DOES YOUR NOSE BLEED WHEN YOU’RE TOLD EXCITING NEWS? WELL, THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED TO RAIKO GOHARA THE DAY HE GOT THE CALL TO PLAY ZACH IN A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER. SILENT AND MYSTERIOUS, RAIKO’S SECRET WEAPON TO MASTER HIS CHARACTER WAS WHAT HE CALLS A “SUBTITLE FACE” – EMBODYING EMOTIONS WITHOUT HAVING TO SAY A WORD. PREVIOUSLY STARRING IN A LEAD ROLE IN THE FAMED MUSICAL GEORGE TAKEI’S ALLEGIANCE, HE HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF REPRESENTATION IN ENTERTAINMENT AND THE TOPIC OF RACE IN THE PROJECTS HE EMBARKS ON AS A JAPANESE-AMERICAN. BTB SPOKE TO THE BUBBLY ACTOR LAST SUMMER ABOUT BEING MENTORED BY IMPRESSIVE A-LISTERS, HIS ADDICTION TO CROCHETING ACCESSORIES ON SET, AND HIS UNDENIABLE LOVE OF FASHION AND THRIFTING UNIQUE PIECES.

Left Full look **Simone Rocha**
Right Tunic and pants **Courrèges**, shoes **Celine Homme**, necklace **Sonia Petroff**, gloves stylist's own

Hi Raiko, tell us a little bit about yourself, how did you get into acting?

I grew up in the US and I moved to the UK in the early 2010s. I was struggling to make friends at school because I was different-looking. I'm Asian, I had darker skin than everyone and people would take the mick out of my accent because it was very American at the time. And so my mum signed me up to an after-school theatre club to build confidence and just hang out with people, and I fell in love with that. I enjoyed it so much but it was never a future that I had really planned for, I mean at one point I wanted to be an accountant, so this is very different from what I imagined.

Oh, so you had an American accent?

Yeah, I did. I had a thing called a dual accent which is when you, because of your background or your heritage or your parents, you swap in and out of accents. My mum is from the UK but my dad is from Orange County, California, so depending on who I'd speak to, it was heavily American.

Coat **Diesel**, gloves Paula Rowan, necklace **Shaun Leane**

You starred in George Takei’s Allegiance, a musical on the West End. What was that experience like?

That show means so much to me. It was a Broadway transfer and I was in the London original cast which is insane and the project meant so much to me because it's about Japanese Americans, and I am Japanese American myself. It was the biggest and most professional thing I've ever done! I was going into this without any real musical theatre training, and the cast, who's an all-Asian cast, was so phenomenal and they looked after me incredibly well. If I ever had a question or a query which may sound silly to other professionals, they would never belittle me. It was also absolutely phenomenal having an A-list Hollywood actor like George himself in the room. He was the oldest one in the cast and I was the youngest one, but he just talked to me, mentored me and we would have conversations about anything from professional to personal. He really looked after me.

Getting mentored by George Takei must have been amazing, how does preparing for a musical compare to acting in a series?

The amount of preparation for something live is insane, it was like training to be an athlete. I had to learn so much about how to look after my voice and my body because you're doing performances every night for six days a week, eight shows a week, and I had to learn about stamina and how not to burn out. I have so much respect and love for musical theatre performers because they are actual powerhouses and I look up to them so much. The show was a lot easier to prepare for, it was just like reading the book, having insight into what the character looks like. Studying what Zach was like inside the book and how he's written in the script, I had to find a middle ground with all of it because I wanted to do justice to the character and also to the absolutely amazing and adorable fans of the novel.

Left Jacket, shorts and necklace **Simone Rocha**, socks **Prada**, shoes **Celine Homme**
Right Hat **Prada**, necklace **Shaun Leane**, earrings Raiko's own

I finished the show and let me tell you it was a rollercoaster - it is quite dark and tackles challenging themes. How did you lighten the mood on set?

