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Boy William: A sweet & multi-talented star
Kapanlagi
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Kapanlagi.com
Actor-presenter William 'Boy' Hartanto is a sweet, charming and multi-talented star with a bright future ahead.
The 23-year-old does everything, from modeling, presenting, acting and, more recently, singing.
When asked what he liked the most, Boy replied, 'Acting!'
'It's a big challenge. I learn a lot during filming,' he told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.
He added that another reason he liked being involved in a movie was the indescribable feeling upon a movie's release.
'When you attend the premiere, you feel awesome, it is like 'Wow, I'm in the movie',' he said excitedly.
Boy is quite new to the movie business. He started in 2012, acting in a comedy Mama Cake, in which he landed a supporting role.
To date, Boy has acted in eight movies, with the latest one being Di Balik 98 (Behind 98), which is a love drama during the Indonesian political upheaval in 1998, gaining success with an almost 700,000 audience.
Boy's next film, Tarot, is slated for release in May. He partners with actress Shandy Aulia in this horror movie. Tarot is Boy's second horror movie with Shandy after they both played in Rumah Gurita (Octopus House) last year.
Boy will also star in Rudy Soedjarwo's upcoming love drama Stay with Me with another newcomer, Ully Triani.
'This is a really good opportunity for me to work with Mas Rudi. We all know him. He is a big name who makes great movies. It's like a dream. It's exciting. My focus is 100 percent on this project,' he said.
In the movie, Boy plays a married man, which will be another challenge for him because he is not married.
'I am not married, but I am learning so many things from the movie about marriage,' he said without elaborating.
The movie will start filming in mid-April and will be released after Idul Fitri.
Rudi admires Boy for his willingness to learn. In fact, the director intentionally picked newcomers like Ully and Boy for the movie because of that.
'The problem with actors nowadays is that they stop learning once they become famous,' Rudi said.
Boy officially entered show business in Indonesia in 2009, when he won modeling competition Starteen.
The media and fans have acknowledged his cute and sweet face, with one media outlet comparing him to Korean actor-singer Siwon.
Before embarking on an acting career, Boy was an MTV VJ. He said he got the job in 2011 to replace VJ Daniel Mananta. It seems that his fluency in English helped him get the job.
Born in Jakarta, Boy spent most of his childhood abroad. He and his family lived in New Zealand until he was 13 years old, when they moved to the US for three years before returning to New Zealand.
Now, he and his family live in Jakarta.
'I enjoy living here, working in Indonesia is like working in paradise. This is a land of dreams for me,' he said.
Boy said he never expected to become a star, even though in youth it had occurred to him that he wanted to be one.
'I liked watching movies when I was little. I just wished I could be an actor. So now, this is like a dream come true for me,' he said.
Having his dream coming true does not stop Boy from developing his other talents.
Recently, Boy tried his hand at singing.
He created and did the vocals for the song 'Stranger in My Bed' for Tarot.
'I offered it to the producers and they said fine,' he explained.
The song has been released on YouTube and Boy has sung it on a TV show, for which he gained praise.
Before 'Stranger in My Bed', Boy performed several times on his music show Breakout on Net TV with his co-host, doing covers of other songs by noted musicians.
But does that means he will become a professional singer?
'No, I'm just doing it for fun. I don't want to have a career in music. Besides, I sing off key. I'm just confident,' he said with a laugh.
Boy explained that he tried to represent other people who liked to sing but did not have the courage to perform.
'The difference between me and them is that I am confident enough ['¦] I sing in the shower, I sing in the car. Why not sing on TV?' he said with a big grin.
That seems to add to Boy's long list of traits: sweet, charming, multi-talented and one more: confidence in stardom.
