“After Friday, is that OK?” he replied when I asked him for an interview. “Next week,” I thought. Aznil Nawawi, after all, is one of the most hard-working entertainers in Malaysia. Virtually ageless, he is still active after more than three decades in show business. 

You can imagine my surprise when he texted me at 2:30pm on the very next day, a Friday.

“Can call?”
“Of course. When?”
“Now”

Underprepared, hungry, and with my lunch waiting just inches away, I had to do the interview. I could not, and will not, disappoint an interviewee that would actually talk to me on such short notice. I did not expect a legend like Aznil to give me the courtesy. 

I don’t think he remembers, and I did not bring it up, but we have met before, almost 30 years ago. He was fresh off of his first hosting role on the TV game show ‘Pop Quiz’, I was just a kid, following my dad to one of those anti-drugs youth programs he was a part of. 

Aznil was one of the celebrities who contributed their talents to the event. 

Now, there I am talking to him on speakerphone so I can record the conversation and covered with several layers of blankets to block out the recasts from the outside. We chat about two issues that were near and dear to my dad: anti-drugs and motivating youths. 

Aznil shared the story of how he became an anti-drug ambassador and how he champions the idea of motivating youths by encouraging them to be expressive and teaching them how.

Who knew it would all come back around. I imagined that he and my dad would have hit it off well.

You can find Aznil and his foundation, Yayasan Persona on Instagram.