Henry Golding feels “like an outsider” in Hollywood because of his skin colour.
The Malaysian-British actor has admitted he struggles to find acceptance as an actor because of his racial background, as people claimed he “wasn’t Asian enough” for his role in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, but equally slammed him for not being “white enough” to play Snake Eyes in his new movie, ‘Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins’.
He said: “I feel like an outsider now. I wasn’t Asian enough for ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. I’m not white enough for ‘Snake Eyes’. People can say what they want and have a minuscule view of the world. But we are global.”
The original Snake Eyes was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white male, but Henry insisted it’s “toxic” to view characters as nothing more than their “background”.
He added: “We’re playing characters. Not their background. It’s bonkers we’re still having those conversations when we’re fighting for something so much bigger. It’s toxic.
“We should be uplifting each other and rooting for the success of everyone. Not just a few because they’ve been lucky to be brought up in a certain location.”
Henry hit out further at critics as he stated people who are Asian-American but have never been to Asia often feel ostracised in both Asia and America.
Speaking in an interview with Inverse, he said: “Someone who is Asian-American, who has grown up in America and never stepped foot in Asia, will feel out of place when they come to China or Malaysia.”
And when the interviewer said they were a Filipino-American but had never been to the Philippines, Henry replied: “It doesn’t make you less Filipino. That’s something I had to grapple with, being mixed race. Yeah, I’m half-white. I’m half-Asian. I’m never gonna be enough of anything. So I’m going to be who I am. I’m going to lead a movie the best way I can.”
