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Star Wars, Supernatural, One Piece, Hocus Pocus & LOTR Cast Interviews @ Tampa Bay Comic-Con 2025!
Aug 18, 2025
Jaz from Teens Wanna Know is on the ground at Tampa Bay Comic-Con 2025 for three full days of incredible interviews, amazing cosplay, and a tour of the coolest booths! We had the honor of speaking with a star-studded lineup of actors from some of your favorite shows and movies, including: Kim Rhodes: Carey Martin from "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" and Sheriff Jody Mills from "Supernatural" Lenore Zann: The voice of Rogue in "X-Men '97" John Rhys-Davies: The legendary actor gives us some relationship advice. Stephen John Ward: The actor and casting director sets the record straight on his birthplace. Chris Bartlett: Known for his character work in "The Mandalorian" and other Star Wars shows. Doug Jones: Billy Butcherson in "Hocus Pocus," Abe Sapien in "Hellboy," the Faun in "Pan's Labyrinth," and the fish man in "The Shape of Water." Nia Vardalos: Star of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and voice actor in "Star vs. the Forces of Evil." Joey Fatone: NSYNC star, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and "The Masked Singer" rabbit. Daniel Logan: Young Boba Fett from "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" and "The Clone Wars."
View Video Transcript
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live from the Tampa Bay ComicCon. Comic-Con.
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ComicCon. Hey guys, it's Jazz. I'm back at Tampa Bay Comic-Con for 2025. I covered 2024
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and it was absolutely amazing. So, let's see what 2025 holds. Let's go, guys.
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[Music]
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Heat. Heat. [Music]
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Heat. [Music]
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Heat.
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Hi everybody. I'm here with Kim Rhodess. Do you mind telling everybody kind of what you've done with your acting?
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Oh, with my acting, I was like I have uh rescued chickens and I Oh, no. With
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acting? Yes. Um, people probably know me most as um Carrie Martin from the Sweet
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Lives Mom from the Sweet Lives Zach and Cody. Uh, Jodie Mills from Supernatural. And
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some people might know me as Linda Barnes from Criminal Minds. And I'd like to apologize to all of those people. I'm
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very sorry for everything she said and did. It wasn't my choice. She was awful.
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You're not wrong. She just got paid to say it. There you go. But actually, it's funny that you
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say the rescue chickens thing because I'm actually terrified of chickens. But they're tiny pterodactyls. You're not so
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scary. Yeah. But yes, this was my childhood show. Sweet Life of Zach and Cody was my
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favorite. And I'm actually just starting Supernatural. What season are you on?
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Episode one. Oh, okay. So, you're just just You just were like, "Oh, oh, I I can't cuss on
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this, can I?" People have you wouldn't be the first. Oh, I'm meeting Kimrods. I should probably see Supernatural.
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No, he actually started. My dad, who's behind the camera, actually started watching it a couple months ago, and I
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was like I was still watching The Vampire Diaries at the time. Oh, yeah. No, you'll like it. You'll like it. Okay. Yeah. It's it's it's intense, but it's
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really good. Okay. So, how did you kind of get into acting? What made you want to be an actress?
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Um, I started because I was going to be an English teacher and I figured that I
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should be able to stand up in front of people and amuse them if I was going to be a teacher. And so I took an acting
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class when I was 19 in college. And uh, I just haven't really quit.
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Um it in retrospect it fits with my neuroype because everything is scripted
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and that makes me feel comfortable. Uh big feelings are rewarded whereas in
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life I get told, "Woo, could you tone it down a little bit?" I understand that. Yeah. Yep. Too much, Kim. You're too
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much. And um and I know how people are going to respond to my big feelings
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because it's right there in the script. Yes. So that also was a reason I was drawn to acting.
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Well, I love your muchness. Thank you. I love it. Likewise. Um, do you have like a favorite memory
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from set that you've ever had? Oh my goodness. You know, I I it sounds
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like such a copout to say this, but I truly am the luckiest person I know, and
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I can't think of a least favorite memory. from sets. I have worked with
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some of the most incredibly generous and kind and loving people and um every
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single moment made me a better person. I love that. Do you have any advice for anybody that might be wanting to either
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get into acting or like be behind the or be in front of the camera? I think it's important to, this is so trite and it's
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so hard to do, but learn to identify your own authentic voice and stories
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that resonate for you. Because if I try to recreate something that already
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exists, even if I don't fail, I will still be
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just a carbon copy of something. Yes. The only thing I can do with my
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voice is speak my heart. And so being brave,
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being creative, and being passionate um are things that we need to give
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ourselves permission to be cuz everyone is right. Everyone is brave and creative
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and passionate. It's just I stifle that when I'm trying to be this thing that
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honestly has nothing to do with who I am. So yeah, and I think that's just life,
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right? That's that's just be you because you are perfect and you are growing and you
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are expanding and you are changing and you are perfect and your voice is exactly what it needs to be. So trust
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it. Let it out. I think that was perfectly said. I don't think I could have said that any better
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myself. So thank you so so much. And you just you're so kind and such an incredible person. So thank you.
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Thank you. It was my honor to speak with you, my dear. Thank you. Thank you. Hi guys. Do you mind introducing
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yourself to everybody? Sure. Hi there, everybody. I'm Lenor Xan, aka the voice of Rogue in the
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X-Men, as well as Aisha Clan Clan in Outlaw Star and Starcatcher in My Little
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Pony. uh Lorca, the little boy dragon in a wheelchair in uh Dragon Tales, and
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many others. Dragon Tales was actually my favorite show when I was younger. So, that's
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super cool that you voiced um that character. Um out of all of the characters that you voiced, do you have
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a favorite? Not really. I mean, I love Rogue. Uh she is definitely
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Well, she probably is my favorite animated character. um you know because
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she's a kick-ass superhero, but she's also vulnerable and lonely and full of
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very mixed emotions, which I get a chance to play in X-Men 97.
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And it's so nice to be able to meet the fans now after doing the show originally
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back in the '9s and not being able to meet any of the fans. There was no social media, there was not even any um
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internet back then. So now we get to not only meet our fans online but also at
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comic cons like this as well. Been 30 years since we did that show and now
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it's come back with roaring back for Disney and for Marvel Studios. So it's
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it's it's an honor to be part of that. Well, congratulations for that. Thank you. Thank you. What got you into
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voice acting? Well, I became an actor. I I started off with theater at the age of 16. Did my
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first professional show, turned professional by the time I was 17,
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starred in my first starring role in a rock opera on the life of Marilyn
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Monroe. I played Marilyn Monroe when I was 19. And then that led to movies and
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television. And I've got a ton of uh movies and TV credits. If you go to IMDb
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and look up Lenor Xan, you'll see pages and pages and pages of of credits. Uh,
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and I got into doing voice stuff as well as the on camera acting. Uh, years later
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really, uh, at 26 I won an award for best vocal performance in Canada where I
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was living for a play um, a radio drama that I done. And then I started doing
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X-Men and a ton of other animated pro productions. So now I just do it all.
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I've got a TV series live action on TV right now, a new one on Peacock called
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Revival. And I have a recurring role in that, so you'll see me on camera. And uh that
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show was written by Tim Celely, who is a comic book artist. Oh, nice.
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Who did a Yeah, he did a comic book series called Revival. And then this is the liveaction version.
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That's incredible. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. I'll definitely have to check that out. Yeah, thank you.
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Um, do you have any advice for anybody that might be wanting to get into either acting or voice acting?
