Why Jonny Smith From Charlie's Angels Looks So Familiar

When Elizabeth Banks' "Charlie's Angels" reboot arrived in all its girl-power glory a couple of years back, it did so following a steady stream of goodwill and high hopes. While audiences generally enjoyed the flick (per RottenTomatoes.com), critics were sharply divided, and the film's $73 million box office take was well below expectations.

Both critics and audiences seemed to have very specific opinions on the failures of "Charlie's Angels," though both factions largely agreed those failures did not rest on the shoulders of the film's cast. In fact, most argued the crackling performances of stars Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinska, Naomi Scott, and Banks herself held the entire enterprise together. So too did the work of the film's supporting cast, which featured familiar faces like Patrick Stewart, Djimon Honsou, and Sam Claflin, not to mention late-in-the-game cameos from Hailee Steinfeld, Lili Reinhart, and Laverne Cox.

While you likely needed no help placing those famous faces, we're betting you might have had a touch more trouble placing that of the bad boy embezzler the Angels subdue in the opening moments of the film. It belongs to Chris Pang, and you've definitely seen it somewhere before. Here's why Jonny Smith from "Charlie's Angels" looks so familiar.

"Palm Springs" turned out to be one of 2020's biggest hits, though it was also one of the year's least expected successes. In fact, the film was hardly on the radar of most cineastes prior to landing on Hulu in the Summer of '20. "Palm Springs" had, however, made a bit of a splash after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, setting a Sundance record with its $17.5 million sale to partners Neon and Hulu (per AP reports). Once the time-looping romantic farce featuring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti became a smash hit on Hulu, that lofty price tag likely looked like a bargain, with Samberg even earning a Golden Globe nomination for his work.

As for the day Samberg's and Milioti's characters are forced to perpetually re-live, it's the wedding day of her sister (Camilla Mendes). And if you're wondering how Chris Pang factors into that day, well, he's the guy overseeing the nuptials. While Pang didn't have a major part in the "Palm Springs" narrative, he undoubtedly delivered one of the film's most memorable supporting turns as the cowboy-garbed wedding officiant Trevor, who comes to play a hilariously sleazy role in the action.

If you happened to miss Chris Pang at work in "Palm Springs," you may well recognize him from his appearance in a little 2018 movie called "Crazy Rich Asians," because it was one of that year's biggest box office hits (via BoxOfficeMojo), seen by legions of moviegoers across the globe. As it happens, that film was also centered around a wedding, though this time Pang's character was the one tying the proverbial knot.

The film was adapted from Kevin Kwan's beloved novel of the same name, and tracks the romantic entanglement of Rachel (Constance Wu) and her boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding), who take a fateful trip to Nick's native Singapore to meet his family and attend his best friend Colin's wedding. Once in town, Rachel is shocked to learn Nick comes from one of the wealthiest families in Asia, a fact that promptly complicates and threatens their entire relationship.

Yes, that was indeed Chris Pang portraying the obscenely wealthy, yet refreshingly noble-hearted Colin in "Crazy Rich Asians." And if we don't say so ourselves, "Crazy Rich Asians" wouldn't have been quite as unabashedly enjoyable without the actor's even-keeled presence.

Though Chris Pang undoubtedly found breakthrough success with his "Crazy Rich Asians" and "Palm Springs" appearances, one might easily argue his profile-raising work in a pair of 2016 Netflix projects helped him book those gigs. Both of those roles found Pang donning period garb in harrowing tales of old Asia. The first was the streamer's fantastical "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sequel, "Sword of Destiny," which found Pang portraying a lethal sell-sword called "Flying Blade." Pang's other 2016 Netflix project was the second season of one of the streamer's more high-profile original series, the period drama "Marco Polo."

That series followed the famed Venetian explorer (played by Lorenzo Richelmy) during his early years, helping guide the Mongol Empire at the side of Kublai Kahn (Benedict Wong). Full of all the action, adventure, political, and personal intrigue you could hope for in a period piece, "Marco Polo" was one of Netflix's more compelling early originals, though the series was unfortunately canceled after its second season. That season was arguably much better than the first, however, thanks in part to the work of Pang. He appeared in five Season 2 episodes, brilliantly portraying Arban, a major Mongol Chieftan whose loyalties lay not with Kublai Kahn, but with his cousin and rival Kaidu (Rick Yune).