Pope Thanawat: The Life Story Behind Thailand's Period Star

There is a moment in Buppesannivas when Por Date, played by Pope Thanawat, looks at a woman from the future and does not know whether to trust her, scold her, or protect her. He does all three, in that order, and the audience laughs, sighs, and falls in love with him at the same time. That scene tells you almost everything about Pope. He is not a star who wins people over with a single trick. He wins them over by being strict and tender in the same breath, by holding himself back and then letting a feeling escape, and by making a man from the seventeenth century feel like someone you might meet today.

Pope was born in Bangkok in 1982, and he did not become famous young. He spent years in small parts, learning how a set works, how a costume feels, and how to stand beside actors who were already stars. When his big chance finally came, in 2018, he was thirty-five, an age when many Thai leading men are already thinking about smaller roles. He was not thinking about smaller roles. He was ready, and the whole country saw it. A drama about time travel became a national event, and a man who had waited a long time became the hero of it.

The reason his story matters is not only the drama. It is the waiting. Most celebrity stories are about speed: discovered at sixteen, famous at eighteen, rich at twenty. Pope’s story is about the opposite. It is about a man who kept working when no one was watching, who learned his craft in the shadows, and who was still standing when the light finally found him. If you have ever felt that you are too old, too late, or too slow, his life is worth reading, because it says you are not.

Bangkok in the Eighties and a Boy Who Watched First

Bangkok in 1982, the year Thanawat Wattanaputi was born, was a city in the middle of a transformation. New roads were being built, new shopping centres were opening, and television was becoming the centre of family life in the evening. A child born into that city saw old and new living side by side: a temple on one corner and a tower block on the next, a grandmother in traditional dress and a teenager in jeans. Pope grew up inside that mix, and it shaped the way he later played men from the past. He understood, without having to study it, that Thai people have always lived with one foot in history and one foot in the present.

He was not a child actor, and he was not a boy who spent his schooldays dreaming of a stage. Friends and interviews from his early years describe a normal Bangkok boy, fond of sport, fond of his friends, and fond of a quiet life. That normality is worth noting, because it is the foundation of his later acting. An actor who has lived an ordinary life has ordinary feelings to draw on: the feeling of waiting for a bus, of being scolded by a teacher, of laughing with friends after school. Pope had all of those feelings before he ever stood in front of a camera, and when he finally did, he could reach for them without pretending.

His Thai name, Thanawat, and his nickname, Pope, are both part of his public identity, and the nickname is the one fans use most. It is a friendly name, easy to say, and it suits a man who is known for being approachable rather than grand. He did not choose a stage name that sounded like a star. He kept the name people already called him, and that choice tells you something about his attitude. He did not want to become a different person for television. He wanted to bring the person he already was into the work, and let the audience meet him there.

When he was young, Pope also learned the manners that Thai families teach their children: how to greet an elder, how to speak politely, how to sit, how to eat, and how to show respect without making a show of it. Those manners look simple, but they are the raw material of period drama. A nobleman in the Ayutthaya period does not only wear a costume. He moves, speaks, and listens in a particular way, and an actor who has learned those manners at home does not have to fake them. Pope had learned them, and when he played Por Date, the audience could feel that the manners were real, not rehearsed for a week.

Small Parts, Long Days, and the Education No School Gives

Pope’s entry into television was not a red carpet. It was a series of small parts, supporting roles, and long days on sets where he was not the centre of attention. He appeared in Dok Som See Thong, a drama that gave him a chance to be seen, and then in Tawan Dueat, where he played a man caught between love and duty. Neither role made him a star, and neither was meant to. They were the kind of roles that teach an actor how to survive in the industry: how to learn lines quickly, how to work with a director who is under pressure, and how to keep a performance alive when the camera is pointed at someone else.

One of his most important early steps was Khun Chai Pawornruj, part of the Gentlemen of Jutathep series in 2013, a set of five dramas about five noble brothers. Pope played one of the brothers, a man of good family and strong principles, in a world of silk, gold, and strict rules. The series was a major Channel 3 event, and it put Pope in front of a large audience for the first time. He did not steal the series, and he did not try to. He played his brother with a steady, honourable quality, and he let the audience see that he could hold his own beside younger, more famous stars. That steadiness was noticed by directors, even if it did not yet make headlines.

