The next generation of up-and-coming stars aspire to more than the foundations of scandal that have been laid before them. Tabloid malice and shock factor are taking an unapologetic hiatus as rising young celebrities desire to drive purpose into their platform and use their status as a megaphone for reason, rather than a spotlight for glory.

For example, take 21-year-old Shane Harper. Known best for his reoccurring role as Spencer Walsh on Disney Channel's hit TV show Good Luck Charlie, the actor/dancer/artist extraordinaire is poised to take Hollywood by storm with an ascending music career and a role on MTV's forthcoming dramedy, Happyland.

Adding another blast of fuel to an already blazing fire is Harper's appearance in 2014's breakout faith-based hit God's Not Dead in which he plays college student Josh Wheaton, a Christian who is challenged by his atheist professor (Kevin Sorbo) to prove God's existence to his philosophy class. While the role is a far cry from Harper's real life, the character himself wasn't much of a creative stretch for the actor, a professing Christ-follower with a keen interest for theology and apologetics.

NRT recently sat down to talk with the triple-threat to talk about the film's unexpected box-office success, his thriving music career and his thoughts on what it means to be a young believer in the public eye.
 
God's Not Dead completely blew up. Several people involved in the film have said they expected it to be a success, but I think it took many others by surprise, especially Hollywood. What has your personal response to its success been?

It definitely took everyone by surprise. The people behind the film at Pure Flix always said it was going to be successful, but when they said that, success for them had previously been on a much smaller scale. Saying they anticipated it was one thing, but context is everything. We couldn't have expected in a million years that it would have gotten the kind of traction it did.

To see our movie in a headline with Darren Aronofsky's Noah film, almost as if we were competing, was baffling. So many headlines read God's Not Dead with other big name movies, the whole point being that our movie was succeeding even above those other films in terms of what everyone expected. I was shocked. I'm still kind of shocked.
 
It's like stepping back and going, "wait, what just happened?"

Right! Before I knew it, the movie was here and it was on the cover of every news outlet ever.

Was this your first time playing a role in a faith-based film?

Yeah, first faith-based role.

How have your fans reacted to that? It's not a big contrast compared to other characters you've played before, but it has to be something new for them, especially for those who may not be believers.

The fan reaction has generally been very positive. The only thing that makes God's Not Dead different is that it has an overtly Christian narrative. It's not generalized to just mentioning God. The words Christian and Christ are used openly. So it is very different in that respect.

I guess I try not to focus too much on what things are being said in the social media stream of life. I'm on my social media accounts all the time trying to interact with people, but if there is anything negative, I try to block it out. Unless it's something really constrictive, but mostly it's not. Most criticism online is never constructive.

What's next for you professionally?

I'm doing a new series. I just wrapped the first season a few weeks ago. It's a half hour comedy drama on MTV. It's scripted, so I don't want people thinking it's a reality show. MTV is really trying to push their scripted programming.

What is it called?

It's called Happyland, and it will air in the fall. So that's been a huge focus since the movie has released. I'm also focused on my music. That's a big part of what I'm trying to do. It's all about keeping a healthy flow of both the acting and music worlds. It's hard to balance it.

Obviously you're very involved in the acting world, but you're are also very open about your faith.

Yeah.

You probably have people on both sides saying you should only be doing faith-based material, you shouldn't be doing certain secular projects. Where do you draw the line with your own convictions?

As an artist, my primary objective with what I do is just to create quality work. It's not so much to say "I'm just gonna do Christian work," because to me, there is no distinction. There's no way to say something is Christian and something else isn't.

I approach it theologically. If something doesn’t have a soul and it's not breathing, how can it be saved by Christ? I don't think art can be Christian, but I do think it can be made by Christians. If you are person of faith, faith should transmit into everything you do anyway.

When Christ touches your heart, it's hard not to reflect that in whatever you create. And maybe it doesn't always have a tightly wrapped message in terms of a Christian creating. I mean, everyone is asking me if I'm a Christian artist now that I have a single on Christian radio. My response is that I'm a Christian who does music. I want my songs to minister to those who aren’t of faith, not necessarily to say "hey, you need to find Jesus," but to pose the simple question: who do you turn to when you are complete depleted? For me, that person is Jesus, and that's the truest thing about me.

I think a lot of doing art as a Christian, or even as an atheist or an agnostic or whatever faith you practice, more than making declarations and preaching, the goal is to provide an avenue to have a conversation. The pulpit is the pulpit, and as an artist, that's not my job. In my opinion, being an artist and being a preacher are two completely different things. I know I'm going off topic, this is a broad topic. (Laughs)
 
You raise a solid argument.

