We chatted to actor Paul Kwo, who plays Martin Yip in God’s Not Dead and God’s Not Dead 2.
God’s Not Dead 2 is currently is US theatres and will be released in the UK on April 29th.
The interview with Paul is split into two parts, Part 1 looks at growing up in Church and getting into acting, and Part 2 looks at God’s Not Dead 2, Christianity in China, what he would like to see in God’s Not Dead 3 and his other projects.
Part 2:
You play Martin, a student from China, at the end of the first movie you became a Christian and we saw a bit about how that affected his family and the tension, could you tell a bit about that from the first movie?
In the first movie, my character Martin came to the US to study. Lots of Chinese students go to the US to study and I had a lot of friends who did that too and their parents aren’t interested in them coming here and converting to another religion and finding faith, they want them to focus on their study so they can get a good degree and make lots of money. But of course Martin starts talking about this whole thing and at first its a very innocent thing, its something thats happening in the class and the dads like ‘well whatever your teacher says thats it, thats how you get a good grade, agree with your teacher’ thats the mentality that the dad had and Martin was told to follow that but then Martin started to ask his own questions and got his own answers and decided against what the teacher was teaching and made up his own mind on this, which really upset his father and thats where the film ended with Martin converting and the father displeased with his position to believe in Christianity.
You have returned in God’s Not Dead 2, could you tell us how your character has developed?
In God’s Not Dead 2 it starts from where we left off and picks up from there and Martin now is a Christian, he is a very intelligent person, a very intellectually focused oriented person, so lots of questions, very serious, logical, reasonable questions he has to ask and he doesn’t even know who to go to and he was recommend to one of the other characters in the movie, Pastor Dave, to go to him and ask all of his questions and get answers and so we Martin getting more and more answers but at the same time he has to start confronting the reality of his father being against this change of religion and we see that completely unfold and unravel and his life is put into chaos as a result. I wont give you all the details, I don’t want to spoil it for you. But we do see confrontation between him and his father on his new found faith and we see the kind of action Martin has to take as a result of his new found faith. Also we see how Martin because of his new belief and his insistence of pursuing answers to his questions that in turn affected some of the other characters and even one of the new characters whose life is changed as a result of Martin’s knowledge.
How do you feel your character can relate to people?
I think its absolutely something that a lot of people have gone through and some of my personal friends have gone through an almost identical situation. One of my best friends from high school, she converted in high school when I was with her, one of her teachers led her to Christianity, but when she converted her whole family was not Christian and completely against it and they basically had an intervention for her to un-convert her but she didn’t, she remained a Christian and this is the kind of story that happens all the time in the Asian community, in the Chinese community and I’m sure it happens in other communities as well. But for me personally it’s definitely something that is very real and a lot of kids have to deal with their parents being against their conversion to Christianity and they have to deal with those situations and family conflicts as a result, so I think people can relate to that.
Thats one part of the storyline but also how do you feel the main storyline reflects what is happening today?
It’s an important issue that we have to address in our society, as we become more and more diverse, I think a lot of times new laws are passed that have unintentional consequences and people are trying to promote different things and different points of views and sometimes those promotions can hinder other people’s rights. So I think we need to take a serious look into the rights of every single one and thats how I view God’s Not Dead 2 as showing just because this group of people are someone we feel we can trample on their rights, it doesn’t work like that, everyone should have the same amount of rights and we need to find a good balance in our society on how to be able to do that and provide the freedom we want to provide for everyone, Christians included and everyone else included for that matter. So thats kinda how I see the relevance of this movie and I think it resonates throughout the world and even though the case takes place in the US, there is so much good stuff in there that can be reflected around the world
If there is a third movie, how would you like to see your character grow?
Wow, I have no idea what the third movie will be about, I’m pretty sure there probably is one, I mean the second movie seems like it left a lot of things hanging, just be sure to stay till the very end after the credits roll, there is a little Easter eggs at the end. For me personally one the things I love about God’s Not Dead is that is showcases this one side of our world that very few people see and very few people know and my character and his story and Christianity in China and I would love to see more of this in a third movie, something that gives the worldwide audience a glimpse into this aspect of our world that very very rarely is portrayed on any screen, in any movies, so that is my hope for third movie, but I don’t know, I have zero idea of what the story is in the third one, so I can’t help you with that and thats an honest answer, I’m not holding back anything from you.
What one thing do you hope people come away with from watching God’s Not Dead 2?
I think for me personally it is that we should ask questions, for me thats how I relate to this movie a lot and my character is asking questions and keep looking for answers. I think thats what the Bible teaches us, thats how we should live, if we have a question ask and look for that answer, don’t just take things for granted, really dig deeper and I think if we keep doing that, we’ll find really good answers and will become better people and have a better world and get a good solid grounding in our faith, so that went somebody asks us a question we are able to give them very solid, good answers. I think thats the one thing I would like to see people take out of God’s Not Dead 2.
Could you tell us a bit about what you are working on at the moment?
Right now I’m working on an album and a single. I have two singles out already, you can get the links to all my music at www.paulkwo.com It’s going on iTunes and other things too, making its way to all those places. One of them is a Christian single, it’s Nearer My God To Thee, it’s actually a song I play piano on and single a little bit of in God’s Not Dead 2, but this is a version I have arranged and re-wrote. The other album is a rock album that I have come up with, songs that I have written over the last couple of years and finally come to fruition. It’s been a long long goal of mine to have a vocal album out, I’ve had plenty of piano albums out already, but I wanted to get a vocal album out and write some songs and this is my first one and so I hope people like it and like all my music. I’m still working and I’m already thinking about new albums and second albums and third albums, I’m writing out stories and things like that too.
To keep up to date and to find out more about Paul Kwo you can visit: www.paulkwo.com or follow twitter.com/paulkwo