'Sword of Destiny' Harry Shum Jr. Says 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' 2 Fulfills "Dream"
Harry Shum Jr. has already achieved success during his time with the musical series Glee, but the 33-year-old actor says that being a part of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny is one of the best things to happen in his life. Shum revealed that the wuxia film helped him live out his childhood fantasies and made him look like a rock star Wushu master!
In an interview with Comic Book Resources, the Step Up 3D star shared why he is overjoyed about playing Wei-Fang in Sword of Destiny.
"It's living out your childhood dream," Shum said before reminiscing about the things he did as a little boy.
"I remember being in my house after watching Drunken Master 2 or Wong Fei-hung, these incredible martial-arts films growing up when my parents used to bring them home, and I would act it out in my living room," he admitted, adding that he didn't only get to do what he dreamt about as a child but also did so with major Chinese celebrities.
"I didn't really realize it until halfway through the shoot that I was kind of living out my childhood dream and working with this legendary director, [Yuen] Woo-Ping, and Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen," Shum said.
Although working with the established Chinese stars was a major achievement for Shum, the Our Family Wedding actor revealed that the best thing about being part of Sword of Destiny is family pride.
"My parents are so proud, the fact that I'm in this," he said. "I always talk about how on Glee they understood the success of that and the global success. But this one is like, 'Oh, Harry, you've made it. You've made it. You made it in the Chinese newspapers.' So it's been pretty fun seeing them excited about it."
Living out childhood fantasies and making his parents proud aren't the only things that Shum loves about being a part of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel. The Shadowhunters star also admitted that he got a kick out of sporting a new look in the film.
"The weird thing is, I've always wanted to see what I look like in long hair, and I got to achieve that," he said. "I got my rock-star Wushu look."
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny premiered on February 26 and is currently available for streaming on Netflix.