and Do were then summoned for an additional scene that wasn’t on the itinerary.
“Be careful. Don’t twist your ankle,” people warned them as they traversed rocky terrain to a red truck. There, the first assistant director instructed them to demonstrate, for Liu and Liang, how to get out of the truck and sprint to their marks as quickly as possible without injuring themselves on the uneven surface.
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“I was so confused at first ... because I was like, ‘Well, the camera’s gonna be on our face, so I feel like this would be the actors doing it,’” Hui said.
“But then ... I was like, ‘OK, yeah, we should show them how to make sure they can run on the rocks safely. And if something should happen, maybe we should clear a path on the rocks.”
Footage of what happened next has been shared widely on social media since the finale aired. While running to his mark, Do tripped and fell, hard, on the rubble — a theatrical flourish peppered into the romantic ruse by episode director Joe Menendez.
Precisely according to plan, Hui instantly took the bait and broke character to come to her partner’s aid. In the moment, she wondered why the show’s medical staff wasn’t reacting. Perhaps they were still in shock as she was, she thought.
“Oh, my gosh,” she said, moving to lift Do off the ground. “Are you OK?”
Instead of getting up, Do stayed down on one knee and pulled the ring out of his jacket pocket.
“Wait, is this real?” Hui said, as seen in the video.
“Is that a yes?” said Do, drawing laughs from the cast and crew.
“I really thought he hurt his ankle very badly, because he was putting so much weight on my arm,” Hui told The Times. “And then he pulled the ring out, and ... I actually didn’t understand what was happening.
“He’s played jokes before on me, so I thought, ‘Maybe this is a joke.’ And then in my head ... so many thoughts are happening really quickly. ... And then he asked if I would marry him. ... And then I realized this whole thing was real. And then I said, ‘Yes.’”
The entire set erupted in cheers as Hui and Do removed their face masks to seal their engagement with a kiss. At press time, the pair have yet to nail down a date for the wedding, which they intend to hold once the pandemic is under control.
Until then, they have plenty to look forward to, including the recently confirmed second season of “Kung Fu,” a joint gig that has proved enjoyable and convenient for the couple — especially when it comes to rehearsing and carpooling to set.
The CW series isn’t the first project on which Hui and Do have collaborated. The dynamic duo previously joined forces on the 2019 Netflix drama “Wu Assassins,” as well as “Snake Eyes,” the newly released “G.I. Joe” franchise installment starring “Crazy Rich Asians” breakout Henry Golding.
“Kung Fu” is, however, the first project on which Hui and Do have performed as romantic leads. While filming episodes during the pandemic, their offscreen relationship came in handy when setting up shots that required Liang’s and Liu’s characters to stand in extremely close proximity.
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Because they were already quarantining in the same space, Hui and Do were able to discard their masks while serving as substitute stand-ins to block intimate scenes between their acting counterparts.
“Usually, I play a bad guy, [and] she usually kicks my a—,” Do said. “So it’s cool to finally get to work together.”
“To fight together but not fight each other, together,” Hui added. “Fight other people, together.”
After finally announcing their engagement to the world, Hui and Do have received a slew of congratulatory messages from Liang, Liu, Golding and many more.
“I was so happy,” Hui said. “I was so in shock at all the work he had put in it. It was very overwhelming, and I just felt so blessed and so grateful to have shared the moment with all of our friends and our colleagues. It was so special.”
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