Born in Palembang, South Sumatra, the Chinese-Indonesian actor is a former athlete who practised a variety of martial arts like wushu, taekwondo and varieties of Indonesian pencak silat martial arts. His athletic career peaked in the 1990s and 2000s when he won gold medals in several judo championships, but he unfortunately had to retire due to a sports-related injury in 2009.

He really loves action films

With his martial arts background, Taslim found great success in Indonesian action films like Gareth Evans’ The Raid (2011) and Timo Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes for Us (2018), which premiered exclusively on Netflix. He is set to appear in Indonesia’s very own character-based superhero universe, by Bumilangit, as the superhero Mandala, and has credited Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee as his biggest screen inspirations.

Hong Kong action hero JuJu Chan on working with Nicolas Cage and Tony Jaa

He has an eclectic career

It’s no easy feat to get cast in Hollywood films, especially if you’re not American. But Taslim broke boundaries by appearing in franchises like Star Trek and Fast & Furious. He even starred in Korean film The Swordsman (2020) opposite Jang Hyuk and expanded into television as Li Yong in Cinemax’s Warrior (2019) opposite Andrew Koji. He scored his Mortal Kombat role without an audition, according to Kompas.

How does Bridgerton showrunner Shonda Rhimes spend her fortune?

He is quite the ad king

Many actors receive hefty pay cheques from lucrative endorsements and Taslim is no different. Last year alone he starred in ads for three massive brands: Shell Helix, Garnier Men and Head & Shoulders. His ad for the latter went viral, earning 30 million views on YouTube.

His previous credits range from pharmaceuticals (Benadryl) and toiletries (Listerine) to electronics (Asus, LG), banking (J Trust Bank) and even fintech (GoPay Indonesia).

He is connected to his roots

Although he has worked in Hollywood, Taslim still remembers his roots. Speaking to Indonesia Tatler, he urged for more Indonesian filmmakers to “keep on producing better movies” and to establish more film schools. He would also love to work with more female filmmakers, telling Elle Indonesia that “to shoot with different gender compositions would be more pleasant”.

Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter .

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuqKzwLOgp52jZMC1xcueZpydnJqvs7XTsmaaqqSesK2xjmxoam9iaoJww8eoZKOnlWLBor%2FLoqRmpZ%2BnwaK4jKSmppqRqcBuusSwZKytkmLHpr7OZqCnnJ%2BjsrS1wKc%3D