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Yeah, I suggest that you take classes and I also suggest that you audition for
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as many things as you can. Start off in your school if you're in school doing
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community theater if there's community theater. Um, start there. Make sure that
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you like acting. It's not just about doing funny little voices if you want to do voice stuff. It's about actually
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being able to inhabit a character and stay in that character and give it your
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ultimate gamut of emotions and being able to express those emotions to the
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best of your in the best possibility. And it's not easy. So, you know, so I
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say be an actor first, you know, learn how to act and then take it from there.
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Well, thank you so so much. You have an incredible resume and you're just Thank
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you for being so nice and doing this interview. Absolutely, sugar. No problem.
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Hey guys, so I'm Calvin with Sir Henry's Haunted Trail. Uh we are an independent haunted attraction in Plane City. We've
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been around for about 12 years. Uh we got a bunch of stuff going on. We got three trails, a hayride, two escape
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rooms, and actually last year after we talked, uh, USA Today ranked us top five
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horror attraction in the country. Hey guys, I found this super cool booth. Do you mind introducing yourself and
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kind of what you do? Yeah, no problem. U, my name is Cameron. So, I do LED 62. Um, we sell our Lumi
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LED lights, which are right behind me. So, what we do is I have a giant industrial-sized laser engraver at our
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office and we get giant sheets of plastic and we cut out all of these designs and then we put them in these custommade bases and they all blow up.
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Is it like hard to make or um so the design part is the hard part that takes
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me the longest. I have to sit down and design each and every one of them. But once I get the design made, I can just
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cut them all out and it kind of takes itself over from there. So, we have a website. It's led.com.
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Okay guys, that is the end of day one at Tampa Bay Comic-Con. That was a very full day, but I have an even fuller next
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two days coming for you, so stay tuned. And you're watching Teens Want to Know. It's Jazz. I am here at day two of Tampa
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Bay Comic-Con, and I have an incredible day planned. So, let's go.
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Yeah. [Music]
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Yeah. [Music]
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[Music] Heat. Heat.
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[Music] They're
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just boys like you. [Music]
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Hi guys, I am here with John Ree Davies. Do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?
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How long do you have? I have 80 years of living. How much of it you need in one thing? John Ree Davis
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born in Ssbury during an air raid. Grew up in Africa and Wales. Uh went to Rada,
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went to university, actor, worked a little bit, done a few things. Um
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uh so what do you guys do? send your answers comprehensively to
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this woman here. Yes. And thank you for being so
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talented. By the way, um I heard that you are really good at giving
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relationship advice. I was talking to your manager. So, do you have any for
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us? For you, too, in particular? Well, that's my dad. So,
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Oh, hello daddy. You made a beautiful baby there. That's That's my baby over
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there. Wait a minute. That's that's that's my baby girl over there. Smartest thing we ever do in
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life. Relationship advice for you.
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Be honest. Liberate your brain.
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Speak what you want. And do not expect men to read your mind.
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Right? Men are not mind readaders. Women who really think that if you
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really love me, you know what I'm thinking are doomed to a lifetime of
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disappointment and their poor mates a lifetime of confusion.
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Uh we are not mind readers. We men treat us like slightly mentally damaged 5
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years olds. 5-year-olds and you'll get on well. You've got to explain an awful
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lot to us. Hopefully, we are house trained or out
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of our nappies perhaps. Will that do? Yes, that will do. That was perfect. I
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honestly don't think that men are mind readers, so I agree with everything you just said. I have two brothers and they
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prove that daily. So um last question is do you have like a
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favorite memory from any of the acting work that you have done? I have 80 years of of life. I have at
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least at least
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65 years of acting memories. I visit them frequently. There was a man
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called Lewis Mumford who said that a a a
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city without old buildings is like an old man without memory. And this old man
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has a lot of memories and will be writing about it himself one day if he ever gets right round to finishing that
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autobiography. Till then you'll just have to wait. That do. That'll do. Thank you you patient
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viewers and listeners and uh good wishes and good luck from a very old dwarf.
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PS don't tell the elf.
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You see I just swore there come help. Oh okay. Hi guys. I'm here with Steven John Ward.
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Do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself? Uh sure. Um, actually this is a great time to clear up a misconception.
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For some reason on the internet it says I'm born in South Africa. I'm not. I'm actually born in Papa Newu Guinea, which
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is a tiny island off the coast of Australia. I then moved to South Africa and I was raised there. So, I guess I'm
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going to throw that out there. Other than that, I'm a South African actor. I've been acting my whole life. I was a casting director for uh many years uh of
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my life, I guess. Um, and I'm a dad uh to a beautiful daughter and a son. And I
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have a wife who um doesn't like doesn't murder me. Oh, I don't know.
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But that's good. She loves me is what I'm trying to say. She doesn't bully you.
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I'm really good with interviews as you can tell. Well, at least maybe now IMDb can change
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your place of birth. Um unless you want to be born in South Africa. Either one.
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So, what kind of got you into casting, directing, and like acting? Uh, so acting I I I watched a guy perform on
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stage when I was 8 years old. Um, and I thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. He just like he
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controlled the audience like he was the uh forget what they called where they the orchestra people,
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the conductor. Conductor. That's the one. Yeah. Um, that uh so I was like, "Wow, this is
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fascinating that he has this emotional control over people." Um, and so I
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thought that was really fascinating. And I I then ever since then I wanted to be him and then he was really mean to me
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and then I was like I want to be better than you. And then that's like was my trajectory to be like I'm going to be a great a great actor. I
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just above average actor. Just above um and uh what was the second question?
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Oh casting director directing. Yes. I struggle I still struggle with auditions. Um, so I got into casting to
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to learn how to audition cuz it's a it's completely different to acting for film. Uh, doing an auditioning is it's yeah,
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it's a whole different process. Uh, so I wanted to figure out how to do it and figure out like the ins and outs. Um,
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and and it really helped my career. I recommend that for everyone. Um, if you want to be an actor, go work in casting
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for a bit and figure it out. And you get to meet directors there as well and stuff. So it's yeah, it was cool. And then I eventually became a casting
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director years later cuz I enjoyed directing actors. I think that's awesome. And like that's
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a smart thing for you to do with the going into casting so that you could understand the auditions better.
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Yeah. And I I could stay in the industry while earning like a not a salary per se, but while earning money. Um
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Yeah. So it it helped in both ways to remain in the industry and still be able
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to act and still not be poor. Yeah. Which I still was, but you know,
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not as poor. Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't living on the street for. So, um, do you have like a favorite memory
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from either anything you've acted in or a casting that you did for somebody?
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Um, my favorite memory is from a film that I shot uh with a girl called Leah Bever.
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Um, I'm probably butchering her surname and she's going to hate me for it. Vivier. Leah Bever. It's right. Never
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mind. Leah, we're gonna go with this, right? Yeah. Um, and uh, it's cuz I'm thinking
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an American accent, not and speaking South African, so my my head is jarred. Um, but we shot a movie together which
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was very touching and loving and sad at the same time. And and I it was just a beautiful
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time on set with everyone. Um, and and I'll always take that with me wherever I go. And um, she's a phenomenal actress
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and um, was very cool. She allowed me to be very comfortable in a space that I
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never would be comfortable in. Um, and I appreciate that. It's nice to have an actor allow you to do that, help you do
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that. Yes, that's incredible. Well, thank you so much. It was so great meeting you and
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interviewing you. So, even though you said you were bad at them, you did great.
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Thank you. Thank you.
