Li Jun Li on Spider-Noir: ‘He changed the way I played Cat Hardy’

Fresh from the success of Sinners 2025 actor Li Jun Li has traded one acclaimed project for another stepping into the world of SpiderNoir opposite Nicolas Cage In the Marvel series streaming on Prime Video she takes on the role of Felicia lsquoCatrsquo Hardy a fresh interpretation of the iconic comicbook character Speaking to midday Li reflects on navigating fan expectations collaborating with Cage and the creative freedom she had with shaping a character untethered from previous versionsExcerpts from the interviewDo you feel the pressure portraying a character with a comicbook legacy given fansrsquo expectationsI would if it was an exact portrayal of a comic character but Felicia lsquoCatrsquo Hardy is actually a different iteration of the character by Oren Uziel showrunner For the most part SpiderNoir is an interpretation that is very much inspired by the comic SpiderMan Noir So I hope that people are open to seeing this interpretationLi Jun Li as Felicia lsquoCatrsquo HardyWhen Marvel approached you did you secretly hope for superpowers or a costumeSure who wouldnrsquot When you put Marvel in the picture you definitely wonder if yoursquore going to have superpowers or if yoursquore going to fly around in a very tight suit of some sort But thatrsquos not for me to decide Of course itrsquos wishful thinking on my part because who doesnrsquot want to be an action heroWhat surprised you the most about working with Nicolas Cage who is known for his eccentric approach to actingI want to say I was very surprised by the speed at which he works Hersquos very fastpaced in our scenes which I really loved In my mind the way I rehearsed our material was very different until the day we had our initial table read and his interpretation was so much quicker wittier and funnier that it not only surprised me but it inspired me to approach my character differently from how I had initially imagined her He changed the way I played herNicolas Cage in lsquoSpiderNoirrsquoFelicia lsquoCatrsquo Hardy is often described as a femme fatale How did you work with the writers and director to make her more threedimensional and bring a unique perspective to the noir settingThe fun thing about SpiderNoir is that it is Orenrsquos own interpretation inspired by the comic of the same name Our characters are also iterations from the comic This universe is independent of all the other interpretations Therersquos no continuation nor does it cross over with any other parts of what wersquore used to seeing That gave me a lot of freedom to create her from the basic understanding of Felicia lsquoCatrsquo Hardyrsquos past We sat down at the very beginning to establish her past her upbringing and where she came from Oren also said that her character is inspired by the likes of Rita Hayworth Ida Lupino and Kim Basinger We took influences from these femme fatale actors from back in the day and made it Cat HardyOn Ryan Cooglerrsquos lsquoSinnersrsquoThe film earned Michael B Jordan the Academy Award for Best Actor ldquoWe always knew that it was going to be great because everyone in the cast and crew loves Ryan Coogler but no we didnrsquot know that it was going to be explosive to this magnituderdquo says Li Jun Li who played Grace in lsquoSinnersrsquo After the film she began shooting for lsquoSpiderNoirrsquo