A set is a school, and Pope attended it for years. He learned how a period costume changes the way you walk, how a heavy collar changes the way you hold your head, and how a scene shot in the heat of a Thai afternoon needs an actor who can stay calm and keep his energy for the take that matters. He learned how to work with a leading lady he had just met, how to build trust in a few days, and how to make a romance feel real when the two actors are still strangers. He learned, above all, how to wait. Waiting is the hardest lesson in acting, because an actor spends most of a day waiting: waiting for the light, waiting for the crew, waiting for his turn. Pope learned to wait without complaining, and that patience became part of his reputation.

The years before fame were also years when Pope had to decide, again and again, whether to keep going. A man in his late twenties and early thirties, watching younger actors become stars, can easily decide that his time has passed. Pope did not decide that. He kept auditioning, kept accepting roles, and kept improving in small ways that only a director would notice: a cleaner line reading, a more natural walk, a better way of listening. Those small improvements added up, and by the time a great script arrived, he was not the same actor he had been at twenty-five. He was better, and he was ready.

Buppesannivas: The Drama That Stopped a Country

In 2018, Channel 3 broadcast Buppesannivas, known in English as Love Destiny, and Thailand stopped to watch it. The story is about Ketsurang, a modern archaeology student who dies and wakes up in the body of Karakade, a noblewoman in the Ayutthaya period, more than three hundred years ago. She meets Por Date, a strict nobleman played by Pope, and the two clash, argue, and slowly fall in love. The drama was funny, moving, and full of Thai history, Thai food, Thai clothes, and Thai manners, and it became more than a television show. It became a national conversation. People visited Ayutthaya in traditional dress, restaurants served food from the drama, and children quoted lines from it at school.

Pope’s Por Date is the reason the drama worked as well as it did. Por Date is a difficult man to love at first. He is proud, he is bound by rules, and he is quick to judge a woman who speaks and behaves in ways no noblewoman of his time would dare to. Pope played that pride without making the character cruel. He let the audience see the honour underneath the pride, and the tenderness underneath the honour. When Por Date softens, it is not a sudden change. It is a slow thaw, visible in a look, a pause, and a hand that reaches out and then stops. That slow thaw is what made millions of viewers care about him, because it felt like the way a real proud man learns to love.

His partnership with Bella Ranee Campen, who played Ketsurang and Karakade, was the other half of the magic. Bella played a modern woman trapped in an old world, and Pope played an old-world man confronted by a modern woman, and their scenes together crackled with that clash. They argued about food, about manners, and about what a woman is allowed to say, and the arguments were funny because both actors played them with total seriousness. When they finally understood each other, the audience felt that they had earned that understanding, because they had watched it grow over many episodes, not in a single scene.

The scale of the success was extraordinary. Buppesannivas was watched by millions, discussed in newspapers, and praised by historians for making Thai history popular again. For Pope, it meant that a man who had worked for years in the background was suddenly one of the most recognisable faces in Thailand. He was thirty-five, and he was a star, and he handled it the way he had handled everything else: calmly, politely, and with gratitude. He did not act as if fame had been owed to him. He acted as if it were a gift, and he treated it with care.

Love Destiny 2, Prom Likit, and the Problem of a Second Act

A phenomenon creates a problem that few actors talk about honestly: what do you do next? The audience wants the same story again, the channel wants the same ratings again, and the actor must choose between repeating himself and risking something new. Pope chose a middle path. He returned to the world of Love Destiny, but he did not try to play Por Date again. In Love Destiny 2, broadcast in 2023, he played a new character in a later time, a man who carries the same honour and the same calm, but who has his own love, his own family, and his own problems. It was a brave choice, because every viewer would compare the new man with Por Date, and Pope knew it.

He made the comparison work by refusing to copy himself. The new character is not Por Date with a different name. He is a different man, with a different temper, a different way of speaking, and a different kind of love. Pope played him with fresh energy, and he let the audience see the difference in small details: the way he listens, the way he laughs, and the way he handles a disagreement. That honesty made Love Destiny 2 a success in its own right, even though it could never be exactly like the first drama, because no second act ever is.