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Hi guys, I'm back with Chris Bartlett. We just interviewed him in Miami, but figured why not do it again. So, if you
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don't mind reintroducing yourself, that would be great. I'm actor Chris Bartlett. I'm known for
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The Mandalorian and uh a lot of the Disney Plus Star Wars shows. Uh you wouldn't recognize my face though
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because I'm a fluent in over 6 million forms of communication. I am CPIO human
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cyoff relations and this is my counterpart. [Music]
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Um I mean I got the right color shoes on. Yeah, you do. So you're wearing blue. There's that. Yeah. Um so was acting and like this doing
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this like a childhood dream of yours. Uh I mean I was a huge movie and TV fan.
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Uh there's so many characters that I grew up with that I loved and wanted to be a stunt man actually as a kid but as
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I got older Yeah. I wanted to be an actor because I love entertaining and uh uh but I didn't know how to do that. So
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I I started building costumes and coming to conventions like Tampa Bay Comic
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Convention and uh playing characters uh for people here because you know they wouldn't boo me. I
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could just walk away or they could just Right. But I would play characters for real though. I I wasn't just walking
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around in a costume. I was like, I would talk to people in character if I was a stormtrooper, you know,
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all right, let me see your identification, you know, that kind of thing. Uh, and so Lucasfilm saw me doing this and they
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invited me to have come for an audition. That's awesome. Congratulations. Thanks. And I think at Comic-Cons it's so
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important to be the character and I feel like not enough people are as you've seen recently.
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Yeah. I mean, a lot of people spend uh spend time on their costumes. Yes. And and then to be in it is
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physically demanding and you know they might be hot or tired and so but but but
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they for them being in the costume is enough and that's okay. Uh but it's really fun to see someone
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who is has like character energy you know like or or whatever that character they're playing and uh so you know you
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get different amounts of nerd commitment I think you know so it's always fun to see to see that. So, if
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there's one character that you could play, what would that be? Like out of any genre, any movie, anything?
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Oh my gosh. Well, uh I would I would like to play a character where it's my
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face isn't covered. So, I could play uh because it's it's a real challenge, you know, to play physical characters where
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the face is covered. Yes. All the acting is you have to show emotion through physicality. Uh but
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yeah, I I'm I'm uh would like to play a character. We call it on camera roles where your face is shown. And so I've
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started doing that over the last year. I've been playing a couple of characters. Uh just wrapped on a a
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comedy series called Schmidy Circuit, created by Cheryl Chase from Rugrats, and I play a main character named Calvin
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Co Pepper. Very successful actor on the number one sci-fi show in their universe.
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That's awesome. That's fun. Yeah. So, more of those. We have to go check that out. Yeah. Well, thank you for doing another
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interview with me. It's so nice to speak with you. Always a pleasure. Yeah. Nice to see you. All right.
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Hi everybody. I'm here with Doug Jones. Do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do? Oh my gosh. Well, that's a long story
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because I'm really old. There's a lot to tell. Um, I my name is Doug Jones. I'm an actor in film and television. Uh, I
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have worn a lot of rubber makeups turning me into monsters and creatures over the years. And now in my older age,
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I'm playing more humans than ever before. So, I've done both all along, but what I'm more known for are like the
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monsters and creatures that would be like I was Abe Sapion in the Hellboy movies. I was the Silver Surfer in the
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old Fantastic Four movies. I was uh um uh I was Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus
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one and two. I was also uh some ghost ladies in Crimson Peak. I was an inhy
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films Pan's Labyrinth. I was the fa elo and the pale man in that that movie and
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also in the shape of water the multi- Oscar winning shape of water I was the fish man on the cover of that movie so I
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have a long history 39y year career of playing lots of like
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that's incredible you're so talented oh well I'll let you say that I can't
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say that yeah um how did you get into acting well I funny story is that I I actually
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was pursuing doing uh sitcoms. I wanted to be like a goofy nextdoor neighbor on
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a silly comedy show with a live audience for a half hour. My uh when I got to Hollywood though, I I'm 6'3 and a half.
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I have a mime background. And I can also put my legs behind my head. So they had contortionist and mime
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on my resume. So my early agents sent me out for all these roles that were
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physically involved, right? And a lot of physically involved roles come with a look that was then glued on to me.
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Yes. That's how I met I started doing TV commercials with those kind of roles.
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And I met Creature Effects makeup designers that put those looks on me. They liked working with me. And then
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that's that's our lesson for today, kids. There you go. Is uh is uh get along with your co-workers. Be be uh uh don't be a diva,
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right? uh if I if you say yes to a job, finish the job and do it well to your best of ability and they'll remember you
26:52
as the nice guy, which they did. So again and again and again, those creature people are the ones who have
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referred me over the years for the next job for the next job. When they're working on a movie and they see a tall skinny alien, it's like I worked with a
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guy that kind of looks like that, so I would get the call for that. So my career kind of built and snowballed over
27:10
the years from the Creature Effects people uh and I owe them everything. That's so amazing and that's so awesome
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that they would do that. Yeah. Right. Um my last question is do you have a favorite memory from your acting years?
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Ah so many happy moments on on film sets. I think let's go back to Hocus Pocus.
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Uh I did Hocus Pocus one and two and they were filmed 29 years apart from each other. So the first one was in the
27:36
early 90s that some of you may have grown up with and then the newer one just came out in 2022. So, uh, my a
27:44
happy memory, uh, was from Hocus Pocus 2
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when after filming the first one, I was younger, didn't have as many movie credits, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, B.
27:56
Midler, Sarah, Jessica Parker, Kathy, and Jimmy, they were all famous in their own right, and I was fans of I was a fan
28:01
of all of them." And 20 years later, or 29 years later, I had my own career
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built up by then. So I come back to set thinking like, "Yeah, I'm a peer of theirs now." But I got in front of them.
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I was like, "That midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy, Jimmy." But the difference this time was that Middler
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was like, "Oh, Doug, what was it like filming The Shape of Water?" Like, she's a fan of mine now. Okay. Okay. That that
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was a happy memory. It's like, I bet Nibbler's one of my fans. Okay. I love that.
28:34
Yeah. Happy stuff. That's incredible. Well, thank you so much. You're such an amazing person.
28:39
You are too, love. Thank you for having me. Of course. Hey guys, do you mind introducing yourself?
28:45
My name is My name is Mia Vargales and I am here at Tampa Comic Con. We are talking right here right beside Joey
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Fetone who plays the cousin in all the My Big Fat Greek wedding movies and Joey invited me and that's why I came.
28:58
That's so awesome. So, speaking of that movie, do you have like a favorite moment from filming that movie? I think
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the favorite moment is when we were doing all the dancing scenes because Joey can really dance and we were having
29:10
a really good time. And uh I realized by in number two I actually wrote a whole
29:15
arc for his character cuz he sings a dance. But by number three I just made sure we train the camera on him in all
29:21
the dance sequences. That sounds like so much fun. Um you also do voice work, don't you?
