Harry Shum Jr. talks about Mike Chang for the Home Entertainment release of Glee: Season 4

With many of the former Glee Club members now graduates, the hunt is on at William McKinley High School to find talented singers to rebuild the New Directions. It’s not goodbye to the graduates however as beloved characters Rachel and Kurt move to New York to continue their education at the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts (NYADA), struggling to adjust to life after high school. So Glee: Season 4 still features all of your favourite characters, but also introduces great new additions to all the laughs, tears and fun-filled antics in a season that features numerous episodes that will leave you desperate for more.
Like the memorable seasons before it, Glee continues to attract big names, with starring roles from Kate Hudson as a nasty NYADA dance teacher, to Sarah Jessica Parker and Whoopi Goldberg (reprising her role as NYADA Dean Carmen Tibideaux). As well as this, the popular show’s trademark tribute episodes entertain more than ever, with this season featuring episodes dedicated to the music of Britney Spears, Grease and Stevie Wonder.
Glee Season 4 also sees the introduction of latest Glee Project winner Blake Jenner who joins the cast as Ryder Lynn, a football-playing sophomore who Finn encourages to audition for the upcoming school production of Grease.
I know it’s easy to say that this is the rebirth of Glee. This is only the fourth season. In some ways it is though.
I think it is. It’s been on for three years and when you graduate, you have that rebirth when some of the characters graduate, but are still a part of the show. I think there is a rebirth because it’s not like you know everyone’s gone. And then you also have these new kids who are birthing so it’s a rebirth with the birth.
In terms of doing the show, how important do you think it was having the journey not just be about the core characters but to allow for new faces?
I think that with life it is the same way. You have to have that fresh new kind of blood and events to re-energize you to keep propelling and moving forward, within the storyline that just makes it a lot more interesting. You’re doing a TV show you want it to be interesting, have new drama, new faces as well to keep things going while still keeping the faces that you were familiar with. That was a really good idea, and a good place to do that. They made a really good choice. Overall I think it’s really spread out things. It is really refreshing. It’s the Kurt and Rachel Barry’s you know, New York life. That is really refreshing to see that because it just takes the show to another level.
You benefited from the Glee training program. You went from background to a main cast member any advice to the new Glee cast members? Is it harder to come onto a show with an established audience or be in a new show were an audience hasn’t been established yet?
They are both difficult and different ways. It is very true when you put it in that way because you come into and everyone is always comparing you. That is really difficult. The new kids have been doing a great job transitioning in and the writers have been great to have their central storyline but also allowing everyone else to have their own as well. And they’re great kids. You look at how we work when we first started the show and they’re really wide-eyed and just ready to learn. They’re very talented obviously as you’ve seen in the past couple of episodes. It is always hard too because when I started out it was also a learning experience and difficult to navigate. To try and always win over the writers and producers to try and get you to have a little more stuff. I’m glad the way it happened. It happened all organically and I’m here so it’s good.
You are one of the more stable couples
Sort of, we were stable and then we broke up. It adds drama. We like drama.
What’s going to happen to Mike and Tina?
Well, we broke up at the start of season four and I come back and things are a little awkward, especially when you have a long-distance relationship and then you don’t see that person for a while. But it happened, what I’ve learned, is that Mike hasn’t really been a good communicator in that sense and things really fell apart. It’s easy, it’s always easy when you’re around someone every single day because if you can’t communicate. But sometimes the phone and texting is not enough. Skyping is not enough. So they’re dealing with those issues right now and at this point they’re fully broken up and they’re trying to figure out if their relationship is worth staying together.
I often wonder if Ryan is working out some of his own angst from his young life?
I’m sure he magnifies it; you know he’s had a great, interesting in life. He loves to take a lot from personal experiences. This is like a little playground. He gets stuff you wish would’ve happened or he’s seen someone do and he has really colorful characters to play around with.
It’s extraordinary the appeal the show continues to grow upon. The audience is very diverse. What is it about this image of youth that compels us to watch the drama?
First and foremost its music and the diversity of the music. I remember when we first went out after the first season we had songs from Neil Diamond and a 5-year-old, 10-year-old has no clue who Neil Diamond is. Singing Sweet Caroline and you have the parent singing it and the daughter singing it that you know is this huge generation gap. Allowing this on to kind of meet them in between, is an incredible thing. This compared to other shows, other shows just won’t be able to ever do for the fact that we have music and dance and people get to enjoy it a visual that is a universal language. The dance is a universal language and people can enjoy it in different countries that don’t speak the same language or whatever it is. That has what’s been great about the show bringing people together especially what you saw during the concert. I don’t know anything else that can bring people together like that.
GLEE: SEASON 4 IS OUT NOW ON BLU-RAY AND DVD