{"id":43487,"date":"2026-08-13T17:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T12:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43487"},"modified":"2026-08-13T17:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T12:04:31","slug":"my-brilliant-career-star-christopher-chung-shed-slow-horses-roddy-ho-to-become-heartthrob-harry-beecham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43487","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;My Brilliant Career&#8217; Star Christopher Chung Shed &#8216;Slow Horses&#8217; Roddy Ho to Become Heartthrob Harry Beecham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/watch\/81685124\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Netflix<\/a>\u2018s new period drama <em><a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/show\/my-brilliant-career\/\">My Brilliant Career<\/a><\/em> is determined to get you swooning. Based on Miles Franklin\u2019s landmark 1901 <a data-aps-asc-tag=\"decider08-20\" data-aps-asin=\"B0916L99J2\" data-wrapped-template=\"https:\/\/r.deciderlink.com?btn_ref=org-4cd6b7249030f707&amp;btn_url\" href=\"https:\/\/r.deciderlink.com?btn_ref=org-4cd6b7249030f707&amp;btn_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMy-Brilliant-Career%2Fdp%2FB0916L99J2%3Ftag%3Ddecider08-20%26asc_refurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fdecider.com%2F2026%2F08%2F13%2Fmy-brilliant-career-star-christopher-chung-interview%2F%26asc_source%3Dweb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">semi-autobiographical novel<\/a> of the same name (which, yes, inspired the <a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/movie\/my-brilliant-career-1979\/\">classic Judy Davis\/Sam Neill film<\/a>), <em>My Brilliant Career<\/em> follows the spirited Sybylla Melvyn (<a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/philippa-northeast\/\">Philippa Northeast<\/a>). Sybylla has grand ambitions of being a great writer, but her family has other plans. Sybylla is sent to live with her wealthy grandmother Mrs. Bossier (<a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/anna-chancellor\/\">Anna Chancellor<\/a>) and widowed Aunt Helen (<a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/genevieve-oreilly\/\">Genevieve O\u2019Reilly<\/a>) at Cattagat, so the sophisticated women can \u201ctruss her up like a turkey\u201d to attract a wealthy husband.<\/p>\n<p><strong>**Spoilers for <em>My Brilliant Career<\/em>, now streaming on Netflix**<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Almost as soon as Sybylla arrives at Cattagat, she attracts the attentions of two young men: Harry Beecham (<a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/christopher-chung\/\">Christopher Chung<\/a>) and Frank Hawden (<a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/jake-dunn\/\">Jake Dunn<\/a>). Mrs. Bossier thinks that Frank, an Englishman working on her ranch for management experience, would be an easy, obvious match for Sybylla. And indeed, the two eventually become friends. However, when Sybylla is invited by Harry\u2019s Aunt Augusta (<a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/kate-mulvany\/\">Kate Mulvany<\/a>) to spend time at the Beechams\u2019 grand estate, Five Bob, she develops feelings for the earnest, yet dashing Harry. <\/p>\n<p><em>My Brilliant Career <\/em>Episode 2 \u201cHE\u201d specifically plays up the attraction growing between Sybylla and Harry, showing them bonding over books and chores, music, and even sensually cracking a bullwhip. Naturally, Augusta, nicknamed Gus, soon points out an impediment to Syb and Harry\u2019s burgeoning romance, but it\u2019s impossible not to root for this couple throughout <em>My Brilliant Career<\/em>\u2018s run. That\u2019s all thanks to the incendiary chemistry between series leads Philippa \u201cPip\u201d Northeast and Christopher Chung.<\/p>\n<p>Most American audiences will best know Chung as the obnoxious Roddy Ho on Apple TV\u2019s <em>Slow Horses<\/em>. Here, instead of playing a repellent hacker, Chung is the textbook definition of a tall, dark, and handsome heartthrob. When DECIDER caught up with Chung over Zoom recently, he shared how excited he was for audiences to see this other side of him, before he broke down some of the most intoxicating romantic moments in <em>My Brilliant Career<\/em> \u2014 including that Episode 2 bullwhip scene.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5;display:block\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" alt=\"Christopher Chung as Harry Beecham in 'My Brilliant Career'\" class=\"wp-image-2106078 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1284 1284w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1284px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Photo: Netflix<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>DECIDER: First of all, I just fell madly in love with this series. It\u2019s so good. You\u2019re so charming in it. Are you ready for the world to just fall in love with you as this iconic Australian heartthrob?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>CHRISTOPHER CHUNG:<\/strong> No, don\u2019t say that! Yeah, I guess I\u2019m quietly optimistic that that\u2019s the way that it will go. I think the thing that I\u2019m most excited about for me, personally, is being able to show people a different side of my acting performance because I think people are so used to seeing me as being an obnoxious prick in <em>Slow Horses<\/em>. So it\u2019s nice to be a bit more charming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yeah, for sure. For sure. I\u2019m curious, having watched the series, is there a moment that you can pinpoint where Harry either falls for Sybylla or he begins to notice her in a different way? Is it the poem in Episode 1 or something else?