29:28
Yes, I do. I do voice work. I'm the mom on Star Versus the Force of Evil and I've been on Wonder Woman Bloodlines. I
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love doing voice work. I love being here and meeting all my idols. It's pretty cool. Yes. Oh my gosh, I love Star Versus the
29:41
Force of Evil. I watched all like every episode, I think. Yeah, I was s It was such an honor to be
29:47
on that. And I'm on DuctTales, too. I like And I'm on I'm on um Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coming up, but I'm not
29:52
supposed to tell anybody. Oops. Well, sneak peek. It's okay. Yeah. Um,
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what kind of got you into wanting to do acting and voice acting in the first place? I like doing voice acting because I was doing commercials
30:05
where I was saying like um, you know, um, Toll House bakes the very best, like
30:11
that kind of thing. And then I was like, wait a minute, what about people who get to do all these cartoons that I've been growing up watching? So, I asked my um,
30:19
just my friend how she got into it. I took a class and I got I got hired. That's incredible. Well,
30:24
congratulations. That's so awesome. Thanks. Um, do you have any advice for anybody that might want to get into
30:30
this? Yeah, I say, you know what, it doesn't matter how many nos you get. You only need one yes. And that yes will need
30:37
lead to the next one. And the nos build character. And when you're first trying out for stuff, if you have a hard path,
30:44
but you really want to do it, don't let anybody tell you what you're supposed to be doing with your life. Just keep trying.
30:49
I love that. Perfectly said. Good. Well, thank you so so much for this amazing interview. It was so nice
30:56
meeting you. So sorry that I hit you in the leg. I'm really sorry about that. I You know, sometimes I can get a little
31:02
violent. That's what I do. It's okay because you got her all braced up now.
31:07
Yeah, it's good. Well, thank you again. Thank you. Thanks. Do you mind telling us a little bit
31:13
about you and like your That's Nia. She always likes to play jokes, but I'm Joey and I was in a group
31:20
called Insync back in the day. Um and the song was really known by Bye. It was
31:25
actually just a dead a Wolverine movie as well, but I've done a bunch of other stuff. So, that's kind of why I come
31:30
here to Tampa and do a comic car. It's been great. So, what kind of got you into music?
31:37
Um, my dad. My dad always loved I always listen to Dub50s, like 1950s. Do you love music from Frankie Lyman and the
31:42
teenagers, which you probably don't know who those are, you love them? This one guy in the group
31:47
song Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Yes, that's the song. What else? The Jesters.
31:53
Um, there's a bunch of 1950s. Anyway, that's how I kind of literally found a love for music with my dad.
32:00
And I know you're probably the last singer. How was your experience? Very hot and sweaty. Very hot and sweaty.
32:06
Costume. Yeah. No, it was amazing. It was fun. Um, it was I was the first season to do it. Uh, it was a rabbit. Anybody saw it? And
32:13
it was fun. I mean, I I I saw where it was like really hot and crazy.
32:18
Hi. So, you can just come on up. Princess Peach is coming up saying hi. But it was just it was one of those one one of those weird ones where they don't
32:24
see you, they hear you, and meanwhile you're jumping around. Uh had to keep it a big secret, but it was a blast. It was
32:30
actually really one of the most uh interesting funny moments, too, cuz you're standing next to a peacock and an
32:36
alien and you're shaking and waving each other. Yeah, that's awesome. That show seems like it's so much fun and you watch that
32:44
season. You were actually ready to go. Exactly. It happens. It's okay, you
32:50
know. But you saw me as the rapper. So, do you mess with any like favorite memories from your company?
32:57
Um, yeah. I mean, always. I mean, you know, I'm always still doing music even now for morning life. So, anytime I do
33:02
stuff from like in sync and stuff like that, it just reminds me of back in the day, you know, of doing that with my other boys, even though it's just me
33:08
sometimes. It's just it it's it's a fun nostalgic way to reminisce about what I did in my career. Honestly, honestly,
33:14
it's like a lot of stuff I do in the shows and stuff that I do now, I think kind of through things that I've done throughout my career. That's I was
33:21
talking to you earlier about my big wedding. How was that? How was something? That was amazing. You know, it was one
33:26
of my first like really big I did another film before that, but to really kick off something like this where it's completely out of anything that I've
33:33
ever done before. Didn't do anything music or anything like that. So, it was really fun and it became one of the
33:38
biggest uh romantic comedies of all time. Crazy. Well, congratulations. You have an
33:44
amazing birthday and you're very talented. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. No problem.
33:50
We're having such a wonderful time. The air conditioning is blowing. It's about 62° F here in the building. Um,
33:59
sorry. Well, I'm here with Daniel Logan. Would you mind telling us a little bit about
34:05
yourself and kind of what you do? Well, I that's what I do best is talk
34:12
about myself. Um, so that's easy. What? That's going to be an easy interview. Um, so my name is Daniel Logan. I played
34:19
the young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones back in the early 2000s. Uh, I was Django Fett's son. Um, my father got
34:27
his head chopped off in the movie and I was the little guy who picked up the helmet and nodded my forehead to it. Uh, then I
34:34
came back later on about 8 years later and I was fortunate enough to be able to repraise the role of Boba Fett in the
34:39
Clone Wars cartoon series. Um, and then I did the Lego Star Wars uh Skywalker
34:46
Saga game and they brought me back in the flashbacks in the book of Boba Fett and then I uh just did some of the young
34:52
clones in the Bad Batch cartoon or Star Wars. That's awesome. Um my brother has
34:59
watched the Clone Wars probably 17 times actually. Nice.
35:05
Yeah, it's crazy. But is he able to recite the is he able to recite the um all the episodes backwards
35:12
yet or is he only able to go forwards? Only forwards. We'll get there, you know. Maybe when he gets to 37, he might
35:18
be able to start going backwards, you know. There we go. How How old's your brother? He's 19.
35:23
Hello, brother who's 19. Keep up the good watching. Stay committed. It's a good franchise and
35:29
it's a good cartoon. His name is Ben. So, hi, Ben. Brother who's 19 who's watched
35:35
the Clone Wars 17 times. So, what kind of got you into wanting to
35:42
be an actor? Well, I actually played rugby and a commercial came at my rugby
35:47
club. My coach put my name down. I went along and I ended up landing the role and a lady uh at the commercial ended up
35:55
falling in love with me and she was like, "Well, she's your son's got charisma. He's, you know, he's looks
36:00
like he's got some form of talent. Uh would we be able to get him some more rolls?" So, my mom's like, "Excellent. Yes, let's do it." So, my uh so they end
36:07
up getting me a whole bunch of commercials, like a bread, an airline, a milk, and all these different
36:12
commercials. And then uh she got me an agent and then from there my agent kind of fell in love with my personality and
36:18
who I was as well and then ended up sending me out for audition after audition and I ended up landing, you know, quite a few roles in Hercules and
36:25
um other TV shows and then Star Wars came about and uh she gave me all the
36:31
confidence in the world. She said, "You know, I got you an audition for Star Wars. You're not going to get this role,
36:38
but we do have a positive. We're gonna be able to forever sell you as the kid
36:44
who auditioned to be the kid in Star Wars. So, that was meant to be the highlight of my life. Oh.
36:49
That I was meant to to be the kid that was meant to be the kid that was going to be in Star Wars. Yeah. You were supposed to be the second
36:55
runner up there. Probably 3,000. But you know what? I end up landing it and by everyone's
37:01
surprise, here I am today. Was there a specific reason why she thought that you weren't going to land
37:07
it? Well, it's Star Wars and I'm from New Zealand. So, I mean, the the likeliness of someone or something like Star Wars
37:15
coming down to New Zealand and finding their perfect
37:20
character or perfect person to play a character in their franchise, I think was very minute. Even though they would
37:26
had already hired Tim Marson to play Django Fett, the likeliness of them coming back twice to find
37:33
the kid character of of of him, um, I just I don't think they even thought it was possible. And then I think I
37:40
auditioned out of like 3,000 children worldwide. Oh wow. And it's like hitting the lotto and
37:46
power ball and continuously continuously hitting it over and over, you know. So
37:52
um it it was really just a huge blessing to be honest. Well, congratulations. Thank you.