Prom Likit, the story that followed in the same world, gave Pope another chance to explore Thai history and romance, this time with a story that mixed the past with a touch of the supernatural and a new leading lady. He played it with the same care he had brought to Buppesannivas, and the audience responded. They liked seeing him in traditional dress again, they liked the history, and they liked the way he could make a period romance feel modern in its feelings, even when its clothes and houses belonged to another century.

These later dramas also showed that Pope had learned how to live with fame. He was now a top star, with fans in Thailand and in other countries where Thai dramas are watched online, and he had to manage his time, his roles, and his public life. He did it by keeping the same rhythm he had always kept: choose a job, do it well, rest, and then choose the next one. He did not try to be in every drama, every event, and every magazine. He chose, and that choosing is what has kept his work good and his life calm.

The Craft of Period Acting: What Pope Does Differently

Period acting looks easy from the outside. Put on old clothes, speak formally, and bow. In practice, it is one of the hardest kinds of acting, because the audience knows when it is fake. A modern actor in a period costume can easily look like a person in fancy dress, and the drama falls apart. Pope avoids that trap, and it is worth asking why. Part of the answer is physical. He moves slowly, he holds his body upright, and he does not rush a gesture. That slowness is not laziness. It is the pace of a world where people had time, where a bow meant something, and where a word, once spoken, could not be taken back.

Part of the answer is vocal. Pope does not shout his lines, and he does not whisper them either. He speaks at a level that feels like a conversation in a large house, clear enough to be heard, soft enough to be polite. That vocal control is especially important in Thai period drama, where the language is formal and the wrong tone can make a noble character sound like a modern teenager. Pope’s tone is steady, and it tells the audience, without a word of explanation, that this man belongs in this time.

Part of the answer is emotional. Pope’s characters feel deeply, but they do not show everything at once. That restraint is a Thai quality, and it is also a human quality. In real life, proud people do not announce their feelings. They hide them, they fight them, and they reveal them in small moments: a hand that trembles, a look that lasts a second too long, a silence that says more than a speech. Pope understands that, and he builds his performances out of those small moments, not out of big ones. That is why his sad scenes are sadder than a louder actor’s sad scenes, and why his love scenes feel more real.

Directors who have worked with him often say the same thing in different words: he is prepared, he is calm, and he does not make the work about himself. That is a rare compliment in an industry that rewards self-promotion, and it is the reason Pope keeps getting cast in the roles that matter. A director making a long period drama needs an actor who will be there, day after day, in heavy clothes, in the heat, giving the same quality on the last day as on the first. Pope gives that, and that reliability is a form of talent in itself.

Fame at Thirty-Five and the Life That Did Not Change

Becoming famous at thirty-five is different from becoming famous at eighteen, and Pope’s life shows the difference. A teenager who becomes famous has to grow up in public, and every mistake is seen by millions. A man who becomes famous at thirty-five has already grown up. He has already learned who he is, what he values, and what he will not do for fame. Pope had learned those things in the long years before Buppesannivas, and when fame arrived, it did not change him in the way it changes younger stars. He did not become louder, wilder, or more desperate to stay in the news. He stayed the same man, only busier.

That steadiness shows in the way he talks about his work. He does not describe acting as glamour. He describes it as a job that needs preparation, respect for the script, and respect for the people you work with. He thanks the crew, he thanks the audience, and he goes home. That may sound dull, but it is a form of wisdom. Fame is a kind of fire. It can warm you, and it can burn you, and the people who survive it are often the ones who learn to stand a little way back from it. Pope stands back, and that distance lets him keep working without losing himself.

His private life has stayed private, and that is a deliberate choice. He does not share his daily life on social media, he does not feed gossip, and he does not try to stay in the headlines between dramas. Some fans wish he would share more, and that is understandable, because they love him and want to know him better. But privacy is also a way of protecting the part of yourself that makes the work possible. An actor who gives everything away has nothing left to bring to a character. Pope keeps something back, and that something is what makes his performances feel like they come from a real person, not from a public image.

The years since Buppesannivas have also brought him a new kind of audience: viewers outside Thailand who discovered the drama through streaming, and who now follow Thai period drama because of it. Pope did not chase that audience. He kept telling Thai stories, and the audience came to him. That is a hopeful idea for Thai television, and for any artist who works in a local tradition. You do not have to leave your culture behind to be seen. You have to be honest about it, and the world will find you.

