Let me tell you about someone named Ricky He. Who is he? A regular in the TV series From, taking on the role of Kenny Liu, a man who serves as both deputy to Sheriff Boyd Stevens and aid for his parents. Ricky has had other roles as well such as Kellan Park in Good Doctor and even the lead role of Adam in Freaky Friday on the Disney Channel. Not bad, don’t you agree? But it gets even better. He’s got a starring role in the upcoming film, Worth The Wait, where he’ll be with Lana Condor, Andrew Koji, and Ross Butler. The movie will live up to its namesake, because we all have to wait until 2025 for it to come out and I’m sure we’ll all enjoy it too.
Some more about Ricky and who HE is (the intentional puns will stop soon, I promise), Ricky isn’t just an actor but he’s also creating his own pilot, similar to that of Barry from HBO. Mostly inspired by his own experience at attending a high school of fine arts, and his interest in making music. After all, Ricky has experience in playing both the guitar and piano, and aside from using them to create music for A Christmas Solo, he is also skilled in combat sports like Muay Thai, submission grappling, and even speaks fluent Cantonese and Mandarin. I mean, this guy has an incredible amount of skills. It’s amazing.
If that’s not enough, he also knows a few things about Psychology as he attended UBC for before getting into acting. But that’s obviously not enough, we have an interview to investigate, much like the mystery of the ominous town in From, where there’s no guarantee of getting out alive. While the townspeople to find their way out, there are dangers in the nearby forest they must avoid. Whoa, I was straying off topic there. Let’s investigate Ricky’s role in this show.
HNMAG: You’re re-appearing in the third season of From. Do we expect a lot more wild crazy mysteries to happen in this season?
Ricky He: Yeah, I think this is going to be our most intense season yet. I don’t want to say conclusive because there’s going to be some more questions that pop up. But it’s going to be a very revealing season, I think.
HNMAG: How else does it differ from the past two?
Ricky He: I think a lot of the first and second season were kind of establishing the story and mystery, and also the relationships between the characters because as a mystery box show, From does a really good job of basically exploring the relationships between the characters, and the experience of what it would be like to be stuck in such terrible circumstances. I think this third season takes it to the next level.
Ricky went on to explain how he watched Dune 2 over the summer, and loved the movie so much. The first one set up the second movie perfectly, and with the benefit of hindsight, that formula also applies to From as we see Season 3 and how the first two seasons helped us get set for it. In other words, it’ll be a bit more explosive, if you know what we mean.
HNMAG: And have you used your language skills and combat training in this season?
Ricky He: (laughs) No, I don’t get to. Kenny is not trained in any martial arts as far as I thought, so I never get to do any of that. But I definitely speak Cantonese in this season, as I have in the other seasons as well.
HNMAG: Was it a struggle to take part in this series, especially with the nightmarish content?
Ricky He: Yes and No, I think that it always kind of starts with your connection to the material from human experience. What the characters are going through on an emotional level, and how to relate to the characters. When you focus on that, the scares and horrors are imaginary circumstances that you deal with, like with any piece of work that comes across your table anyways. But yeah, I think that especially with From, our crew does such a good job setting up the locations and we shoot in a real town. It really puts you into the shoes of the character right away.
HNMAG: And have you had a similar experience on any film sets in the past with a similar concept?
Ricky He: No, I think From was my first real horror genre. I don’t think I’ve ever done horror, one of my earliest credits was a horror element where I was in the background and my family was getting murdered by an unknown creature.
HNMAG: Let’s get into your role in Worth The Wait. What will you role generally be?
Ricky He: Worth The Wait is this ensemble romantic comedy film that I shot last summer and it was a lot of fun. I hadn’t done a comedy in a long time, and was provided a lot of chances to loosen and have fun doing that. It’s also a movie that has a lot of heart and romantic elements to it as well. I play this kid who’s like a young YouTuber. He’s just trying to get through school, and that coming of age point where it’s like his girlfriend who he’s madly in love with has gone off to college and he wants her to stick around.
HNMAG: So that’s what it’s about?
Ricky He: It focuses on multiple sets of stories and also love stories that you might not necessarily consider to be love stories. There’s a story with me that’s a bit more of a coming of age story, there’s a story of a couple who’s dealing with their marriage after miscarriage. There’s a relationship between this mid-20s couple who are learning how to deal with long distance, it’s like multiple stories told in one. I guess it’s similar to love actually in that sense.
HNMAG: And how has the production for that gone so far?
Ricky He: We wrapped last summer and it was a great fun shoot. I was relatively quick, it was an independent film but I believe they’re trying to get it out there and here.
HNMAG: What do you hope audience will take away from this film?
Ricky He: I think that the audience will just really enjoy the ride that they get to come on. It’s a really fun film that has a lot of heart, I think there’s some deeply moving sequences in the film. You watch the movie and leave it feeling hopeful. All the good stuff of a rom-com.
HNMAG: Will we see you in more features after this, especially after doing a lot of tv series roles?
Ricky He: I’d love to do a couple more films, I’m writing a couple things right now. It’s just a matter of time. I’m hoping to shoot something at the end of October, just a bit of a small role but it will be an independent film as well. That one, I’m really excited about. But we’ll wait and see.
HNMAG: You’re also developing a pilot. Will it be a happy or sad type of story?
Ricky He: (laughs) It’s a little bit of both, I’d say it leans toward happy. It’s basically a coming of age buddy comedy about these two kids in this fine-arts high school and it’s about this one Chinese kid who’s in the drama program and his best friend Malcolm who’s in the Orchestra program as the only black kid. It’s fun, it’s half-hour and kind of a like a stoner comedy. But it’s also got some really dark moments. I’ll just leave it at that.
HNMAG: It sounds like there’s going to be music in it too. Will we expect some musical moments?
Ricky He: I’m sure there will be some musical elements to it. It’s going to be a little non-serialized, kind of genie-in-the-bottle fun. Almost sitcom style, it’d be comparable to Friends meets Barry.
HNMAG: As you have been in the process of developing, what have you primarily focused on in putting the pitch together?
Ricky He: Right now, we’re just kind of putting together a visual deck. We’re very happy with where the draft is right now, and we’re just looking for somebody as we are about the project to attach to it as a show runner and then go from there.
HNMAG: So it’s still in a starting phase.
Ricky He: That’s right.
HNMAG: Will you be making more projects like this in the future? What else will you plan to make?
Ricky He: I think there’s a couple things in the works right now, you know how it is as an actor. Anytime in between can sometimes either be a generous gift to your soul and your spirit or it could be daunting and wondering what’d you do with all the free time. I just try to put my attention towards training really hard and writing. Definitely got a few other feature film ideas that I’m working on, and we’re just chipping away at that.
Quite an impressive amount of work that Ricky has done, I have to say. I can’t wait to see what else he does in the future, because it’s sure to make some of the greatest movies ever.