Henry Golding on A Simple Favor 2, Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2
Henry Golding looked dapper in a linen ensemble on Tuesday at the launch party of Gorgio Armani’s Mare collection pop-up at Little Beach House Malibu, but there was something different about him.
The actor was sporting a new summery buzz cut.
“I just spent six months in Munich with Nicole Kidman shooting Season 2 of ‘Nine Perfect Strangers,’” he told me. “I had this bouffant, this massive hair but I was so tired of it.”
Then he smiled, “I’m told buzzed is very in right now.”
Nicole Kidman returns as eccentric wellness guru Masha for the Hulu series’ sophomore run and is joined by new cast members Golding, Murray Bartlett, Christine Baranski, Mark Strong, Lena Olin, Annie Murphy, Lucas Englander, King Princess, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers and Aras Aydin.
Of course, Kidman’s character’s much-talked-about accent is back. Golding said the Oscar winner sometimes kept the accent even when not filming: “I wouldn’t say she’s Method in that sense, but I think it would be harder to be in and out of the accent.”
Also coming up for Golding is “A Simple Favor 2.” He reprises his role as Blake Lively’s husband-turned-Anna Kendrick’s lover with Paul Feig returning as director. The sequel was shot in Italy.
“It’s crazy,” Golding said. “The script is so much more bananas. It’s not just Blake’s character. The craziness has just blown up.”
The movie is currently in post-production. “Paul is in the edit room as we speak,” Golding said. “Every so often he’ll send me a text and be like, ‘This scene is so wild.’”
Golding insists he never thought there would be a second movie while filming the first. “Everyone thought it was going to be a one-off,” he said. “But then people loved it and there was such fanfare. It’s one of those guilty pleasures.”
Feig exclusively told me in May that they decided to trash the first script for the sequel. “We threw out the original draft that was going to get made,” he remembered. “We were like, ‘As much as we like what we have here, we don’t think this is what the people who really loved the first movie are going to 100 percent want.’ We’ve been working on it for two and half years now, almost three, developing it and it getting it right.”
“A Simple Favor 2” wrapped in late May. New cast members include Tony winner Alex Newell and Oscar winner and frequent Feig collaborator Allison Janney.