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span class="inline inline-left">Just with a smile, Michael George William Lewis can win you over.

Looking fit and fresh and with a perfect boyish face, the 31-year-old actor, model and entrepreneur has spread his wings — landing a role in Dead Mine that will allow him to reach a wider audience, as the action flick is readied for an international release.

Despite his rising popularity, the Canadian, who is better known as Mike Lewis, is a fun person with warm personality and good sense of humor as well as a health conscious person.

When a plate of spring rolls with hot chili was served to accompany the interview, Lewis politely said no, asking a waiter to bring him a glass of water instead.

 “[Fried food] will give you some muffin tops,” he said, while jokingly scowling at the dish while pointing at his flat, six-pack abs.

Lewis explained that he was scheduled to have a photos hoot for a magazine cover within a week.

“I get picky when it comes to food. It’s because I have this photo shoot for a fitness magazine, so I’ve got to look fit,” said the man, who loves to participate in team sports, such as rugby and American football.

Staying fit is a serious business, sending him to the gym twice a week. For the upcoming photo shoot, he took more sessions with personal trainer.

Some may find him an average hunk – a guy blessed with good looks, a good body as well as a dose of good luck that has allowed him to be an Indonesian pop star.

Dig deeper and you will see that Lewis is simply a man who does what he loves and is responsible for his decisions, while trying his best to be a good father to Kenzou, his son with former wife Tamara Blezynski, the local actress and model.

“Doing what I do now, I certainly have to maintain myself. It is a professional gesture of me as a model and an actor — a mentality that is standard for international actors, but not so much here,” Mike says.

An active person, he finds it easy to keep in shape.

“I love to sweat. I’m on a rugby team here in Jakarta. I play the wing, so I’m the fast one.”

Brought up in a diplomatic family — his father was the No. 2 man at the Canadian Embassy in Jakarta — Lewis speaks English, French, Mandarin and, of course, Indonesian.

Apart from acting, his other passion is cooking — a skill he learned from his mother.

“As the wife of a diplomat, my mother was accustomed to making dishes while hosting diplomatic dinners. I learned a lot from her,” he says.

Aware that the entertainment industry has no retirement plan, he says that he feels the need to have a serious business to support his future. His choice is food.

“I have cooking and acting as my hobbies. Luckily, I’m in a business where it’s all about what I love,” says Lewis, who has a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from McGill University in Montreal.

Although he is a celebrity, it does not mean he does not want to get his hands dirty. He is personally involved, as a partner at Negev — an upscale bar and restaurant that focuses on Mediterranean dishes in Jakarta.

Not just that, he’s even planning to open French and Italian restaurants in the capital soon.

“I love acting, for sure. But being a male actor here in Indonesia, you really can’t go too far. That’s why I need to step up, like finding a part in an international film as well as auditioning in Hong Kong and Singapore,” Lewis says.

“But then again, food and cooking are my thing, and I think having a food business is a good match for me.”

As a true home cook, Lewis says that he often gets into the kitchen to prepare dishes for his friends.

“I don’t enjoy cooking food for myself. I’d rather cook for my friends when they come to my place, and for my son, of course. I just made my friend seafood linguini with prawns and dory fish. As for Kenzou, he loves pasta, and I often cook his favorite dish at the restaurant,” says Lewis.

“I guess my true passion is to make people having a great time.”

Lewis has long list of film credits including 5 Sehat 4 Sempurna (Healthy Five, Perfect Four; 2002), Suster Ngesot (Nurse Ghost; 2007) and The God Babe (2010).

Talking about his most recent project, Dead Mine, Lewis hopes that the film, which is targeting international audience, will lead to more worldwide projects.

Dead Mine, which is scheduled to hit local theaters in January next year, was released in Singapore recently. The movie, which mostly uses English-language dialogue, tells about an adventurous mission of four treasure hunters in an Indonesian jungle.

“Acting in English is easy for me. I don’t mind acting as a goofy guy or a serious man. I just want public to see some depth in my acting,” he says.

Despite his bright career, Mike, who has spent most of his life in Indonesia, said that it would be a dream come true for him to have a career in Hollywood.

“I have to be realistic. I have my son and business here to handle. But if I ever get the opportunity, I will go for it,” says the face for big brands such as Greensand, Pond’s, Brylcream and LG Cellular.

“If I get to choose, it’ll be great for me to play a role like Christian Bale did in American Psycho. A creepy guy who nobody suspects.”

— Photos courtesy of InStyle Magazine/Herman Haryoso