Ronny Chieng shares details about the 'super gory' version of a 'M3GAN' scene we didn't get to see and opens up about hosting 'The Daily Show'

• Warning: Spoilers ahead for "M3GAN."
• Ronny Chieng told Insider that his original death scene was gorier than the one that made the final cut.

Though most know Ronny Chieng as one of the quick-witted correspondents on "The Daily Show," he's also gradually becoming the secret weapon in movies that become box-office hits.

After scene-stealing performances in "Crazy Rich Asians" and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," he made his latest appearance in the first box-office hit of 2023 "M3GAN," playing a money-hungry CEO of a toy company.

"I tell my agents I'll only do No. 1 movies now," Chieng joked with Insider over a Zoom chat on Wednesday while taking a break from shooting the Hulu series "Interior Chinatown."

Chieng is quite aware that he wasn't the selling point for the droves of people who went to see the Gerard Johnstone-directed Blumhouse horror, but he can boast that he's in the most anticipated scene of the entire movie. After the titular AI doll suddenly pulls off some insane dance moves, she goes and kills his character, David Lin.

Insider chatted with Chieng about that scene — which he revealed was originally much bloodier — and if we'll see him do any hosting duties on "The Daily Show."

You have said your David Lin character is someone who is in a fun industry but he doesn't see the fun in it. For someone like you who has worked in an industry where it's fun but maybe not everyone is having fun, did you take any past observations of people you've encountered to play David?

[Laughs.] I guess, yeah. Sometimes people who work in comedy, sometimes it's more a numbers and administrative thing than making people laugh.

Every day, if you're working at a comedy club, how much do you love comedy? The thing that surprises me the most when I go to comedy clubs is running into people who work there and still love comedy. You're surrounded by it every single day and you still love it. That's great.

So I guess David is like many who are in a creative industry who are trying to make money off of it. So I actually could identify with David.

Screenwriter Akela Cooper said that what you guys originally shot was more violent than what we saw in theaters. Was your death scene different after reshoots?

My first day on set, we filmed my death scene and it was super gory. They toned it down so more people would get a chance to see the movie. I think it was the right decision, but I hope my original death makes it in the extras.

There was a lot of cleanup after we shot it, and we only had maybe two chances to do it right. It was in the elevator, like what you saw, but there's a version of it where it gets really messy and my guy Kurt the assistant, played by this great actor Stephane Garneau-Monten from New Zealand, he has this great reaction to all the gore happening in front of him. He's right there standing in front of it all.

Wow, all of that on the first day?

Yeah. They told me, "It's time to get messy" and I'm like, "I'm down, this is what I signed up for."

And it was a complicated thing to pull off because, in that shot in the elevator, there are like four different people who have to operate the M3GAN puppet. One was the eyebrows, one was the head, one was the movements. So Gerard was very specific about how she was to look and the framing and the positioning.

That's partly why the movie works, that attention to detail.

I agree. I knew right away we were in good hands.

There's something to be said about making a horror movie that doesn't depend on cheap gore. Like gore porn, as its own selling point.

What's really cool about this movie is it's very self-aware. If you watch it, it knows what it's trying to do and it leans into it. Even the inevitable jump scares are kind of done almost like a horror fan would do it. I think the byproduct of it being self-aware is it doesn't treat the audience like idiots, which I think people subconsciously appreciate.

So will we see you in a "Shang-Chi" sequel?

I hope so. But I don't have any news on that.

How about the long-awaited "Crazy Rich Asians" sequel?

Google knows as much as I do about it. I signed several loans banking on both these franchises still going on. Otherwise, there's gonna be some debt collectors looking for me.

The immediate future of "The Daily Show," with Trevor Noah gone, is it true you and the other correspondents will get to do some hosting?

Yeah, I think so. And there have been guest hosts that have been announced.

Are you gunning for the permanent hosting spot? Does that interest you?

Ah, no comment. I want to be respectful to everyone who is hosting the show.

So anything else you want to talk about regarding "M3GAN?" Anything no one has brought up yet?

It was shot in New Zealand right when COVID started. So shout out to New Zealand for providing a safe environment to film. We had to quarantine for two weeks. But we had a great time.

I'm always curious about actors who have to quarantine —what did you do for two weeks stuck in a hotel room?

Dude, as a non-American who travels a lot, I did that two-week quarantine four times during the pandemic. I don't know, I can just take it.

What do you do?

Caught up on pop culture, there's a lot of content also that needs to be watched. I caught up on "The Wire," "Breaking Bad," Stanley Kubrick movies. And here's the thing, it's all art. Art is what we turned to in the pandemic, art from humans. So next time you see an artist, musician, filmmaker, thank them because in our time of the greatest struggle, we turned to art.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.