What Comes Next for a Man Who Waited

Today, Pope Thanawat is in his early forties, and he is one of the most trusted period actors in Thailand. He has a long list of dramas behind him, and he has worked with many of the best actors and directors in the country. The question now is not whether he will keep working, but what he will choose to do with the freedom he has earned. He could stay in period drama for the rest of his career, and he would do well in it, because it is where his strength lies. Or he could look for a modern role that surprises people, a role where he plays a man of today, with a mobile phone, a modern job, and modern problems, and where his period manners are nowhere to be seen.

Either choice would be understandable, and either could work, because Pope’s talent is not only about old clothes. It is about playing a man who thinks before he acts, who loves with loyalty, and who changes slowly, and those qualities belong in any time. A modern Pope could be just as interesting as a period Pope, if the script is good and if he is given room to play a man who is not always honourable, not always calm, and not always right. That kind of role would test him in a new way, and it would show the audience a side of him they have not seen.

What seems certain is that he will not rush. He has never rushed, and rushing now would go against everything his career has taught him. He will choose a script, he will prepare, he will work with a director he trusts, and he will let the audience decide. That slow, careful way of working is not fashionable, but it is the way that has brought him this far, and it is the way that is most likely to keep him working for many more years.

In the end, Pope’s story is a story about time, and about what time can do for a person who does not give up. Time can make a young actor old, and it can make a hopeful actor tired, but it can also make a good actor better, if he uses it well. Pope used it well. He waited, he learned, and when his moment came, he was ready. That is not a dramatic story, but it is a true one, and it is a story that many people, in Thailand and beyond, can take comfort from. You are not too late. You are only too late if you stop, and Pope never stopped.

The City That Raised Him: Bangkok, 1982 to Now

Pope was born in Bangkok in 1982, and the city he grew up in is not the city that exists today. The Bangkok of the early 1980s was smaller, slower, and more full of canals and wooden houses than the Bangkok of towers and trains that young viewers know now. He watched it change, year by year, as new roads opened, new malls rose, and the old neighbourhoods gave way to condominiums. That watching matters for an actor, because a man who has seen his city change understands that nothing stays the same, and that a person must change with it, or be left behind. Pope changed with it, slowly, without fuss, and by the time the city had become a modern metropolis, he had become a modern star, one who still carried the manners of the older Bangkok with him.

The old Bangkok also gave him something that a newer city cannot give: a sense of history. He grew up among temples, markets, and families who had lived in the same street for generations, and that sense of the past stayed with him. When he later played Por Date in a period drama, he did not have to imagine what the old world felt like. He had lived beside its remains, in the temples and the old houses that still stood in his city, and he carried that feeling into his performance. An actor who has walked past a temple every day of his childhood does not need a costume to feel at home in the past. He only needs to remember, and Pope remembers.

Today, when he walks through Bangkok, he walks as a famous man, and the city that raised him now celebrates him. Fans stop him in malls, photographers wait outside restaurants, and his face looks out from posters on the train. Yet those who know him say he still moves through the city like a man who belongs to it, not like a star who is above it. He eats where ordinary people eat, he greets people politely, and he does not make a show of his fame. That modesty is a Bangkok quality, the quality of a city that has seen many stars come and go, and that respects the ones who stay humble. Pope has stayed humble, and the city has repaid him with a love that has lasted long after the first rush of fame.

My Take:

I want to be honest about why Pope Thanawat’s story stays with me more than most of the stories in this batch. It is not because Buppesannivas was the biggest drama, although it was huge. It is because his life answers a question I hear often, in different forms, from people who feel they have missed their chance. Am I too old? Did I start too late? Is it over for me? Pope’s life says no, and it says it without shouting. It says it quietly, by showing a man who worked for years in small parts, who was not famous at twenty-five, who was not famous at thirty, and who became one of the most loved actors in Thailand at thirty-five. That is a hopeful answer, and I think it is a true one.

