Exclusive: Bright Vachirawit On His First English Single, Acting Career And More

It’s Bright Vachirawit’s world and we’re all living in it. Today, the 24-year-old actor and musician is a household name in Thailand, with fans all over the world. He also enjoys lucrative partnerships with global luxury brands like Burberry—the storied British label recently named Vachirawit as its newest ambassador in the South Asia Pacific region—but that wasn’t always the case. 

Born Vachirawit Chivaaree in Thailand to a father of Thai and American descent and a mother of Thai and Chinese descent, he first entered the entertainment scene in 2013 as a television host on Strawberry Krubcake, a variety show on Thailand’s Ch 3.

Five years later, he auditioned for GMM25 New Face 2018 and got signed by the Thai digital terrestrial channel as an actor. He started out his acting career by playing supporting roles, and eventually became one of the hosts of GMM25’s travelling programme, Toe Laew, in 2020.

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Also in 2020, Vachirawit landed his breakthrough role as Sarawat in 2gether: The Series—now available on Netflix—starring alongside novice actor Win Metawin Opas-Iamkajorn. The Thai series quickly became the most viewed series on LINE TV Thailand, gaining both Vachirawit as well as Opas-Iamkajorn fame and an international fanbase. Both actors reprise their roles in the series sequel, released later that same year. 

Following the success of the boys-love drama series, Vachirawit was cast as Thyme (originally portrayed by Domyoji Tsukasa) in F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers, the Thai adaptation of popular Japanese manga, Hana Yori Dango, in 2021.

These days however, Vachirawit is focused on his music career, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering he grew up surrounded by a family of musicians. He held a highly successful concert in Thailand earlier this month, and today, Vachirawit launches the official music video for his first English single, Lost and Found.

In an exclusive interview below, Vachirawit talks about his meteoric rise to fame, new music, favourite Marvel character and more.

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What would you attribute the success of 2gether: The Series to?

I think 2gether was successful because it’s quite easy to watch and enjoy. It’s a ‘feel good’ series you can watch over and over again—or at least that’s what fans of the series have told me. As for my character, he’s a nice guy and I think everybody wants to have a friend like Sarawat in their life. I mean, he’s such a good, kind, genuine person. We all need a friend we can totally trust, and Sarawat is that guy. When he loves someone, he loves with all his heart. He won’t let you down.

Did you ever expect to rise to this level of fame?

Ha! Never. Not at all. It’s been such a flurry of events. You know, before 2gether went to air, Win and I got talking about how it would be received. At that time I had about half a million followers on Instagram, and Win had about 8,000. We predicted I’d end up with a million followers and Win would have about 500,000 followers. Well by the time the show had finished I had about five million followers and Win had WAY more than half a million!

What was it like in the beginning and how do you handle it now?

At first, it felt very hard to handle for me. Everything changed so quickly. People would recognise me everywhere and that made me a little nervous. I’m quite a private person; suddenly I was thrust into the spotlight.

I remember once, at the very beginning of my fame, I was in the men’s bathroom and this guy came up and asked if he could take a photo with me. I was thinking: ‘What ... right now?’ It felt very weird in the beginning, but now I’m used to it. Plus it’s a very positive experience. It’s good to be recognised and loved by people. I enjoy my career very much.

How much of yourself do you insert into the characters you play, and do the characters you portray ever change or affect you?

I think every character I portray has a part of me in them, because before I can act the part I have to relate to that character. I look at his personality and see where I relate to him. And sometimes my role affects me in real life after I finish shooting. A good example is Sarawat from 2gether: he taught me how to love unconditionally, because he is such a good person. And when he loves someone he doesn’t expect anything in return. I was impressed by how he would be so close to his friends; if his friends weren’t happy, he wasn’t happy too. I think I can learn from that.

Did you always know that you wanted to be an actor? 

I never thought I’d be an actor. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. But when I got the chance to act, I really got into it. I enjoy it a lot, and I’m glad I’ve made this choice. If I wasn’t an actor, what would I be now? Probably a businessman. I own my own clothing company, ASTRO Stuffs, which takes up a lot of my time too; I enjoy that as well.

What would your dream role be in a film or television series, and who would you cast to star alongside you?

My dream role would be to play Patrick Bateman from American Psycho! I’d love to play that character; it’d be very exciting. Bateman’s a deep character, and I love Christian Bale’s interpretation of him. As for my co-star, I would choose Christian Bale for sure!

Marvel films are huge right now. If given the opportunity, who would you like to portray in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

That’s easy. I’d be Ironman. He’s so cool! It’s not just about his superpowers; he’s also got the coolest personality. He’s always been my favourite hero of Marvel.

Tell us a little bit about your music career.

I’m currently working on my debut album, and it’s consuming a lot of my time. This is a project I’m putting my heart and soul into because I want it to be the absolute best possible. I want people to know who I really am musically. Making the album has taken much more time than I thought. Originally the release was planned for this year, but because we’re taking more time with it, its release has been postponed. I hope you have a listen to it when it comes out.

Tell us about your first English single.

My first English single is called Lost and Found. It came from this idea of everyone having someone or something in their life that makes them feel good. And whenever you do something that reminds you of that person or time in your life, you think about it and it makes you feel nostalgic. But deep down inside, you know that you cannot bring it back. You have to leave it in the past.

Which do you prefer making—music or film?

I love them both. But honestly I feel more comfortable with making music because there's no pressure or high hopes. My music—I just do it to please myself. As for acting, there's more pressure. I love them both and have no plans to stop doing either.

What are you currently listening to?

I'm listening to my friend's band HYBS. They're the guys who wrote Lost and Found for me and their music's really cool and laidback. I recommend you guys to give them a listen.

Tell us about your affinity to fashion, and how your style has evolved over the years.

I’ve always loved to dress well, but I only started to study it seriously when I began acting. The more I learned about it, the more I enjoyed it. In fact I got so into it, I started my own clothing brand!

I don’t think my style has changed a lot. I’ve always been into vintage, retro-style clothing. Maybe the only thing that’s changed is that there is more variety in the things I wear, because of the work I do.

Which style icons, dead or alive, do you look up to?

James Dean without a doubt! I love the way he dressed back in the day. As I said I’m into vintage clothing, and in his case, it was the white shirt, red jacket, jeans and sneakers. What a great look. If you ask me about more contemporary icons, I like the way David Beckham dresses. He always looks sharp, no matter where he is or where he goes.

You’ve got fiercely loyal fans all over the world. What would you like to say to them?

I’m really blessed. Thank you for supporting me. You give me the power to keep going. It’s always great meeting fans, even though it can sometimes get a little chaotic, but it’s always a great experience and I hope you all keep following me. And I will keep trying to do my best.

Lastly, what else can we expect from you in the near future?

Wow. I have many projects that I’m working hard on, and they’re all very exciting and interesting, but I’m sworn to secrecy. But don’t worry ... you’ll hear about them all soon enough. Stay tuned!