Exclusive Interview: Gavin Stenhouse Chats Kung Fu Season 2, His Character Development Process, and What’s Ahead for Evan

Gavin Stenhouse is a multifaceted creative who is captivating audiences in all areas of his career. He’s brought dynamic characters to life in projects including Iconicles, Allegiance, and Person of Interest. Currently, he can be seen as one of the stars of the CW’s Kung Fu.

Adapted from the popular ’70s series, Kung Fu follows a young Chinese-American woman, Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), whose quarter-life crisis causes her to drop out of school and make a life-changing journey to a monastery in China. When she makes her return home, she discovers that her town has been overrun with corruption. Nicky must rely on her community as well as her martial arts skills to protect those she cares about the most and seek justice for those who are unable to. Gavin is a standout as District Attorney Evan Hartley who over the course of the first season is coming to terms with the flawed justice system.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Gavin about Kung Fu Season 2, his character development process, and what’s ahead for Evan.

PC: One of the central themes in Kung Fu is about creating your own path. How did you discover your passion for the arts and storytelling?
Gavin: Wow, that’s an interesting question. I grew up in Hong Kong during the era of VHS. One of my first memories of being attracted to this industry was how every week my family would go and pick one or two VHS movies from our local VHS store. That was one of my favorite things to do: to see all the videos lined up and all the different films. My parents let me watch some questionable movies when I was younger. [laughs] I think I watched Alien at the age of like five. So if that didn’t leave some indelible scar on me, then I don’t know what did.

But I caught the bug that way. The cinematic aspect of movies has always attracted me to the industry and things like shot composition. When I’m on set, I tend to gravitate towards the directors of photography because I like learning how to compose images and how lighting works and I generally love those groups of people. I find that super interesting. That’s probably my earliest memory of getting into film.

Acting-wise, it was my theater class at school. I loved the aspect of rehearsing on stage and being able to learn a script and then be able to play with it in so many different ways (though you don’t necessarily get that chance on screen because time is so limited). On stage, that’s probably my favorite aspect of acting. You can do one thing one way, and then you can experiment and do it a completely different way with completely different intentions. There’s so much freedom to explore.

Especially as a kid being bullied and feeling self-conscious about who I was in life, I felt like acting was an outlet to be able to explore different elements of my character without the retaliation of being bullied afterward. If it went wrong, you were like, “Okay, do it again,” because in a scene you can do it as many times as you want. That’s a fun aspect of it. It’s that escapism.

PC: That’s the perfect segue to this next question. You have a theater background where you’re telling one specific story in a set amount of time, and you know where your character’s arc is going. But on Kung Fu, you’ve been learning more and more about Evan with each episode. How has that changed the way that you’ve approached and developed this character?
Gavin: That’s interesting. When we first started the pilot, we got to sit down with Christina [M. Kim], the creator. She filled us in on her vision. Hanelle Culpepper, who is one of our executive producers, directed the pilot. It was the three of us in this creative bubble. I got to learn about aspects of who Evan was, but there was so much of Evan that I didn’t know going in because either the scripts weren’t written yet or I wasn’t allowed to know. I have a terrible habit of not being able to keep a secret. It’s probably best that I didn’t know. I’m a little bit like Tom Holland in that I have my foot in my mouth all the time. [laughs]

My approach to Evan really evolved as I got to know him throughout Season 1 and especially towards the end of Season 1 when he started to realize that maybe his approach to helping people with strict moral boundaries wasn’t necessarily the best way to go about it (especially in terms of how Nicky approaches her problems in the first season). It’s morally ambiguous and Evan doesn’t agree with it all the time, but he eventually can’t help but admit that she gets it done. She helps people. She saves people, and Evan doesn’t.

I really like his trajectory at the end of the first season where you start to see a bit more of a darker side to Evan. There’s a bit more freedom to embrace the grittiness. My research for the role reflected that in terms of doing more legal research into the inner workings of the DA system and also how the public defender’s office works as well.

There’s a podcast called Another Not Guilty. It’s these public defenders who talk about their cases. They are really suave. I really love the attitude that they approach the law with. The more I listened to them, the more I was like, “Oh, I really want to get some of this attitude into Evan—a little freer and less stiff.”