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Do you know what? Having watched it back, I think the moment where he first really takes her in is when he drops his apples and he sees her in the tree. There\u2019s a really lovely moment of energy and connection there when he\u2019s untangling her hair. He\u2019s like, \u201cOh, there\u2019s something about this girl and I don\u2019t know what it is.\u201d So for me performing it, that was really when I thought for Harry, oh, he\u2019s really taking her in. Because he does see her initially when he passes her in the carriage but he doesn\u2019t consider her at all because he\u2019s business first. So I think that is a really profound moment. <\/p>\n<p>Then obviously the way that Sybylla is able to turn Harry\u2019s emotions very quickly by calming him down when when she\u2019s jumped into the pond and then he storms off. She puts her hand on his chest very much like she\u2019s putting it on a horse to go, \u201c<em>Whoa.<\/em>\u201d I think that moment as well is very important and special to the two of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019m thinking about Episode 2, I feel like that\u2019s such a great masterclass in slow burn yearning throughout. There\u2019s so many moments, whether they\u2019re sitting and then they\u2019re eating the apples, they\u2019re working on the farm. There is, you know, the song. But I want to talk about the bullwhip moment because that is so interesting and so charged. And the way it\u2019s edited, it just kind of heightens everything. What was it like filming the bull whip moment and did you need to go through your own lessons to learn how to use the bullwhip?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, so that was one of the first things I did when I came from London to Sydney to start prep for the show was learn how to whip. And there were definitely a few duds there because it\u2019s all in the wrist. There\u2019s nothing about power. It\u2019s just how well you can use your wrist to flick it out to crack the air. But when you get it, the satisfaction that you get when you crack a whip nicely and it makes that proper earth-shattering sound that goes out against the landscape is just wonderful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So I think when we were doing the actual day, surprisingly, <em>I don\u2019t know why<\/em>, they wouldn\u2019t let me crack a whip next to Pip. I was really good at it by then, too, so I was surprised that they wouldn\u2019t. I guess we still had to get through the rest of the shoot, and we did that in the first week. So me and Pip hadn\u2019t really done much work together at all at that point, so we had to find that chemistry very, very quickly. But we were both really game to make sure that we did these characters justice. So it was the way that [director] Alyssa [McClelland] had told us how the shots were going to be, we knew that it was going to be very suggestive and it was gonna be used later on in montages. So we kind of knew what the moment had to be charged with so that was that was really fun and also, like, if you start your shoot from that point having that chemistry, it takes all the other awkwardness away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5;display:block\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" alt=\"Christopher Chung as Harry Beecham and Philippa Northeast as Sybylla Melvyn in 'My Brilliant Career'\" class=\"wp-image-2106077 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry-syb.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry-syb.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry-syb.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/my-brilliant-career-harry-syb.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1284 1284w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1284px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">Photo: Netflix<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>I want to ask about the reveal that your character is engaged to Blanche. He never brings this up to Sybylla and she feels very deeply betrayed by it. Do you think he was right to keep it a secret? Do you think he was really lying to her? How do you see the whole Blanche dynamic?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, I think he\u2019s trying to navigate\u2026 There\u2019s a really great line that he has about what is more important: Is it love or honor? And it\u2019s him trying to navigate that question continuously throughout the series. You know, it\u2019s the honorable thing to continue to keep this promise to Blanche, but also knowing that it\u2019s beneficial to him and his family and his state in the world and his finances, all of those things, to be engaged to her. But then also knowing that he has this growing love for Sybylla each and every consecutive episode. I think for him, I always was under the assumption that he knew that relationship and that arrangement was always going to dissolve no matter how much Gus wanted that for him and how much it would help his financial status and his predicament. So I think he would be more willing to throw caution to the wind and be more like Sybylla in that way where he\u2019s not governed by societal expectation as opposed to just going along with what\u2019s in front of him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The New Year\u2019s Eve episode is so fun. The barn dance is just like literally a barn burner. What was it like shooting that scene? You\u2019re both dancing in the tuxedos \u2014 it\u2019s so charming to watch on screen.