New Kid on the Block

“Buffalo Boys” star Yoshi Sudarso chats with DAMAN’s Riga Ramadhan about the epic movie and his journey in America

Yoshi Sudarso chats with

DAMAN about his role in “Buffalo Boys,” his return to Indonesia and how one tweet drove his spirits through his journey in America

Back in early july, we caught up with Yoshi Sudarso, only a couple of days away from the release of “Buffalo Boys,” in which he played in. Of course, at that time, a lot of details were still heavily under wraps.

“not much people know about this, but to be honest with you, i was the last piece to be added on this movie,” Sudarso begins. “it was very last minute, just a month before shooting started. mike wiluan [the director] met my agent in America and he offered a role in his new movie. Long story short, i accepted the offer, read the script and one week later i went straight to indonesia for the shooting. it was very fast.”

Upon arrival in indonesia, Sudarso was amazed by the sets in Batam and Yogyakarta. “they built everything from scratch. On top of that, i also met a lot of popular indonesian actors and actresses on set,” Sudarso recalls. “they’re very talented and, at the same time, very kind to me, because my indonesian was still not good at that time. they helped me a lot during dialogue training every day and their okay with doing that.”

So, what was it that triggered Sudarso to take the long journey from the States back to his home country for shooting a movie? “First of all: the cowboy story,” he explains. “my dream role is to play in a movie as a cowboy and i got the chance to do that through this movie.” His character was also a big motivator. “After that, the similar story between my character, Suwo, and myself in some senses,” he went on. “For one, Suwo is born in indonesia and along the way he went with his brother and uncle to America, and then went back here several years later for a mission. it’s vice versa for me, as i went to America when i was 9 years old, and years later i’m back in my own country also for a mission. the difference here is i’m back for shooting and promoting my own film, while Suwo ... well let’s just say say that he has his own mission with his brother.”

As the conversation continues, Sudarso also shares about his own journey in the U.S. “i was bullied a lot in the first few years. why? Because i look different compared to others and my english was really, really bad,” he explains. “But something amazing came several years later. i landed a part in ‘Power Rangers Dino Charge.’ my character was very different compared to anyone else in the ‘Power Rangers’ series. in this show, i played an Asian character who spoke broken english. After that, something amazing happened to me.”

“Since my character spoke in broken english, somebody sent me a tweet,” he goes on. “there’s this kid who said: ‘i’m 10 years old, i move from Brazil and i don’t speak english well. in fact i’m using Google translate for tweeting this to you. i’ve been bullied a lot, and when my friends play games i can’t be with them, because they usually play ‘Power Rangers’ and i can’t join them. But now, thanks to you, there’s a Power Ranger out there like me who doesn’t speak english very well and now, they are, like, i can always be the blue ranger like you.’”

it was certainly a powerful memory, as Sudarso evidently held back tears while recalling what happened. He elaborates: “that tweet was enough for me. that was the best thing that i’ve ever heard. And if something like that happened to me when i was younger, maybe things would have been different for me. But then again, i’m glad i had to go through that to bring it to somebody else.”

Going forward, Sudarso is quite happy that his journey continues in indonesia. “For now, i’m still promoting ‘Buffalo Boys.’ But after it’s done, maybe there are other things,” concludes with a big smile on his face. “Right now it’s still in talks, but i don’t know yet. i don’t want to jinx it, but hopefully, there will be a lot of stuff in indonesia.”

“I WAS BULLIED A LOT IN THE FIRST FEW YEARS ... BECAUSE I LOOK DIFFERENT COMPARED TO OTHERS AND MY ENGLISH WAS REALLY, REALLY BAD”