Henry Golding still wide-eyed with awe over breakout role
LOS ANGELES: It’s about 14,000 km from Betong in Sarawak to Los Angeles.
That’s the theoretical distance actor Henry Golding has to travel to get from mediocrity to overnight fame with his role in Crazy Rich Asians.
And he’s still wide- eyed with disbelief that he has actually made it, and that he’s on firstname basis with the top stars in Hollywood.
Some four months ago, he was known only as a TV presenter.
Relating this to newsmen here, Golding deadpanned: “It’s been insane. It’s been a complete sort of 180. When you film the movie, you film a year in advance. … So when it came out in August, the playing field changed for a lot of people, not only people of colour, but Asians specifically were spotlighted. And it was much to do (with) this little film.”
But the most rewarding part of the film’s success, Golding says, is the response from fans.
“It’s the fact that people come up to you and portray a very sincere sort of ‘ thank you’ for making a film that they saw representation within it for themselves. They saw the possibility that was opened,” he said. “They never thought that a film like that would ever get made with an (Asian) cast and crew involved, and so it’s been like an avalanche of support. I think this is the strongest the Asian community has been for a long, long, long time. The black
It’s been insane. It’s been a complete sort of 180. When you film the movie, you film a year in advance. … So when it came out in August, the playing field changed for a lot of people, not only people of colour, but Asians specifically were spotlighted. Henry Golding, Sarawak-born actor
community had Black Panther, and you saw how they merged together, and such is the case with Crazy Rich.”
Golding found himself auditioning for the male lead, Nick Young, after an accountant, Lisa-Kim Ling Kuan, having met Golding five years prior, recommended him to director Jon M. Chu. “The luck was definitely having my name passed to Jon,” reckoned Golding. He’s since co- starred in Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor, as Blake Lively’s husband, and has shot the indie Monsoon.
He’s currently filming two movies, Feig’s holiday romance Last Christmas, which stars Emilia Clarke and reunites him with his Crazy Rich mother Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, and Guy Ritchie’s Toff Guys, opposite Matthew McConaughey and Kate Beckinsale.
It sure is a long way from life in the slow lane in Betong.