Henry Golding looked dapper in a linen ensemble at the launch party for Gorgio Armani’s pop-up Mare collection at Little Beach House Malibu on Tuesday, but there was something different about him.
The actor sported a new summer 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 huge hair, but I was so tired of it.”
Then he smiled, “I’m told Buzzed is really hot right now.”
Nicole Kidman returns as eccentric wellness guru Masha for the second part of the Hulu series 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-discussed accent is back. Golding said the Oscar winner sometimes kept the accent even when he wasn’t filming: “I wouldn’t say she’s Method in that sense, but I think it would be harder to have the accent and not have it.”
Also on the way for Golding is “A Simple Favor 2.” He reprises his role as Blake Lively’s husband-turned-Anna Kendrick’s lover, while Paul Feig returns 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 just blew up.”
The film is currently in post-production. “Paul is in the editing room right now,” Golding said. “Every now and then he’ll text me and say, ‘This scene is so wild.'”
Golding insists he never thought there would be a second film while filming the first. “Everyone thought it would be a one-off,” he says. “But then people loved it and there was so much fuss. It’s one of those guilty pleasures.”
Feig told me exclusively in May that they had decided to throw out the first script for the sequel. “We threw out the original design that was going to be made,” he recalls. “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 want 100 percent.’ We have been working on it for two and a half years, almost three, developing it and making it work well.”
“A Simple Favor 2” was released in late May. New cast members include Tony winner Alex Newell and Oscar winner and frequent Feig collaborator Allison Janney.