37:57
Um do you have any advice for anybody that might want to be getting into acting?
38:02
You know, it's funny because when I got into acting, um I I didn't really even think about it because I was so blessed
38:08
that this lady, you know, picked me up and basically handed me um the acting world. Um and if it wasn't for her, I
38:16
really would not be sitting here where I am right now. Um but then over the years of coming to
38:23
conventions and you know, people coming up and asking how would I get into acting? How do I you know, pursue a
38:28
career and become an actor? And you know, you hear all these other actors just say, "Well, just get an agent. Just get an agent." And for me, that's kind
38:35
of a throwaway answer because just get an agent. You know how hard it is for an actor just to get an agent, let alone
38:41
someone who hasn't started off with anything at all. Um, and so my this is
38:46
just my idea. This is just my theory of maybe a possibility of how it might be able to work is you have to become the
38:53
Justin Bieber of today's society as an actor, right? He put himself out there. He videoed himself with his talents
39:01
playing a guitar, singing songs, and someone saw it. Someone saw it online. And if he would never have put himself
39:07
out there online, he would never have had the opportunity. So my idea is basically
39:12
get with a whole bunch of people that are interested in acting or the career of film and and and television, right?
39:20
Usually a good place to start is at high school. You have people in drama class and theater class. there obviously are
39:26
some form of interested. Well, when it comes to theater, you've got people who are lighting people who are interested
39:31
in trying to do the lighting part. You've got someone who's if they've got a film like uh like a camera crew that
39:37
do film certain things around the school. Get with them, pull them all them together. Go online, download some
39:45
scripts, go to a thrift shop. You will find so many amazing different clothes
39:50
that we can call uh wardrobe or costumes and produce stuff yourself. Memorize the
39:57
lines together. Get the guy that you found at school who has, you know, the capability of being able to, you know,
40:03
use a camera, the guy who's able to use a light, you know, lighting and and can figure out lighting and stuff like that.
40:09
Bring them all in together, get together and film your stuff as one, then put it
40:15
out there. There's YouTube, there's Instagram, Tik Tok, all these different platforms that you can use today to be
40:21
able to put yourself out there or even if it doesn't get seen. Collect all of the things that you've
40:28
been recording on your own and then you can use what we call in the business a film reel. And when they say, "Well,
40:35
what have you done? Do you have anything you can show me what you worked in?" Well, it might not have been aired on
40:41
television, but you have taken the initiative to film your own stuff, your own content, and now you've put it all
40:48
together so that when you go into someone, you can give them that and show them it and at least they have an idea of which range of acting you can do.
40:56
Make sure you stay tuned because there's going to be so many more awesome interviews from here at Tampa Bay ComicCon. So, stay tuned for the next
41:02
interview. You're not going to want to miss it. Thank you. Do you mind introducing yourself and telling us a little bit
41:07
about what you do? I don't do anything. Yeah. I just turn up and ask what time lunch
41:13
is. That's about all I do. What time is lunch, but I do a little bit of this
41:19
stuff sometimes. Bit of acting on the side. Um, I love singing and I'm
41:24
learning a new song at the moment. Yeah. Uh, it's called Fly Me to the Moon, but
41:30
I'm learning the Doris Day version. Oh, okay. Fly me to the moon and let me
41:36
play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like from
41:44
Jupiter and Mars. In other words, hold my hand.
41:52
In other words, darling, kiss me. You don't have to kiss
41:58
me. Okay. Fill my Okay. Okay. Yes. And what what are you
42:04
doing? What are you doing? Um well, I do this sometimes and then on for my actual job, I do modeling.
42:11
Modeling? Yes. Wow. Well, you got the right height. What are you? 5' 5? Yes.
42:17
Very good. 5' 11. Almost 5' 11. Yeah. Oh my god. You are 5' 11.
42:22
Wow. That's good. That's good. I want to be a model when I grow up. You could be. Yeah.
42:28
Yeah. An old model. They have old models. They do. That's good. I work with some of them
42:33
sometimes. Oh, that's good. Well, I I might have a chance. I might have a chance to But I'm from a little place called uh uh down
42:40
under called New Zealand. That's just south of Australia. And uh we have a
42:46
population of about 5 million in the whole country. Oh wow. And most of the people are all in the
42:52
big cities though. So you can go out in New Zealand and at about 6 or 7:00 at
42:57
night, you'll see nobody. They've all gone to bed. So, it's pretty conservative. Uh, farming is a big thing
43:04
down under. Milk, of course, we love our milk down there. Cheese. Um, rugby. We
43:11
got the All Blacks. They play rugby. And some great actors from down there as
43:17
well. That's awesome. I've never been to New Zealand, but it's You haven't been there yet? I've never been there.
43:22
Well, please put it on the list. Put it on the list. You'll love it because
43:27
that's where Lord of the Rings was shot, right? just to give you an idea of the vista of the landscape we have. So, Lord
43:34
of the Rings has really increase our tourism market. So, um the other good
43:40
thing is uh we have a wonderful landscape within a short space, you know
43:45
what I mean? So, you can drive out of the city in 10 minutes you're in a completely different landscape. And also
43:50
the food is good down there too because of the uh our isolation. And the people
43:56
are generally nice and uh kind of you know sometimes um I understand sometimes
44:03
hitchhikers could be hitchhiking around New Zealand and people will pick them up and take them home for a cup of tea and
44:09
a sandwich and then drop them off again. So So yeah, so we're very nice uh nice
44:14
people. Of course I'm one of the Maldi. I represent the the indigenous people
44:20
down there. We're the Maldi race. We're like the cousins to the Hawaiians,
44:25
Tahesians, and yeah, so it's uh nice to be here in Tampa Bay. I've never been to
44:30
Tampa Bay before. I've been to Orlando, but um but it was lovely to come to this
44:35
convention. And I've met some of my uh some of my people that I used to watch
44:41
as a young guy, like the pawns, Henry Winkler, and Lou Faragnum over there. I
44:46
had a wonderful dinner with Lou and we talked about a lot of things and uh yes,
44:53
I've been having a great time. Saw Lou Diamond Phillips here as well. I love that movie La Bamba. So uh there's a guy
45:00
walking around with a knife. Watch those kids out there. Oh my god, he looks scary, too. He's got all that white
45:05
paint on his face. Okay. What's that guy's name with the white paint on his face? I think he hides behind the hedge.
45:12
One of those spooky movies. You know the one? Scream. could be from Scream, I think. And look, we got a doctor here. And
45:19
that's how I started in this industry. I was actually I played a doctor in a soap
45:24
back in New Zealand. And um and of course the doctor's hours are so long,
45:30
so I thought I'd give my uh give it a go in Hollywood. And so I took myself to
45:36
Hollywood. And um it wasn't easy at first, but I got a few auditions. And my
45:42
first Hollywood movie was with Pamela Anderson. In fact, it's a movie called Bob Wild. Then from that moment on, I've
45:50
been sort of steady. Um, but my big project I have out at the moment is a is
45:57
an Apple show called Chief of War starring Jason Mammore. I feature in
46:03
that 9 episode epic as well. So that just came out yesterday.
