Henry Golding and the cast of Snake Eyes on the importance of Asian action heroes

Henry Golding has only been a full-time actor for three years, but he's already packed a lot of firsts into his still-young career. In 2018, the Malaysian-born TV host turned big screen star was one of the stars of Crazy Rich Asians — the first major Hollywood romantic comedy in decades to feature an all-Asian cast. Jump ahead to 2021, and Golding is the title character in Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, one of Hollywood's first Asian-led action blockbusters based on a major franchise. And Golding recognizes his good fortune to be in show business right now.

Video Transcript

- You saved my life, why?

- I'm not a murderer. I looked into your eyes, I saw your honor. [ETHAN ALTER] I want to start by asking, you were obviously in the first major Asian-led romantic comedy in a while, with Crazy Rich Asians. And now you're starring in the first major Asian-led action movie in a long while from Hollywood.

- That's true. Yeah.

[ETHAN ALTER] Are you proud to be part of that change right now? [HENRY GOLDING] I definitely love and very honored to be a cog in a very big machine, fighting for a good cause. But of course it would be a miss of me to acknowledge the giants that we stand on, you know? Which make it possible for me to do what I do in this industry. But yeah it's a fantastic time for opportunity. And I think this, this film definitely pushes us forward into another realm altogether.

[ETHAN ALTER] Within the past year, we've seen some rising numbers in anti-Asian violence, which is, which is really disheartening to see. So I'm sure being an Asian action hero now, matters more than ever in this kind of representation.

[HARUKA ABE] Yeah I think it's definitely what's needed right now. It's very important to keep showing the world these like positive role models portrayed by people of all ethnicities and backgrounds.

[HENRY GOLDING] It's a sad fact that there are still some very sad and lonely individuals that love fear mongering, and still bias to someone's creed and racial background. But you know it's, the good always overcomes the evil. So it's about standing up for yourself, standing up for your community, and helping one another.

[ANDREW KOJI] Hopefully, the kids of the younger generation, for them to be able to see themselves on screen and feel seen and heard, that's the main thing. Hopefully, it just helps with empowering people and feeling seen and heard.

[ETHAN ALTER] I love the relationship the film sets up between you and Andrew as storm shadow. I think there's some great fodder there for additional movies. What was it like reforming that bond with him, and how did you sort of define the characters for yourselves.

[HENRY GOLDING] I think it's one of the most sort of iconic relationships between two sort of heroes, and anti-heroes as such. And moving forward, you need to understand the basis of the brotherhood, and why that bond is so strong and it's kind of unspoken. So for me and Andrew, the bond was made through the intense training sort of program that we had. We had about two months of training, and we're all in it together. So you sort of build a family, and you kind of work off that hard work. So it was really easy for us to get into that.

[ANDREW KOJI] There's just a lot to this conversation, and going back and forth. And I think Henry was taking care of Snake Eyes, as I was taking care of Storms Shadow. We were hearing fans, hearing what they were saying and trying to get to the emotional core of who these people are. But once you get to the playing floor of the set, you know that's when it's game on. And I think if I've done my work in preparation, Henry as well, that's when you meet in the middle, and we were on point. Hopefully.

[ETHAN ALTER] GI Joe fans love their costume. So tell me about putting on Snake Eye's costume for the first time. What did feel like for you, wearing that?

[HENRY GOLDING] It's like stepping into big shoes. And what I love about this movie is, like he's really out there, and he goes through the wringer, to become the man that we all know and love. And so for me it was this magical moment, of kind of walking to set. Then the entire suit and found everybody just like, wow. Just pipping. Just looking up and down, and just like, holy molly Because once you put everything on, you know I'm 6 foot, but instantly you're like, you feel like 6 foot 5 in that thing. So, it's magical.