What moves me most is the waiting itself. Waiting is hard, and waiting for years, while younger people pass you, is harder still. I have waited for things in my own life, and I know how waiting can eat at your confidence. You start to wonder if you made a mistake, if you should have chosen a different path, if the people who doubted you were right. Pope must have felt some of that, even if he never said it in public. The fact that he kept going through it is what makes his story moving. It is not a story about a man who never doubted. It is a story about a man who doubted and kept working anyway, and that is a more honest kind of courage than never doubting at all.

I also think a lot about Por Date, and why that character touched so many people. Por Date is a proud man, a man who follows rules, and a man who finds it hard to say what he feels. I know men like that in real life. They are not cruel, but they are not easy to love, because they hide their tenderness behind pride. When a proud man finally opens his heart, it means more than when an open man does it, because you know how much it cost him. Pope played that cost. He did not make Por Date soft. He made him proud, and then he let the audience watch pride lose, slowly, to love. That is a beautiful thing to watch, and it is why the drama stayed with people long after it ended.

There is another angle I keep returning to, and it is the way Pope’s fame did not change him. I have seen many stars become famous young and lose themselves in the noise. They start to believe their own headlines, they start to need applause to feel alive, and they start to make choices that please the crowd rather than choices that are true to them. Pope became famous late, and by then he already knew who he was. Fame did not have to teach him who he was. It only had to give him better scripts. That is a lucky timing, in a way, and it is also a lesson. If you can learn who you are before the world starts watching you, the world cannot easily take that knowledge away.

I also want to say something about Thai history, because Buppesannivas did something that few dramas do: it made history feel alive. Before that drama, many young Thai people thought of the Ayutthaya period as a chapter in a school book, dry and distant. After it, they wanted to visit Ayutthaya, wear traditional clothes, and eat the food their ancestors ate. That is a remarkable achievement for a television show, and Pope was at the centre of it. He made a man from three hundred years ago feel like a person you could meet, argue with, and love. That is not only acting. It is a form of teaching, and it is a form of service to Thai culture. I respect that deeply, even though I am writing from far away.

At the same time, I will not pretend to know Pope as a person. I know his work, and I know the public facts of his life, and that is all. I will not guess at his private thoughts, his relationships, or his feelings behind closed doors. That would be unfair to him, and it would be unfair to the reader. What I can judge is the work, and the work says this: here is a man who prepares, who listens, who respects his fellow actors, and who does not chase scandal. Those are small things, but they add up to a reputation that is hard to build and easy to lose. He has kept it for many years, and that tells me he is doing something right.

I think about the young actors who look up to him, and what his story offers them. A young actor in Thailand today might see Pope and think, I do not have to be famous at eighteen. I can learn, I can work, and I can wait for my moment. That is a better message than the usual one, which says you must be young and beautiful or you have no chance. Pope’s story says you must be good, you must be patient, and you must be ready. That is a message that can help a young person in real life, not only on a television set. If you are patient and you keep learning, your moment may come later than you hoped, but it will come, and when it comes, you will be ready for it.

There is a sad side to his story too, and I think it is the sadness of the long wait. Waiting means watching other people succeed while you stay in the background, and that can be painful in a way that is hard to describe. It can make you feel invisible, even when you are working hard. Pope was invisible for years, in the sense that the whole country did not know his name, even though directors did. That invisibility must have hurt, at least sometimes, and I think it is important to name that hurt, because it makes the success that followed more meaningful. He did not become a star without cost. He paid for it with years of patience, and that cost is part of why I respect him.

I also wonder about the future, and I hope Pope takes a risk soon. He is very good in period drama, and period drama will always be there for him, but I would like to see him play a modern man who is not honourable, a man who makes a serious mistake, or a man who has to start his life again from nothing. That kind of role would test him in a new way, and it would show the audience that his talent is not only about old clothes and old manners. It is about playing a real person, in any time, in any place. I think he is ready for that test, and I hope a good director gives it to him, because the best actors are the ones who keep taking risks, even when they do not need to.

If I compare Pope to other Thai actors, what stands out is not his looks, although he is handsome, and not his fame, although he is famous. What stands out is his timing. Other actors became famous young, and then had to learn how to stay famous. Pope became famous late, and he already knew how to work, how to be patient, and how to be humble. That timing gave him an advantage, because he did not have to learn those lessons in the spotlight. He had already learned them in the quiet years, and when the spotlight came, he was ready for it. That is a rare and valuable thing, and it is why I think his career will last.