46:08
So, um, I've been very blessed that I've been able to work not only in New Zealand, Australia, but I can also, uh,
46:16
you know, come up here to America and work in some Hollywood stuff as well. So, um, so yeah, that's the new one to
46:22
look out for. It just came out. It got released yesterday. So, look out for that one. Chief of War on Apple TV Plus.
46:31
Perfect. That sounds amazing. I'll definitely check it out. And I'm sure my brother will watch it, too.
46:37
stars. Jason Mosa, you'll love it, too. Very good. And I I'm in there a little bit as well. So,
46:43
so I'm hoping I'm um saying things that are relevant and Yes, you are. And it's all good. The cameraman seems
46:50
to be laughing over there. So, looks like he's having a great time. Yes. And I wish you all the best with your
46:55
modeling career, too. So, thank you so much. Yeah. You going to get into acting as well? I'm thinking about it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, you've got the look. So,
47:03
thank you. So, you you're halfway there. Yes. Halfway there. And if I can do it, well, you can do it, right?
47:08
No problem. Okay. Lovely, lovely to talk to you and whoever is watching.
47:13
Lovely to talk to you guys as well. From Tima Morrison live from the Temper
47:19
Bay ComicCon. ComicCon. ComicCon.
47:25
This is Tima Morrison for Temper Bay Comic-Con News.
47:31
I sound like one of those reporters. Yes. I'm here with Landon McDonald. Do you mind introducing yourself and kind
47:36
of telling us a little bit about yourself? Sure, absolutely. Uh, my name is Lanny McDonald. I've been voice acting for about nine years. Uh, you might know me
47:43
as the voice of Inmoo from Demon Slayer Mugan Train. Uh, Rampo Urgawa from Bungo Stray Dogs and Vice Captain Hosha from
47:49
Kaiju Number E. That's awesome. So, like what kind of got you into voice acting?
47:55
Well, it's kind of funny. I was actually originally in Los Angeles for grad school. I was going to USC and uh I had
48:00
Tuesday nights free and I thought to myself, okay, what's kind of a fun uniquely LA thing that I could do on
48:06
Tuesday and this guy named Richard Horvitz, who you might know as the voice of Invader Zim and Moxy from Hell of a
48:12
Boss, he was doing a workshop in Burbank and I just kind of went and did it for
48:17
fun. It was just purely for fun. But after about the first half hour of the class, I was hooked. Like, you know, the
48:24
acting bug, it bit late, but it bit hard. I had a whole other life planned out for myself as a, you know, PR or
48:30
marketing guy. But then this kind of presented itself and I was like, "Oh, this seems really fun. Let's see if we
48:35
can make this work." And thankfully, almost a decade later, I've I've made it work. Congratulations. Incredible. Um, do you
48:43
have like a favorite character that you've voiced? Gosh. Uh, the vice captain from Kaiju
48:48
Number Eight's right up there for sure. Uh, Rompo I love because uh I grew up with the Sherlock Holmes stories and so it was fun to get to put my own kind of
48:54
stamp on a on an eccentric detective character. Um, and also I would say uh there's a show called Buddy Daddies that
49:00
I'm really proud of. I got to play Kazuki in that show. It's about two assassins who end up having to um they
49:05
adopt a little girl and kind of have to uh work life balance, I guess.
49:11
That's so cool. Yeah. Um, so like do you have any advice for anybody that might want to get into
49:17
voice acting? Ooh. uh voice acting or be you know succeeding at voice acting is mostly
49:23
about right place, right time, right set of skills to meet the moment, but you don't know when the moment's going to
49:29
come. So you always have to kind of, you know, keep an eye on the horizon and just kind of power through. Patience,
49:35
persistence. There's a lot of things you really have to kind of you want to have focus, you want to have drive, but you
49:40
also want to be realistic. You know, you don't want to it's not going to happen overnight. what even if you look around
49:45
and you see people where it's like oh this this was an overnight success it only looks that way from the outside you know it's like looking at an iceberg you
49:52
know you're only seeing the tip of it um so it's important to keep those things in mind and also yeah just that success
49:57
looks like different things for different people so you know you don't you want to be clear in your goals but you also don't want to be to the point
50:04
where you're you're you're being unrealistic in your expectations I think that's perfectly said
50:09
oh thank you absolutely um so my last question is I know you do a lot anime voices.
50:15
Yes. Do you watch anime yourself or did you kind of develop that in after you went
50:20
to that voice acting class? Well, it's kind of funny. I I in uh high school and college, I definitely watched
50:26
a lot of it. Uh I used to watch the Tsunami block all the time. Um and still do sometimes when something of mine uh
50:32
pops up like Dragon Ball Da. Actually, I'm one of the two villains in Dragon Ball Da and we just had our Tsunami
50:37
debut about a month ago, so I it felt like old times going back and watching Tunami. Um, but in general though, yeah,
50:44
I uh nowadays it kind of feels like work watching anime to be honest. Um, but I
50:49
still do it for research purposes and every every once in a while a show will come along or a manga will be out there,
50:55
you know, I will pick it up just because it looks fun. Chainsaw Man, way before I was a part of Chainsaw Man, I was
51:00
already hooked on the manga. Uh, and it's good because I ended up playing the future devil who knows everything about the future. So, you know, I know all the
51:07
spoilers. Even before I was cast, I knew all the spoilers for the show and the manga. Well, thank you. That's so amazing. Oh,
51:14
my pleasure. Absolutely. You're so talented. So, thank you so so much. You're very sweet. Thank you very much. I found Chica. Do you mind telling me a
51:21
little bit about how you made your costume? Yeah, absolutely. So, my entire costume is made out of EVA foam, but I started
51:27
with a 3D model I found on the internet. And I took the 3D model and I sized it
51:33
up to what I thought would be the correct uh size proportions for Chica. And then I threw it into a um paper
51:40
making software on the computer and I was able to print out um paper templates
51:46
that I had modified on the computer and I transferred all of those patterns to the EVA foam. And I basically created
51:52
the big cartoony character that you see now. And I just covered it all in fleece and and fabric and added a few details
52:00
and there you go. You've got Chica. That's incredible. Um what kind of got you into cosplay? Um, it was a
52:07
combination of a few things. One, I loved dressing up um on Halloween as a
52:13
kid, like all the time. I always felt like I needed to have the best costume out of any kid in my class. Um, so as I
52:20
got older, I I just liked making things in general ever since I was little. So,
52:25
I was like, you know what? Why don't I try actually, you know, building a costume? So, I watched a ton of other
52:30
people on on YouTube. That was another big factor was YouTube. I googled a bunch of things on like, oh, how do you
52:36
make this? How do you make that? And it basically just took off from there. I learned a lot of things from YouTube and
52:43
I put my dedication into my hobby and I love it.
52:48
And you're so good at it. You're so talented. Thank you. So, what is your favorite thing about Chica?
52:53
Um, the favorite my favorite thing about my costume here would definitely have to
52:58
be the moving eyes that I've got. The moving and blinking eyes. Um, I do have to admit I had a lot of help on that. My
53:05
dad helped me quite a bit. He's an electrical engineer, so he kind of did all of the software for that. He did the
53:12
coding and then the soldering and the wiring and all of that. Um, I finished
53:18
up the eyelids that were 3D printed. I sanded them and painted them. I made the eyeballs out of Christmas ornaments. I
53:24
figured out the entire mounting system inside to actually get my head to stay in here. And that's where the eyes are
53:30
also connected. So, we kind of had to work together to figure out all those things, but definitely
53:36
Oh, I'm so sorry. You're good. You're good. We got it back. I'm so sorry.
