George Young: From lawyer to actor

It’s a little difficult to grasp the magnitude of a celebrity’s popularity if they’re from another country in our region, especially if you’ve never seen anything they’ve been in and maybe don’t even speak their language, unless they’re K-Pop stars or go viral Gangnam-style.

This is probably how Singapore-based actor and TV personality George Young felt about interviewing our country’s biggest and brightest for the recently concluded Star Magic Ball as a correspondent for E! News Asia. Having flown in that morning and whisked to the lobby of the Shangri-La Hotel to interview people who, until that day, were just researched names and photos printed on sheets of paper, he appeared calm but a little bewildered. “I have crib sheets, I’ve got questions for specific people, pictures of them if I’m not familiar with the market,” he said. “Right now I’m learning the Philippine market, as we speak.”

When foreign celebrities stop by, I wonder what they think of our local stars. Will they look at John Lloyd Cruz and think, “What’s the big fuss?” Will they find Kim Chiu’s ubiquity perplexing? Will they think that we’re weird for making Pokwang famous?

Admittedly, I’m not too familiar with George’s work, but you may have seen him alongside Erwan Heussaff (best known for his real-life role as Anne Curtis’ boyfriend) and Victor Basa in Diva Universal channel’s reality series Hot Guys Who Can Cook. Like George, I had my crib sheet before we met at the Shang and this is basically what it read: half Malaysian-Chinese and Greek-Cypriot, George earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology because he wanted to better understand people with autism, specifically his two younger brothers who are autistic. (George is currently working with Kiehl’s in Singapore to raise awareness and funds for research on treatments for autism.) Later on, he decided to get a degree in law and worked as a lawyer for two years in London. All the while, he nurtured a deep longing to become an actor and finally went for it last year when he decided to test the waters in Singapore.

Knowing that somewhere in Singapore a fangirl would sell her kidney for this opportunity, I made the most of my 15 minutes with George Young.

PHILIPPINE STAR: Your heritage is interesting. How did your parents meet?

GEORGE YOUNG: Well, they met in London, they got drunk and they had me. (Laughs) They both moved to England very early on in their lives. It was through my dad’s cousin — my dad’s cousin went to school with my mom — and then my dad asked my mom out for Chinese food, and I guess it was good Chinese food because it turned out very well. She had me and three others, so they just sort of mass-produced us. We’re all boys and we’re going to do a boy band soon. It’s there; it’s coming. We’re just getting the dance routines together.

With his interesting Malaysian-Chinese and Greek-Cypriot mix, it’s not difficult to see why George is already one of the most popular celebrities in Singapore after less than two years spent there.

How did you go from wanting to be a psychologist to wanting to be a lawyer?

Well, I was going out with this girl who was doing a law degree at that time. It’s always about a girl, isn’t it? So I did a post-graduate degree in law and as soon as I mentioned it to my parents, they jumped on it. They were like, “Oh, my God, you’re going to be a lawyer!” I got a training contract, worked in a law firm for two years, qualified, and then I quit. Then I went into acting and my parents were kind of surprised, but not that surprised because they knew I was always harboring this passion to do the acting, to do the presenting, to do the sort of performing kind of thing. I did it part-time even when I was in a law firm. I just did it whenever I could. Even when I was doing psychology, I was doing commercials in Thailand, music videos in England and stuff like that, just to sort of learn the business. It was only after law that I got my first professional acting gigs. I’ve done some Mandarin dramas in Singapore. I speak a bit of Mandarin. I’ve been learning it there. Learned it while I was traveling.

So what’s been keeping you busy lately?

I’ve got rehearsals from Monday onwards for my first theater production. That’s in Singapore. It’s with some big theater names there. It’s my debut in professional theater, so I’m worried about it. People are paying to see this, so I just want to make sure it’s good. So I was learning more lines on the plane when I was arriving here. It’s scary stuff. I’m in every scene except for one so I just have to work at it. The play is the main thing, but in between, I’m doing the E! correspondent stuff, doing a few live events as well, hosting stuff, just do bits and bobs where I can. But right now, the play is taking up my time.

What’s the name of the play? Who’s your character?

He’s a guy called Guy. It’s called Swimming With Sharks. It’s based on the 1994 Kevin Spacey movie. It’s about Hollywood, about the sort of dirty side of Hollywood and the film studios and I’m this sort of fresh-faced newbie whose life has been movies and memories of movies. I had this idealistic idea of what Hollywood is like and it’s shattered completely. I play a young assistant to a studio exec, one of the top studio execs in the business, ‘cause I’m a wannabe writer, screenwriter. So I come in and try to learn the business through this way of doing it, but I learn quickly that there’s a lot that goes on under the carpet to get these movies from page to screen.

Are there are any naked scenes? (Take note: The very gay man sitting right next to George asked this question, not me.)

Not naked scenes, but there are some interesting scenes and it doesn’t really hold back in the language or what happens ’cause my character gets pushed around a lot, so he kind of snaps. So it’s interesting in a way. He doesn’t go crazy. He might go a bit crazy, but there’s no sort of visualization of that craziness. It’s more internal and more on what he says or what he does.

Is the Star Magic Ball your first red carpet event?

That was recently, that was the Singapore film awards. I did a lot of live hosting in Singapore as well. It’s still quite new, but at the same time there’s a lot of excitement as well. And you can sense the nerves of the people on the red carpet. You can sense the anxiety and you can see whether it’s a negative or positive thing. If they’re really psyched to be there or if they’re a bit terrified. And you can see that when they’re posing, when they’re taking their pictures by the wall. So it would be interesting to see all that — and this is my introduction to the Philippine market, so it’s a baptism of fire, I would say. It’s like I’m meeting all the big celebs here on this one night — and it’s the first day I’ve arrived in the Philippines. First-ever time.

What’s the most difficult part of interviewing celebrities at these red carpet events?

It’s more if they just want to go somewhere else and they usually need to do other things, so it’s trying to capture their attention for that brief moment and even just going with their sort of anxiety to get to another place. You just have to go with it and that’s kind of the hardest part — when they’re really not interested in answering the questions. But you have to ask these questions. There are certain things I have to ask that maybe they’re not interested in. I mean, I can understand. It’s just part of the industry, part of the process.

You’ve worn many hats — psychology major, lawyer, model, host and actor. Which one will you settle with?

It’d be the performing and the acting thing and exploring different characters. Even presenting, you get to be an amplified version of yourself. But that’s the sort of thing I love to do and if I can continue to make a living from it, that’d be a blessing. And even if I can’t, I’d like to continue doing it, so I think that’s what I really have a passion for. I’ve always had that passion to do that, so I imagine I continue to do it for as long as I can.

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Catch George Young on E! News Asia every Monday at 9:30 p.m. on E! Entertainment Television (SkyCable Gold and Silver digital subscribers channel 57).