PC: Evan and Nicky have such an extensive history, but you actually didn’t get to meet Olivia until you were on set. Was that chemistry just instant? What was that collaboration like bringing that dynamic to life on the screen?
Gavin: On pilots, you do things called camera tests where the actors get dressed up in costume and then come together. You’re filmed, very beautifully, not doing anything. It’s all mute. There’s no audio or anything. It’s just a soundtrack or whatever.

The first time I met Liv, I was coming in from stage right, she was coming from stage left, and we met in the middle. We were told, “Just dance and have a good time together.” It’s like, “How do you walk up to a stranger and be like, ‘Hey! So this isn’t awkward.’” [laughs] Liv and I instantly clicked over our goofy humor because we were both awkward in that situation. We both make awkward jokes. It’s like, “Okay, you’re my people.” There was a mutual understanding. From that day onwards, I was like, “We’re good. This is chemistry.”

PC: Like you were saying earlier, Evan’s moral compass is tested throughout the first season by the flawed system and his desire to help Nicky. For you as an actor, how much fun has it been to explore that inner conflict and turmoil. Will that continue to be tested in Season 2?
Gavin: It’s been super interesting. Going into it, I’ve always known that there are deep, fundamental flaws in the legal systems of our world. I may have had a bias towards that mindset. But it was really affirming to see that the character’s thought process was going to line up with that, even though it was in the nascent stage. He maybe hadn’t realized it, but there was going to be this awakening process. Getting into the research of watching courtroom TV, listening to those podcasts, and researching people like Chesa Boudin, Larry Krasner, and these awesome, progressive DAs gave me the tools to develop personal goals for Evan. I could see Evan looking at these people and going, “I wish I could do that. I wish I was working for them. I wish I could do that.”

It gave me fuel for Evan. It gave me this hunger and drive to build the foundation of each of his objectives that he’s trying to achieve when he’s being confronted with nothing by walls by his boss. It gave him this underlying determination, and that definitely comes to a head in Season 2. There’s an episode which I can’t talk about where everything comes to a head. He finds his footing in terms of what he stands for, and he stands up for it. He has help along the way. There’s an inflection point in the series where it’s now or never for Evan. He’s going to take that jump.

PC: That’s a great teaser. More so than any other character in the series, Evan’s relationships with the other characters grow and evolve over time. Which has been your favorite to explore and why? Has that changed from Season 1 into Season 2?
Gavin: It’s always great when Evan gets a chance to leave his office and have some scenes with the other characters. My favorite dynamic on the show is the Shen kids. I love the chemistry the actors have, and I love the performances and how it reads on screen.

I really love getting involved with Henry and Nicky and doing the crime-fighting thing. But one of my favorite scenes to shoot in Season 2 was a scene where Althea and Evan find themselves not down and out but in a situation where they’ll both get the opportunity to lament to each other and open up. You don’t get to see that in Season 1. That was one of the most fun scenes to shoot because Shannon [Dang] is so much fun. We have a lot of laughs together. There’s a little bit of inebriation in the scene. It was fun to play off each other as well.

PC: Something that I really appreciate about the series is the way that the writers have incorporated humor in the midst of this high-stakes world that you’ve all created. How much of that is improvised? For you as an actor, is comedy or drama more challenging?
Gavin: That’s a good question. I’d say that nearly all the comedy relief beats in Season 2 are, in my experience, written into the script or discussed with the writer who’s always on set with us. I’m really not sure how much of it is improvised and how much of it is two minds coming together to create a golden result.

But with respect to comedy and drama, it’s interesting because one of my favorite films growing up was Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Cary Elwes has that beautiful balance in the film, and it’s a bit like The Princess Bride. It’s such a straight character, but he has all these absurd lines. I have a personal soft spot for comedy.

But I think that comedy is at its best when it’s juxtaposed with drama. When you watch the old James Bond movies (although they’re extremely dated now), it’s that campy comedy alongside this extreme drama. Those parallel each other really well. You get drawn in by the drama, and the comedy relief is so much more effective that way. My favorites are movies like Indiana Jones, where he’s got those fast quips and is this lovable rogue character.

PC: Another central theme within the series is family. There’s such great chemistry that comes off the screen between you and the rest of the cast. How did you all build that bond?
Gavin: Oh, man. I don’t think we tried to build it at all. It was just there. We were super lucky with how it came to be. The chemistry between all the actors just happened. I came quite late in the casting process for the pilot. I know that a lot of the folks had met each other or knew each other, so they may already have had history together.