53:41
You're good. Yes. My favorite thing about my suit would definitely have to be the blinking eyes, even though I had a ton of help
53:48
with all of that. Help is sometimes necessary and it made for an incredible costume. So,
53:54
thank you. Thank you. So, with the Lakeland Ghostbusters, what do you guys kind of do? So we started
54:00
out at uh in 2016 um one of our friends got diagnosed with
54:06
a disease called vasculitis and then we realized that's the same disease that uh afflicted her ramis one
54:13
of the main Ghostbusters and it took over a year as my best friend to get diagnosed. This is a
54:21
really rare disease and the symptoms are very similar to other diseases.
54:26
So it took over a year and a half to get diagnosed and then we said like we we have the Ghostbusters stuff. This is
54:32
Ghostbuster related thing. Let's do a franchise and at that time they were
54:38
starting doing the franchises. So we actually uh were inscribed by the
54:44
Ghost Corpse which is the Sony branch. So we have our placer that we are official Ghostbusters franchise the
54:51
Lakeland Ghostbusters. That's when we started and um that's what we do. We raise money for the vasculitis
54:56
foundation and they help uh um fund research into that the vasculitis
55:02
disease to help better diagnose. It's a disease. It's a autoimmune disease.
55:07
Affects your uh vascular system. It could affect any part of your body and
55:12
it's a really hard uh disease to pinpoint. So that's why we do what we
55:17
do. That's incredible. Thank you so much for doing that. That's so awesome. Um, how
55:23
can people get involved with your charity work? Yes. Uh, we they can find us at leland
55:29
ghostbusters.com and we have all our social media, uh, Facebook, um, Instagram, YouTube. So,
55:37
you can find them legend Ghostbusters. How's everybody doing tonight? Everybody feeling good?
55:50
I don't know what I do. I do. I do. I do. I do.
55:55
I do. I do. I do.
56:34
Heat. Heat.
56:44
[Music]
57:00
D.
57:07
Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.
57:13
Oh my god. Oh my god.
57:25
Guys, today was absolutely incredible. Like, today was probably the best
57:31
Hyundai I've ever had. So, I really hope you enjoyed that video because I just
57:36
literally had the best day at Tampa Bay Comic-Con. So, stay tuned for day three because there's so much more coming your
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way. Hi guys, it's day three of Tampa Bay Comic-Con and I made a new friend. The excitement of day three literally
57:49
split him in half, but we're not going to let you split in half. So, let's go.
57:54
[Music]
58:11
Baby,
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hey. [Music]
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I found this amazing cosplayer. Do you mind introducing yourself and what you do? Sure. Yeah, sure. My name is Shelby. I
58:59
am the NPC. And I make cosplays um from uh 3D
59:04
printing, warbla, uh foam work, sewing, hair.
59:10
That's incredible. What kind of got you into wanting to do that? Actually, my friend brought me to um a convention
59:17
once and then I saw everyone there and they were like, "Hey, I know you do a lot of like Halloween parties and they're always awesome, but have you
59:23
tried like doing this not during Halloween?" And I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is so cool."
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Well, I'm loving the outfit today. Did you make the wig? Yeah, I did the wig myself. That's incredible. Oh my gosh, I love
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it. How long have you been doing this for? I've only been doing this for
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maybe almost three years. Yeah. Oh, wow. You're very talented. Thank you. Thank you.
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Um, did you do your makeup, too? Yeah, I did it. Yeah. It looks so good. Thank you. Um, do you have any advice for anybody
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that might be wanting to get into like craft work? I would say if you want to get into it,
59:58
just get into it. Um, every time you fail, you learn something from it. So if
1:00:05
I mean even sometimes when you fail it it ends up turning into something awesome and just be yourself. Do what
1:00:12
you want to do and once when you're doing that it's fun anyway. So like even if you're not where you're at or you
1:00:18
make something out of cardboard instead of like what other people are making out of. I've seen cardboard stuff look way
1:00:23
better than like someone who made it out of metal. Like it's awesome. I love that. Thank you for that advice.
1:00:30
I think you said it perfectly. So, thank you so much and I look forward to seeing all your other cool cosplays.
1:00:35
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Hi guys. I am here with Neil Bond. Did I say that?
1:00:40
Very close. Very close. Very good. So far so good. Do you mind introducing yourself kind of
1:00:46
what you do? Yeah. Yeah. My name is Neil Newon. So, not bad. Pretty good. I'm an actor,
1:00:51
director, producer working in mainly computer games, but also in TV and film and theater. Uh, yeah, I've done loads
1:00:59
of stuff. That's incredible. So, what kind of got you into wanting to do all of that? Uh, uh, well, I got into originally
1:01:05
being an actor. Um, because I wanted to be a storyteller cuz it's all I all I ever thought about in 12 was to tell
1:01:11
stories, be on stage, entertain people. So, that was it really. I got into games because I was broke and I needed a job
1:01:18
and I couldn't think of any ways to get into TV and film was very hard and I was not having a good time. I was
1:01:24
in a lot of debt and I accidentally found games and motion capture specifically and then realized it was
1:01:29
like theater and film and also knew that I was good at it and that I was very excited by it and I realized I could
1:01:34
take my face off and become a character actor finally. Um, and then what I mean
1:01:40
by that is not be judged by how I look and do a certain role that's appropriate to my ethnic background casting. So it
1:01:46
was awesome and then I I started doing a lot of that. I started mentoring people. I was a consult. I'm a consultant as
1:01:51
well. And then through that I started directing and producing and just found that there's many many things I can do
1:01:57
that I'm good at in this part of the industry. Well, that's incredible. That's a very big resume.
1:02:02
Yeah, it's pretty good. It's been 30 years of work and 15 in games. Wow. So, yeah. Oh, I had a whole like theater,
1:02:08
TV, film career before I even got into games. Well, congratulations. Thank you very much. Um, do you have a favorite one of those
1:02:14
things to do? No, you just love I I like performance capture a lot because it's the best of film and the
1:02:20
best of theater. Yeah. So like metaphorical gun to head. I
1:02:26
would go with performance capture because it gives me of both worlds. I love that. Um I don't have a preference preference
1:02:32
because quite frankly it's all about the work of the character and each medium has its own amazing experiences and stuff. Uh but I love performance
1:02:39
capture. I think a lot big part of my heart is in the volume. I love that. Um, do you have a favorite
1:02:44
character that you've done? No. No. I mean, I love Aarian, but I also love Eisenberg. I also love like the
1:02:50
countless other roles I've done that you guys won't ever see cuz there were motion capture roles. Yeah. It's too many. I mean, Atorian's
1:02:56
got a special place for me, I think, but I don't have I don't consider having like a favorite. It's like having a favorite child.
1:03:01
Even if you do, you probably shouldn't say it. Um, but yeah, it's like I have many roles that really mean a lot to me.