There is one more thing about the long wait that I want to think about carefully, because it changed the kind of actor Pope became. A man who spends years in small parts does not only learn lines and camera marks. He learns how to watch. He stands at the edge of a scene and watches the leading actor work, watches the director solve a problem, watches the crew move lights and furniture, and he stores all of it away. By the time his own chance comes, he is not guessing. He has seen hundreds of scenes from the side, and he knows what works and what does not. I think that is why Pope looked so sure of himself in Buppesannivas, even though it was his first huge role. He had already rehearsed it in his head for years, in other people’s scenes, and when the camera finally turned to him, he was not surprised by it. He was ready in a way that a young star, pushed forward too fast, can almost never be. That is the hidden gift of waiting, and I think more people should talk about it, because our world keeps telling young people to hurry, and Pope’s life says the opposite: take your time, learn the room, and be ready when the door opens.

I also keep thinking about Por Date’s temper, because it is the part of the character that could have gone wrong so easily. Por Date is proud, he scolds, he judges a woman for speaking too freely, and in the hands of a weaker actor he would have been hard to like. Pope made him likeable by showing the cracks in the pride. When Ketsurang surprises him, you can see him fighting with himself: part of him wants to stay strict, and part of him is curious, and then amused, and then worried about her. That fight is what makes the audience stay with him. They are not laughing at a cruel man. They are watching a strict man discover that his rules do not cover everything, and that discovery is funny and touching at the same time. I admire that kind of acting, because it asks the actor to be both strong and soft in the same scene, and to let the audience see the change happen slowly, not all at once. It is the difference between playing a type and playing a person, and Pope plays a person.

Something else I want to say is about what Buppesannivas did outside the television screen. A drama can be popular, and that is one thing, but this drama made people want to know their own history. It is widely reported that viewers began visiting old temples and old towns in period dress, and that families talked about the Ayutthaya period at dinner in a way they had not done before. I find that remarkable, because history at school can feel dry and far away, full of dates and kings’ names that are hard to remember. Pope and Bella made it feel close and alive, like a story about people you might know. A proud nobleman, a funny woman from the future, a house full of rules, a love that grows slowly: those are things anyone can understand, and once you understand them, the history comes with them for free. That is a real public service, and it came from an actor who simply did his job well, not from a lecture. I think that is worth more praise than it usually gets.

And then there is the practical lesson, the one I would give to any person in their thirties who feels late. Pope’s story is not a fairy tale where waiting is easy. Waiting is hard, and it costs you years when other people are moving ahead. But his story shows what waiting can buy you if you use it well. He did not wait by doing nothing. He waited by working, by taking small parts, by learning the craft, and by keeping his life steady. So when his moment came at thirty-five, he did not waste it on nerves or on showing off. He used it. I think about people who measure themselves against younger stars, or younger colleagues, or younger friends, and I wish they could see Pope’s example. Being late is not the same as being finished. Sometimes being late means you arrive with more skill, more calm, and more staying power than the people who arrived early. That is a hopeful thought, and it is an honest one, because Pope proves it every time he appears on screen as a man who waited and was ready.

In the end, my feeling about Pope Thanawat is one of hope and respect. I hope that his story helps people who feel behind, who feel too old, or who feel that their moment has passed. His life says your moment has not passed. It may be coming later than you hoped, but if you keep working and keep learning, it will come, and when it comes, you will be ready. That is a good story to tell, and a good story to remember when you feel like giving up. Pope did not give up, and look where it led him: from small parts in Bangkok to a drama that stopped a country, and to a place in Thai television history that no one can take away.

Late fame is the first thing I think about when I think of Pope Thanawat, and it is a hopeful thing to think about. He became a national star at thirty-five, an age when many actors are told their best years are behind them, and he proved that idea wrong in the most public way possible. Love Destiny made him famous across Thailand, and it made him famous late, and that lateness is part of what makes his story matter. It tells anyone who feels they have missed their moment that the moment may still be coming, and that the years spent waiting are not wasted years. They are the years that prepare you, and Pope was prepared, because he had spent more than a decade learning his craft in smaller roles before the great role arrived.

