“I cried the first day of training”

Born in Malaysia in February 1987, Henry Golding began his career as a host of various variety shows, but was The Travel Show for the BBC the one that helped him build that special charm that director Jon M. Chu noticed. The filmmaker offered him the leading role in Crazy millionaires (Crazy Rich Asians) in 2018, and after just a few months, Henry Golding is now carrying full weight in a Paramount Pictures production of one of their most lucrative properties: GI Joe and, in this case, Snake Eyes.

In a matter of months, Golding has worked with actresses like Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively or Emilia Clarke and directors of the stature of Paul Feig and Guy Ritchie. During our visit to the set in Tokyo in February 2020 we chatted with the actor about Snake Eyes, the challenges of filming in Japan, and the training he underwent for the film.

What has been different about working on a movie like Snake Eyes from your previous movies?

I think the longest I had worked on a movie had been about three months, or three and a half with pre-production and promotion, but since September 2019 it was that I traveled to Vancouver to start preparing, training and learning combat tactics. So we did about a month and a half of intensive training with katana and martial arts work in general. But it has been an incredible trip, very crazy and what we are filming is beautiful, I do not know if you have been able to observe something of what we have shot today. It’s exciting what Robert (the director) has achieved, the camera work, the film is unreal.

Does it feel sort of a responsibility to bring a character like Snake Eyes to life?

I assure. I mean, he’s the best character they’ve ever created in the GI Joe universe, so to get a chance to, I wouldn’t say reinvent, but I guess revisit him in a fresh way through other lenses and a different narrative, you know. , we have the opportunity to give you an origin story. I think in the past before the adventures of Snake Eyes with the Joes, they were always very mysterious, we did not know much about him, his origins, why he was very silent, why he was with the Arashikage clan, many things, so it’s good to put a tone to your story about how we think it was.

And with the information of what you would have to do, did you have doubts at some point?

Of course! My mind was divided. I think that for any actor these types of roles are not to be taken lightly because of the responsibility you have to give a physicality to the character and also because in my case, I had a bit of martial arts training. I did some boxing and thai, so luckily I was able to defend myself, so to speak. But the kind of swordplay we were aiming for with our stunt coordinator was very different. I do not know if you have seen his work in the film series entitled Rurouni Kenshin, is a large franchise of Samurai X And he made all those movies, so the production told me about him and I had seen his productions and what he had done with them and it is the most brutal work with katanas that I have ever seen. It’s what they wanted to project with Snake Eyes. So when Paramount approached me, I did think about it because it’s not your typical role that you say, ‘Oh yeah, I just have to learn my lines and that’s it.’ I did wonder if I could be physically ready for such a movie, but if we don’t push ourselves, push ourselves and step out of our comfort zone, how are we going to achieve greatness? It was a ‘Yes, I accept’ with a lot of emotion but without taking it lightly.

And how were your first days of training?

I cried the first day of training. (laughs). Training broke us. I remember coming home at night with all the pains in the world without even being able to sit on the toilet, I felt like I was dying, there wasn’t a single moment that I didn’t say to myself: ‘What the hell am I doing? This is very sick. ‘ But those were maybe the first four or five days. He sent messages of: ‘Cancel everything I have to do, I don’t want to leave or move.’ Fortunately it got easier.

Part of the film was shot in Vancouver, recreating some interiors of the Arashikage clan villas, but what is it like now to film in Japan??

Priceless. It is the sum of the beautiful locations, like being in Himeji castle for three or four weeks, then in Engyoji temple, then in Asaka which is also beautiful. And then the Arashikage clan is a composition of all these temples and you know, it is an added value for the production besides being able to be in Wardo Station, in a set as incredible as this you know, Kurosawa filmed here, all the greats of Japan, we are here in this historical film piece, but in general shooting in this country is something that does not happen often, especially for foreign films. We were also in the Asakusa neighborhood, we closed like two blocks of streets with businesses to get these beautiful shots, you know with restaurants, women’s bars and all kinds of weird things, but we were there and it was like a ‘pinch me to wake up’. And since Snake Eyes is based in Japan, it was important to give it that authenticity, because if we had shot it only in a studio and we pretended it was Japan … people recognize later later. And yes, like I said, it’s part of the sensational world, you can’t recreate it, you have to be there in Japan.

Snake Eyes, like Madly Millionaires are practically films with entirely Asian castings, how does it feel?

It’s weird but I’ve never thought of Snake Eyes like an asian power movie like it was Crazy millionaires. But I think it’s very good to have people who you wouldn’t think would be in charge of something like that, people who you don’t necessarily believe are the heroes. Sure, we have what Marvel does with Shang Chi and the legend of the ten rings, and everything that comes, but I think our case will be interesting because we are flying under the radar, people do not know that this movie will be the first great opportunity for many of us.

What do you think will follow or expect from the GI Joe universe in the future?

We have a great cast. Each member could have their own spinoff, and I’m sure that’s what they are looking for, that is, we could easily have one of Scarlett and the Baroness or one of Storm Shadow, because they really are the bases of where we could take the GI Joe.