Awesome Kong Says She Was a Fan of Original GLOW, Talks Being an Actress Before She Wrestled

– Kia “Awesome Kong” Stevens spoke with Wrestling Inc about her work on GLOW and more in a new interview. Highlights are below:

On if she was a fan of the original GLOW: “I was; I indeed was. I would watch wrestling with my brother and he would torture me with wrestling moves. Then I decided to go watch wrestling by myself and learn some moves so the next time he came at me I would have something for him, which I did. Then he stopped teasing me and we would watch wrestling together and we absolutely loved GLOW.”

On being an actress before she got into wrestling: “I started off in acting and was a child actor which is why I think I slid into wrestling so easily. It was a different kind of performance for me and I’ve been performing since I was seven. So going back to screen acting was just going full circle; I loved it. I was so excited and I could see it mentally when reading that first script. I was like, ‘Oh, I can totally see this.’ And even if I don’t get the part, then it will be a show I’m definitely gonna delve into.”

On why it took so long to get a show about pro wrestling on TV: “I don’t know. I’m happy that [GLOW creators] Liz and Carly saw the GLOW documentary, so this idea for GLOW came to live. If they had never seen it then perhaps this would have taken longer. So I think it was just all the stars aligning for this to happen.”

On her mother also being an actor: “My mom was an actress and she had to accept roles that she didn’t feel comfortable with so I felt it was a story that needed to be told. When I saw Tamme in her role, I thought it was important to tell this story as a cautionary tale for producers and directors alike to know the social and emotional impact their decisions have when it comes to entertainment.”

On filming the season two episode about Tammé’s relationship with her son: “It allowed me to show a different dimension to my acting ability and to contribute to telling that story was very important to me. It’s something that’s gonna stick with me for the rest of my life.”