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She looks so great, doesn\u2019t she, in the tuxedo? It was chaos and dusty and it was a good amount of fun. It\u2019s really funny because I think whenever you put some kind of choreography in something, even when actors are not dancers, it\u2019s really interesting to see how they navigate it because I guess a lot of times I\u2019ve been in scenes with actors that are not natural movers. They either really ham it up or they make themselves very small. And everyone on that set made themselves really big, as you can tell through the scene. So it was great fun. I think it came, as well, closer towards the end of the shoot. So everyone was just really up for a good time. And we had to work really hard because there were so many shots that we needed to get within that because it was so technical. Obviously, with all things in filming, you never get enough time to do it, but I think it came out better than I had expected it to.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yeah, and as a follow-up, the race scene is so cute and there is something so fun, the way they\u2019re kind of competing with each other and quietly flirting. It\u2019s so obvious, to even Blanche, that there\u2019s something going on there. What was it like filming that race in the barn?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s really nice because at that point in the journey, they\u2019ve made up from the barney that they\u2019ve had previously about him not telling her about Blanche, and they really just want to have a good time. And when they put all of their baggage aside, it\u2019s just very evident that the chemistry is still there between them, so they can\u2019t even deny it themselves even when they\u2019ve tried to. So that was a really lovely moment to be able to play with Pip because we were able to find that nuance and give those little breadcrumbs to the audience throughout that scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>In the next episode, she\u2019s engaged to Frank. You come and give her <em>Moby Dick<\/em>. What possessed him to give her that book? It\u2019s almost like his last way to beg for her back, right?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, I think because he knows that when she comes to Five Bob, it\u2019s one of the first books that she picks up. So he knows that she knows that it\u2019s something that has great tremendous weight for Harry. For him to be able to give that to her as a parting gift, as a part of him, is one of only things that his father gave to him that he still has. So I think\u2026 Being able to give that to Sybylla, she was able to really feel how much he cares about her. Because she knows how much he cares about his family so he wouldn\u2019t just part with something like that if he didn\u2019t love her. Really, which makes it quite disrespectful when she throws it at his head. But, you know, she\u2019s so hot-headed at that point in time. There\u2019s a really nice bit of, I guess, symbolism there.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"\/>\n<p><strong>Then almost immediately after he discovers that he\u2019s lost Five Bob \u2014 I was really shocked that when he tells her they can\u2019t be engaged, he says the phrase, \u201cI\u2019m worthless.\u201d It was so fascinating to me about how much he put his own value into the value of Five Bob because Sybylla doesn\u2019t see it that way. Talk me through that.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, I think a lot of it is stemmed from what his father taught him about being an honorable man and, again, moving into that societal expectation of what it means to be a man and to provide and really kind of playing into those stereotypical gender roles of the time. So I think when he loses everything, and he\u2019s just gotten engaged to the woman that he loves and promised her a life that he can no longer provide, he doesn\u2019t feel worthy of what he wants, which is to marry her. So until he can go away and give her what he\u2019s already promised, he can\u2019t marry her because it\u2019s not the honorable thing to do. So what is more important, honor or love?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yeah, it all comes back to that. She gives him her comb. We see him look at it while he\u2019s off droving. What does the comb mean for him? What does he think about when he looks at it, while he is droving?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I always had it as his driving force, you know? So that even though he\u2019s separated from her, she\u2019s still very much present and keeps him focused as to why he\u2019s doing this. It\u2019s not self-serving. He\u2019s doing it to win her back, which is ironic because he never really had to win her, but it\u2019s what he feels and his expectation on himself. So I think when he had those days when he was driving were really hard, for him to be able to come back and have that spark and be like, \u201cI\u2019m doing it for her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>My Brilliant Career<\/em> is now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n<p><em>This interview has been edited and formatted for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0023\">\n\t(function(d, s, id) {\n\t\tvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n\t\tif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n\t\tjs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n\t\tjs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=823934954307605&version=v2.8\";\n\t\tfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n\t}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix\u2018s new period drama My Brilliant Career is determined to get you swooning. Based on Miles Franklin\u2019s landmark 1901 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name (which, yes, inspired the classic Judy Davis\/Sam Neill film), My Brilliant Career follows the spirited Sybylla Melvyn (Philippa Northeast). Sybylla has grand ambitions of being a great writer, but her&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/decider-interview-christopher-chung.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}