Harry Shum Jr. Q&A

You probably know Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang or "The Other Asian" in Glee, but he is also reprising his role, Cable from Step Up 2: The Streets, in the latest installment of the Step Up series, Step Up 3D. Here is an interview with the pop-and-locker himself

Ok, first question. Step Up 3D is a dance film shot entirely in 3D, so how was filming a 3D movie different from filming a normal 2D film or TV show?

You know, it’s a lot different as far as how they film it. They have to use 2 lens special cameras and they try and not change our movements too much. They want us to be as organic as possible, but at certain moments, if you spin too fast, the camera might not read it in a sense of the 3D technology, but definitely pulling us in and out through depth and making the audience feel like they’re there. What’s cool is after you get done filming a dance sequence, you can go around to the monitors and put on some glasses, and they have this big HD monitor where you can see the playback in 3D, so that was the coolest part of it.

Any ‘let’s reach right into the camera’ moves?

No, they try to stay away from that. I mean, there is one or two of those, just for the fun of paying homage to the Captian EO’s of the Michael Jackson old 3D ride, you know, but most of the time it just throws you into the action and makes you feel like you’re there. Like, they have a camera shot where they’re panning behind a guy’s head and it looks like you’re one of the audience members trying to look past the guy and see the action happen. So it’s really cool. It’s like people dancing on your lap.

What was it like getting to film in New York City?

Oh, it was so cool. I mean, at that moment, I was filming Glee at the same time and I literally was just going from the set of Glee all the way jumping onto the set of Step Up 3D as well as working on LXD at the same time. It was definitely a heavy multitasking, but there’s something about the energy of New York that gives you this energy to want to dance, especially because it has so much history. That’s where hip hop originated from, so I love it there, man. You know, I think it was the right idea to bring Step Up 3D to New York.

Yeah, another question I had was what was is like having to balance working on LXD, Step Up, and Glee all at the same time?

I got confused a couple of moments. When we’d start doing certain rehearsals, and ‘uh, where am I at right now? Oh yeah, I’m at LXD’ — a little bit of scheduling and just having the love of being a part of these projects. You know I just feel so lucky and blessed to be part of all these projects and especially Glee for what it represents and Step Up 3D for being so innovative, and LXD just being able to be in all aspects of the creative process. It’s really been a dream to be a part of all these projects at the same time, so I think that’s what keeps me going and to be able to want to make all across the board, everything I do for all the projects, giving it my all. So that’s the passion that definitely keeps me going.