The slowness of period acting is another quality I admire in him, because it is the opposite of everything modern television rewards. A period drama moves slowly. People speak formally, they walk carefully, and they do not rush their feelings. Pope plays that slowness as if he were born to it, and I think that comes from his own patience, from a man who waited years for fame and learned not to hurry. In a world that rewards speed, a man who can be slow on screen is a rare thing, and audiences feel the difference. They feel that they are watching a person, not a performance, and that feeling is what made Love Destiny more than a hit. It made it a story people lived in.

His partnership with Bella Ranee is something I keep returning to, because a great romance needs two people who listen to each other, and Pope and Bella listened. They let the love grow through small moments, through a look, a pause, and a quiet word, and that slowness made the love feel timeless, which is exactly what a story about time travel needs. I think Pope’s part in that was to play a man who is strong without being loud, and kind without being weak, and that balance is hard to play. Many actors can play strong, and many can play kind, but few can play both at once, in the same scene, without one cancelling the other. Pope can, and that is why the pairing worked.

I also think about what his success says to the young men who watch him. A young man in Bangkok today who dreams of acting might look at Pope and see a man who did not become famous at twenty, who did not have a single lucky break, and who built his career by showing up, year after year, and doing the work well. That is a useful example, because it says you do not need to be young to be a star, and you do not need luck to succeed. You need patience, and you need to be ready when the chance comes, and Pope was ready, because he had spent years getting ready, in roles that no one remembers, on sets where no one was watching.

There is a question I ask myself about him, and it is whether he will take a modern role that breaks the period image. He is very good at playing a man from the past, and that image will always be there for him, but I would love to see him play a man from today: a teacher, a doctor, or a father in a small flat, with no silk and no history, only a true feeling and a quiet face. A part like that would show the other half of his talent, the half that does not need a costume, and it would prove that his gift is not the past. It is patience, and patience works in any century. I do not know whether he will take such a part, but I think he is ready for it.

So my feeling about Pope Thanawat is one of respect, mixed with hope. He is a man who waited, who worked, and who was ready when his moment came, and he has kept working with the same calm ever since. I hope he keeps acting, and I hope he keeps choosing roles that surprise us, because an actor who became famous at thirty-five has already proved that it is never too late, and that proof is worth more than any single drama. It is a proof that belongs to everyone who is still waiting for their own moment, and who needs to hear that waiting, done well, is not wasted time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Pope Thanawat and why is he called a late star?

Pope Thanawat, whose full name is Thanawat Wattanaputi, is a Thai actor born in Bangkok in 1982 who became a top star in his mid-thirties. He is called a late star because he worked for years in small and supporting roles before Buppesannivas made him famous in 2018, so his story is about patience and readiness rather than an overnight rise.

What is Buppesannivas, also known as Love Destiny?

Buppesannivas, known in English as Love Destiny, is a 2018 Thai period drama about a modern woman who travels back in time to the Ayutthaya period and meets the nobleman Por Date, played by Pope Thanawat. It became a national phenomenon in Thailand, making Thai history, food, and traditional dress popular again, and it made Pope a household name.

Who did Pope Thanawat play in Love Destiny?

Pope Thanawat played Por Date, a strict, proud, and honourable nobleman in the Ayutthaya period who slowly falls in love with the female lead, played by Bella Ranee Campen. His restrained performance, showing tenderness behind strict manners, was the heart of the drama and one of the reasons it became so loved.

What did Pope Thanawat do before Buppesannivas?

Before Buppesannivas, Pope worked in dramas such as Dok Som See Thong, Tawan Dueat, and Khun Chai Pawornruj, one of the Gentlemen of Jutathep stories. He took small and supporting roles for years, learning period acting and the craft of television, and building a loyal group of fans before his big break came.

Did Pope Thanawat return to Love Destiny after the first series?

Yes, he returned to the world of Love Destiny in Love Destiny 2 in 2023 and in the related story Prom Likit, playing new characters in a new time rather than repeating Por Date. These dramas showed he could play a different nobleman with fresh energy, and they kept his link with period drama alive for fans.

How old is Pope Thanawat and where was he born?

Pope Thanawat was born in Bangkok in 1982, which makes him in his early forties. He grew up in Bangkok, came to acting later than many of his fellow stars, and built his career slowly through years of work before becoming famous. He keeps much of his private life out of public view.