I think I came to the pilot a week after everyone else. It just felt like family. It felt like Kheng [Hua Tan] was the mama. Tzi [Ma] was the papa. We were all these raucous kids. Everyone was so lovely. We’re so lucky. It’s not always the case where people all line up with how they approach their work, how they approach life, how they approach what their comedic taste is, and all that. It just so happens that every single person on the cast gets along with each other.

That’s a testament to casting. It’s also a testament to Christina and her vision and the creative executives in picking those actors. As much as you can deliver as an actor, I want to believe that the smart people in power that create the show also take into account, “Well, who are they as a person? Would they vibe together?” Certainly from my experience, we vibed from day one.

PC: You and the cast are in such a unique position where you get to see the fan response in real time through social media. Fans have expressed how much the series has meant to them. What has that experience been like for you seeing the support from the fans?
Gavin: It’s been amazing. It’s been really awesome. I never did the live tweeting thing before. My first experience of this was I didn’t really know how to do it. But there was such a warm response from everyone online, and especially in the first season as our viewership grew, you saw fans getting involved in the story.

That’s the most magical thing. You put so much effort and time into creating a product, so when you hear the feedback like, “That was sick!” or “Aw! Oh, oh, oh. What’s he going to do now?” you know you helped create that ride. It doesn’t matter how small your part is in the cog of that machine, it makes you feel proud to be able to create something that takes someone on a journey, especially when life has been so difficult for so many. I feel like having that escape for people that enjoy TV is important for our zen.

I’m not always a fan of the things that I’ve worked on, but I’m a fan of this. Again, it’s a testament to the writing. It has so much heart. The positive response from the fans is an extension of that. It all comes from the story and the performances.

PC: In addition to being an actor, you’re also a musician. If you had to pick a song that would best describe Evan’s journey in this series, what would it be?
Gavin: Wow. A song? A song that best describes Evan’s journey has to be something about shedding off preconceived notions. That’s such a good question. Only because I’ve been listening to them so much at the moment, I would say this amazing Indian folk metal band called Bloodywood. It’s very obscure, but they are awesome people. There’s a song called “Gaddaar.” It’s about realizing that the system that you live under isn’t necessarily there for you or constructed for the best interest of the people. Therefore, make a change—get up, do something. That’s super obscure.

PC: In between seasons, you’ve been doing a lot of writing. How has your work behind the scenes made you a stronger actor and vice versa? Could we potentially see one of your scripts come to life in the near future?
Gavin: Definitely. It’s tough with young kids. Fortunately, I have my wife, who is my life partner. She’s able to take up the reins when I’m not there because I shoot in Vancouver and my kids live and go to school in LA. Any time I have a free moment, I try to take the burden off my wife so that she can do something for herself to maintain her zen.

But when I do have the time, there are a couple of ideas that I really, really, really love and feel proud to have gotten into pitch form. I’m just waiting for the right time. It’s about finding the right time.

PC: Something that comes across throughout the series is how the parents on this show want to teach their kids life lessons so they don’t make the same mistakes. If you could share a piece of advice with your two daughters if they decide to follow in your footsteps, what would it be and why?
Gavin: Don’t get into this business. [laughs] I went to drama school in London. When you graduate drama school, it’s like, “I’ve got to grind, grind, grind, grind, get that job.” You have to try and establish yourself. There’s so much time invested for anyone graduating drama school.

There’s so much time invested in trying to make a name for yourself, trying to get your foot in the door, trying to get that first role. It’s really, really tough. A lot of the time, I found myself getting stuck by the phone in my apartment in LA, waiting for that opportunity to come. I definitely missed out on chances to go to Paris and explore a bit in the in-between times.

That’s the one thing that I would pass onto my kids. Seize the moment. Don’t waste time. If you want to do something, figure out a way to do it and go do it. If it involves working a second job and trying to earn enough money to go on that weekend, try your best to do that and don’t become complacent. Especially in the beginning of this business as an actor, that fear sometimes traps you inside your bubble. It’s important to try to break out of that and do as much as you can outside of this business.

To keep up with Gavin, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Kung Fu every Wednesday at 9/8c on the CW.

Photo Credit: Ezra Tsai Photography