We had to keep the mood on set really light and all of my scenes were a break from all the drama which is very good because it's so plot-intense and heavy that you kind of need to breathe. So luckily, there is the friend group which acts as a little bit of a breather for the viewer. But it was a really long shoot, we were filming from June all the way to September so it was really important to keep ourselves happy on set. We would play card games, and Emma, Jude and I brought our Nintendo Switches down. Also, I love crocheting and I found out that Orla who plays Ruby was also into crocheting at the time, so we would hang out and just crochet crazy things like hats, socks and bags.

Can we spot any of your crocheted treasures in the show?

No. But every time I would crochet a hat, I would bring it to the costume department and they'd be really impressed by me, which is really cute. And I would always bring it to the makeup trailer and I would share the hat around and people would be like, “Oh, let me try it on,” and they would wear it. I have so many pictures of all the different hats that I crocheted on that set.

Left Tunic **Courrèges**
Right Tunic and pants **Courrèges**, shoes **Celine Homme**, Necklace **Sonia Petroff**, gloves stylist's own

Next season, just sneak it onto the costume rack…

Definitely! I have such a great relationship with Charlotte, the costume designer, so I really do think that if I said, “Hey, do you want to just put this in the background,” she might!

How do you relate to Zach, the character you play?

We're both Asian and I think we are incredibly loyal to our friends. I am incredibly loyal to my friends and people I love, almost to a fault because I wear my heart on my sleeve. We are both such observers in conversations, we just sit there and let our friends talk and get everything out, without judgment. To be able to answer if they're looking for one but if they're not looking for one we're just happy to listen and observe. I think that's how we're very similar. I would kill to be as insightful and read as many books as Zach.

Left Jacket and necklace **Simone Rocha**
Right Shorts **DSQUARED**, shoes **Diesel**

The show and the book treat the complexities of teenage murder, and consequential suicide, in a small town. What do you think it raises awareness on?

First, as a young audience, you can become aware of what the signs of behaviours such as grooming look like. And I think that this isn't just any suicide, it's a really important one because it's the suicide of someone of colour. You can see how race is portrayed in the media and by journalists in the show, where Salil is painted out to be a monster and because he isn’t white like Andie, his death is seen as more insignificant. I think that it is really important in current affairs right now to see how other races are portrayed in the media especially surrounding death or suicide, and the show highlighted people of colour in their tragedies as well.

That’s a really good point because it seems like his suicide is literally just a background happening and that it's not as important, because he's just seen as this evil person. But we have to remember that his death is also a loss for a family. Colourism really plays an important part in how the media treats crime.

Exactly, they dehumanise him because he's a Brown guy and they suspect him to be the killer so quickly without really looking into it, which I think is very accurate to how real society functions. They had to look into this murder to find out that the Brown boy was innocent and you see the change in people's attitudes, people who jumped the gun and considered the Brown guy a monster. I think Holly's written it so well and done such justification, it's very heartwarming, for lack of a better term, or just a relief to see that being written down.

Left Full look **Prada**
Right Tunic **Courrèges**, necklace **Sonia Petroff**

Your outfit to the premiere was amazing, what goes into an outfit choice? Do you have any dream brands you want to collaborate with?

I enjoy fashion and styling. I try to bring personality into what I'm wearing so people can understand who I am as a person in my outfit. For the premiere, I wore a brand called FIX and Louis Vuitton. Hopefully, one day, I'll get to work with people like Vivienne Westwood, Maison Margiela, Céline, Thom Browne, or Gentle Monster.

And what do you do on your days off?

I really love going thrifting and going to markets. I'm really lucky that I get to do modelling abroad as well, so every time I go abroad I like to go around to the local markets and find really cool stuff.

Left Full look **Celine Homme**
Right Shorts **DSQUARED**, shoes **Diesel**

What roles do you hope to play in the future? Is there an actor’s career that you admire?

To work all around the world with directors and writers from every walk of life. I’m really excited that I've got my dual citizenship and I really want to be able to use that in my career moving forward. I would like to follow the same career path as Leonardo DiCaprio, he's got one of the biggest and most diverse bodies of work. Jesse Buckley, her talent on stage translates so well and the way she can swap that out and be a film actress is incredible. And Jodie Comer – I would kill to have an ear for accents like she does.