Malaysian Actor Henry Golding Followed His Heart 10 Years Ago and It Paid Off!

We have clogged your WOB feed with gratuitous pictures of Henry Golding yesterday and in this article, we promise to do so again. And this time the content will even only focus on the poor guy who is probably taking cover a lot from newly found rabid fans.

Source: Instagram

10 years ago, he was a hairstylist at Richard Ward’s super posh hair salon in London and it was something that he had been doing since he was 16 (when he finished his o’levels, I presume). Becoming an actor was actually an impulsive move for him and at the age of 21, he decided to move back to Malaysia. Might we add that what a great move it was because without this personal endeavour of his, the world would not have come to know Henry Golding the actor. The insta post goes on for a bit and a lot of it is really good stuff that encourages his followers to just follow their heart and be courageous.

“It was a leap of faith but I remember the specific moment i had made my mind up, from then out nothing else made sense. It’s harder taking these leaps of faith when your older as there are so many “responsibilities”. But it is never too late to chase your dreams.”

Source: Men’s Folio

Full Disclosure: I had no idea who Henry Golding is until yesterday when my editor asked me to write the article on the yet to be released rom-com.

Admittedly, I am a massive fan of Constance Wu and Jemma Chan but after being forced to watch many of his interviews and absorb loads of information about him, I have one conclusion to make: he seems like a genuinely nice guy. And boy did he get lucky considering that he only started taking proper acting classes like 5 years ago.

He really does have a lot of charisma onscreen and rides out negativity like a pro without getting tarnished at all.

Case in point: Jamie Chung attacked his casting by directly tweeting him, calling the decision of casting a half-Asian actor as the lead “bulls**t.”

He appealed to her empathy in an EW article with “For me, it was almost like being kind of stabbed in the back. I was like, ‘Aren’t we meant to be in this boat together? Aren’t we meant to strive together for something bigger than these boundaries that we’re putting on ourselves instead of bullying each other?'” Henry defends himself but at the same time, he doesn’t lose empathy for the provocateur. #Classy

Just to put it out there, yes, Jamie Chung later did apologise to him for making such remark.

Source: YomYomF

I am all for Malaysians making it big in Hollywood and hopefully in that process, they don’t lose the magic ingredient that makes them so distinctly Malaysian: friendly, warm and authentic. I admit I have developed a bit of a crush.

Also Read: Here’s Why Malaysians Are Raving About the Upcoming Film ‘Crazy Rich Asians’!