1:03:07
That's awesome. Um, my last question is, do you have any advice to anybody that might be trying to get into either games
1:03:13
or acting? Sure. It's all acting. So, you're an actor. I don't like the term voice actor. I think it's a reductive. So,
1:03:20
don't be a voice actor. Be an actor first and foremost. If you do voice work only, great. If you do theater and film,
1:03:26
etc. End games, it's awesome as well. I would recommend anybody start start with
1:03:31
the basics. Theater foundation. It's the best for character work. It helps you take confidence, stage presence, develop
1:03:38
your voice, control your voice. Uh, and also it's a great way of interacting with the craft in the first place. Do
1:03:45
television, do film. If you can get into games, do motion capture, performance capture, amazing, do that, too. Do voice
1:03:50
work, but be an actor. So, learn the craft of acting. People tend to, especially, I would say, not as a
1:03:56
generalization in America, people are more focused on you look like this person, you feel like that person,
1:04:02
you're going to play that person for the whole of your career. I find that really boring. So I would recommend if somebody wants to really
1:04:08
engage with acting like William Defoe, like Daira, all these amazing huge you know DiCaprio all those incredible
1:04:14
actors learn theater first. It's the best foundation grounding of acting
1:04:20
craft then learn television and film technique and also at the same you can do all of it simultaneously. It's not
1:04:25
like you have to just pick one thing because honestly you won't be able to pick it. You'll be given it. Do you know what I mean? Yes. So, when the audition comes, take it.
1:04:31
And if you get offered a job to begin with, your first job that is kind of, it's okay, take it anyway. Uh, enjoy it
1:04:38
and take what you learn for what you can cuz you don't get to pick what you do until you're much more successful when
1:04:45
people really want you. And that's also success is up and down the whole time as well. So, I think that's the big thing I
1:04:50
would say is learn the craft. Also, have a backup plan for making money. Uh, which I really wish I'd learned that
1:04:56
early. So get a job that a part-time gig that can pay you well. So you're not desperately worried about money every
1:05:02
time you go to an audition. Oh, one last thing. If you're in an audition, it's because they think you're good enough to do it. You've got nothing to prove. That
1:05:08
is your job to audition. Show your work. That's your job. You don't have the job to begin with. Your job is to audition.
1:05:14
If you get the gig afterwards, that's a bonus to do more. I think that was perfectly said. Well, it's rambling, but yes,
1:05:21
it was. I I think the rambling was perfect. The rambling was perfect. I also love your fingernails, by the way. Thank you very much. I'm holding as
1:05:27
delicately as world's tiniest the world's tiniest microphone. It's so tiny. Hi guys, I just met a very talented
1:05:34
author. Do you mind introducing yourself and what you do? Yes. My name is Chris Angela and I am 26
1:05:40
years old and I am on the autism spectrum with Asperger syndrome and I have written and co-illustrated six
1:05:46
books. That's incredible. What made you want to become an author? I've always just been a bit of a
1:05:51
storyteller since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I would take my stuffed animals and recreate things I'd seen on
1:05:57
TV or read books. So, eventually I made it where I could actually tell the
1:06:02
stories on paper and make them into actual books. That's so awesome. You're so talented.
1:06:08
Thank you. I saw some of your illustrations. I know you said you didn't draw them, but you did color them. Is that something you
1:06:13
really like to do? Yes, and I did kind of draw them. Like, I come up with the character designs, but I can't do movement. So, I have
1:06:20
another illustrator who does the movement for me, but I do help with the coloring in. Yes. That's so cool. You're like one of the
1:06:27
coolest authors I've ever met, I think. Thank you. I don't know that I ever really wanted to be an actor. It was a little bit of
1:06:34
an accident. I was a writer. And when I had an opportunity to do some improvisational acting, I realized that
1:06:41
it kind of felt like writing in my head without putting it down on paper. that
1:06:48
um I had a an appreciation for story and so text became very important to me.
1:06:55
Words um became more important than maybe than what I looked like or how I
1:07:01
felt because I was not a natural fit for acting. But I fell in love with it and
1:07:07
changed myself. So Well, that's awesome. You're so talented, too. I know you said that you
1:07:12
do stage, screen, and voice. What got you into like stage performing? Um, stage was where I started. Stage was
1:07:20
foundational for me. I think um it was improvisational comedy that initially
1:07:26
brought me to the idea of perhaps considering acting, but I did a play in
1:07:32
San Francisco uh that was uh a South African play um
1:07:38
two characters um about the situation in South Africa
1:07:44
at that time, the aparite situation. And when I got to the theater to audition,
1:07:49
uh there were the director and the actor, the other actor who had been cast were in the basement. Um I went down, I
1:07:56
did the audition and I got the part. And the other actor was an actor named Danny Glover. And yeah, and so we did that
1:08:03
play in San Francisco and up and down the coast of California. And when we got to LA, uh we got agents and
1:08:13
things began to happen and they were out of my control. I couldn't stop it. and now I'm an actor.
1:08:18
Well, congratulations. That's awesome. Thank you. Um, what do you think the hardest thing
1:08:23
about acting is? Oh my gosh. Um,
1:08:32
I think the hardest thing about acting is being simple.
1:08:39
I think um as we move around in the world, we're basically pretty clear on
1:08:45
what we're going to do and uh we do it, we move through it. We don't actually
1:08:50
call attention to ourselves because, oh, look at what I'm doing. Um it's just what's happening because we have a story
1:08:57
that we're working inside. And so it's the same thing in acting. you're given a
1:09:03
story, but because it may not necessarily be your own, you have to do a tremendous amount of work. In my view,
1:09:09
to make that story feel as natural as your own story. In fact, when it's good,
1:09:16
it blends with your story. Um, it's kind of like a um
1:09:23
kind of like an amalgam, sort of like a a metal that an alloy rather that is um
1:09:31
it's part you and it's part it and it's both of you. So when when that happens,
1:09:37
I feel that you can't help but be natural and that's that's what I work
1:09:44
for. Well, I think you said that amazing and thank you so much once again. You're
1:09:49
so so talented. So, thank you for this amazing interview. Oh, thank you. Hi guys. I found a booth that has live
1:09:56
animals and they are the cutest. Do you mind explaining like introducing yourself and explaining what you guys do? Sure. So, we're the Wildlife Adventure
1:10:02
Center and Wild in America. What we do is we bring animals for educational purposes and fundraising where people
1:10:08
can learn about wildlife that's been in film and television or just learn about wildlife and how they can make a
1:10:13
difference and outside of the world of cons and that's what we do. I love that. How did you get into
1:10:19
wanting to do that with animals? We're very fortunate and blessed to have multi-generations of our family being in
1:10:24
the business of film production with animals. Uh as well as being in the attractions industry of zoological parts
1:10:31
since the 1930s. So, uh, we've evolved over time and, uh, we've, you know, come to this point here.
1:10:38
That's awesome. And I love that it's like in the generations. That's so cool. Um, what is this little guy's name?
1:10:44
So, this his he this right here is called a finger monkey or known as a marmicet. His name is Bobby.
1:10:50
He's so cute. How long have you had him for? Uh, Bobb's been with us since birth. He's three years of age. Uh, and Bobby
1:10:57
can live up to about 20 years in captivity. In the wild, they're going to live less, anywhere but about 8 to 10 years. And that's just because the
1:11:03
natural environments in Brazil where they're from in South America. Uh so he's, you know, gets a better
1:11:09
environment here. He couldn't go back in the wild. We would, we do have animals that are part of a wild release program.
1:11:14
Oh wow. But he can't go back in the wild just simply because the animals would get to him and he wouldn't survive.
1:11:20
Yeah, we got to keep him safe. Um, where can they find you guys at? The easiest thing to do is go on
1:11:26
Instagram is @cool zoo parks. Okay, perfect. Hi, I'm Neo Vardales and
1:11:32
you are watching Teens Want to Know. I got to tell you something though. I didn't know it was only three days. I'll
1:11:37
be here tomorrow, too. Just by myself. Just me at the convention center at my booth. Come on by.
1:11:44
We'll stop by. All right. Yes.