WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Kung Fu Season 2, Episode 3, "The Bell," which aired Wednesday, March 23 on The CW.
When Kung Fu Season 1 ended, Kerwin Tan (Ludi Lin) was in a bad way, having been betrayed by his lover Zhilan who viciously slit his throat, nearly killing him. The billionaire playboy survived this harrowing incident and recovered thanks to his villainous father Russell as the elder Tan expanded his family's crime syndicate into San Francisco. Kerwin has emerged from his lengthy coma under the oppressive control of Russell while ready to clear up some unfinished business with Zhilan as Season 2 continues.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Lin talks about getting to return to Kung Fu for its second season, provides insight on Kerwin's mindset as he's confronted by his family and Zhilan and shares how he prepared for his big rematch against his old lover.
CBR: Ludi, when you were first approached for the role of Kerwin Tan, did you know that you were going to survive being betrayed by Zhilan and return for Kung Fu Season 2?
Ludi Lin: It was always a mystery to me and, since this is the first studio TV show that I've done, I kind of liked it that way. There's a game in trying to figure out what the future of each character is going to be, even among the actors themselves. I kind of preferred to have it be a mystery. If they were happy to have me back, I was more than willing to come back.
In Kung Fu Season 1, Kerwin had betrayed his father and killed his father's righthand man only to wake up in the lion's den under Russell's supervision.
This is one of the things that really gave me the [desire] to come back because it's such an interesting situation to get out [of]. As actors and writers, I hear that we tend to be too kind to our darlings, so it's nice to have the storyline out of our hands. Kerwin is in the worst situation he could possibly imagine, waking up right in the wolf's den. From the get-go, I was really interested to see how he would or wouldn't get out of that.
Kerwin provides a window into the Tan family and their empire. This season you get to play off Kee Chan as Kerwin's father Russell and Annie Q. as Kerwin's sister Juliette. How is it working with them?
It's super fun because they are interesting people and I think that comes across on-screen. Kee's eyes and features... He's got this mysterious way about him. He's just like that in real life. He's so inscrutable and you're never sure what he's thinking. [laughs] Annie plays my older sister in the series. She's so small in real-life but her screen presence is very large, as you see in the first few episodes. It's really fun playing with them. Annie is fluent in Mandarin and so am I so, a lot of times, we'll interject in Mandarin really naturally so the whole working relationship flows very nicely.
Throughout Season 1, Kerwin and Zhilan were working against Nicky and Henry. With Season 2, you've inverted that dynamic to work with them against your father.
Like you mentioned before, Kerwin gave a window into the Tan world and that antagonistic dynamic that's set up in the second season. For me in the first season, Kerwin was like a lost key but now he's found his home and opened the door to this dark world of what the Tan family's like. Going along with that, the dynamic that he's setting up in the third episode [of Season 2], I think it's like The Art of War. You have to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Along with that, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. This is how Kerwin was trained, since he was just a little child. To survive the Tan family, he needs to be Machiavellian. This is the best way he's found to get himself out of the whole situation that he's found himself in, this complete nightmare.
The last time we spoke, you described Kerwin as someone on an erotic adventure who is impossibly charismatic. Now that he's had a close brush with death and betrayal, what's his outlook like now?
I still think that applies. I think it's the core of Kerwin's character, this fatal romantic. I think you can sum up Kerwin's core motivation in just seven words: Kerwin hates for the sake of love. He's grown up in an environment where the love was twisted and all the attachments were completely twisted, having to pit himself against his siblings and being under the thumb of his father. Naturally, he doesn't have a very good model to go by when he loves, but he loves deeply. So when that gets turned around, you see some not so commendable behavior.
It's always great seeing you throw down on-screen, either as Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat or as Kerwin. How was it trading blows with Zhilan in this episode?
That was actually one of the funnest days I've had this season on set. Yvonne Chapman and I, we work pretty well together, so it's always a laugh. It's nice when there's things on set and you still keep things light and relaxed, especially in action scenes. When you do martial arts, you need to keep an amount of tension. You need to be prepared but you need to flow as well. As Bruce Lee has always said, be like water. You need to be able to flow and keep yourself flexible in situations that come up.
What made this fight scene really awkward is, in stunts -- it's one of the moves and you can see it on-screen -- I fully threw a back fist at her and it hit her face. Yvonne is such a good sport and she's tough as nails so she just laughed it off and kept on going but I had to carry that guilt with me all the way on set. Maybe that helped with the scene as well!
Zhilan was really the only person that Kerwin allowed himself to be vulnerable around as he fell in love with her, and yet she slit his throat and left him for dead. Where do you think Kerwin's mind is about that as they part ways?
I think it's a difficult thing. It's a really tragic thing to realize you're not actually ready to be in a relationship with your soulmate. The best you can do is to let them go so if you love somebody, you have to have the ability to free them if you're not good for them. That's the choice he makes in the end, to do whatever he can from a distance and just go on his own journey and perhaps we meet again and perhaps we don't.
Last time we spoke, you were mentioning that the Kung Fu family welcomed you with open arms and that Vancouver is a special place for you personally. What did you want to explore coming back for Season 2?
It's always like a family reunion because the Kung Fu family is so tight-knit. Being on a TV show, the great thing about it is you're with the crew for so long. I wanted to explore the other aspects of working on set behind the camera as well. This season, I got to shadow one of the directors through one of the later episodes and that was vastly rewarding, it was one of the best things I got out of this season.
Ludi, is there anything you can tease about Kerwin's future after he rides off into the sunset with his Ferrari?
I think if he comes back, he'll be bigger and badder than ever! [laughs]
Developed for television by Christina M. Kim, Kung Fu airs Wednesdays at 9pm ET/PT on The CW.
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