All that being said, I honestly never really intended to do a Christian movie. The movie came up and I really liked it. It's about a kid on a journey. I was like, "Oh my gosh! My character is referencing C.S. Lewis! He's one of my heroes!" I was really inspired by the film, so I did it. There is no greater agenda, but I'm also not afraid to talk about what its message means in my own life. I want that transparency, you know?

I'm always being asked in interviews what it's like to be a Christian in Hollywood and what the implications are. There's always this over-dramatization about it.

I can imagine it's because they see Christians in such a different light.

The same goes for how Christians so easily skew Hollywood. The main point is, what I do is no different than how every other Christian in this world has done it for the last 2,000 years. It's serving, it's loving my neighbor, it's living my life in the light of Christ. How we survive Hollywood is exactly how students survive on their college campus, or people in their workplaces. It's not something that needs to be a fight. That's not how Jesus approached culture.

Exactly. The only real difference is that your spotlight tends to be bigger, so everything is placed under a microscope.

Right. It's all goes back to everything being over-dramatic. In the end, people are people. That's just being honest about humanity. There's no way to perform the way we need to, that's why we need the grace of God. I don't always succeed, but "grace" is always what I'm telling myself.

Let's back up a bit and talk about your music. "Hold You Up" has been a monster success at radio.

Yeah, and that completely took me by surprise.

More so than the movie?

Both, but especially the song. The story behind it is really interesting. I actually wrote the chorus of it before I even auditioned for God's Not Dead. Once we wrapped filming, they came to me and asked if I wanted to do a song for the movie, and of course I said yes. I started thinking about what a song for the film might sound like, and I remembered the chorus I had already written. So I put it on my computer, brought it into the studio and showed it to one of my partners, Morgan Taylor Reed, whom I work with a lot. We wrote verses for it and he did the production, but the chorus stayed exactly the same. It's like it was meant to be.

When I got the email about it going to #1, it really did take me surprise in a pretty incredible way. I still get calls from childhood friends from church who listen to it on Christian radio and freak out whenever it plays.

I appreciate what you said in relation to the song too. More than being overt, it presents a question.

What you're passionate to write about is really what defines your music. I was watching this old interview with Rich Mullins on TV last night on The 700 Club or something, and he was talking about songwriting. He wrote some of the biggest worship songs ever.
 
He was absolutely incredible.

He was! Just a brilliant musician. He had a very interesting, fresh perspective on what it meant to be a songwriter, even in the church. As heavily involved as he was, he never sat down and thought "what really significantly spiritual thing can I say today?", because he knew that wasn't his job. He said, "I'm gonna write what's in me, and sometimes that isn't going to look great and it might make people feel uncomfortable." He was controversial because he was just so candid.

And that was always his goal, to write songs that were honest.

Right. And I'm on a quest to figure out what that even means. Christian music can be rap, it can be pop, it can be rock, whatever. It's not a genre that is defined by its sound, but by its content. Again, it goes back to what's in you. His main concern wasn't to sell some agenda, it was to tell the truth.

On a personal level, what has you excited about life right now?

Oh man, I'm excited about a lot. I think being someone in your early 20s, every day is a new reinvention of what you want, how you see things and what you're passionate about. It's a season of change, severe change. "Severe" normally has negative connotations, but it does seem to be what hits you. I think young adults are always dealing with that and always wanting to figure out what makes them excited each and every day. Life is exciting. Relationally and professionally. There's a lot going on.

And it's all good?

It can be, but a lot of the time, it's really hard too. Being a young adult is difficult, and every day is not some entirely awesome thing. It can be kind of nitty-gritty sometimes. Generally speaking, I'm excited about the next ten years of my life.

Finally, how can we be praying for you?

I think the prayer would be for me not to be afraid to invest in people. I think sometimes, as you live life, you tend to get a little more frustrated with how the system works, and for me, I don't want to become closed-hearted. I'm naturally emotional, so I'm easily defused by things that make me upset or mad.

Just be praying for grace on my life, and that God would teach me and use me and help me to be effective in the lives of others. Life is hard. It's like C.S. Lewis said, you can close your heart off and put it in a casket, cold and dark and leave it there, but then you die with it. I just want to be a comfort to people. And mostly, I want God to be glorified in all that I'm trying to do.

Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time!