Avatar: The Last Airbender Cast Reunion | FULL PANEL | Dante Basco, Jack De Sena, Zach Eisen

[Applause] what an awesome crowd can I get a yep yep that's right because that's exactly what we are here for today who is excited for avatar The Last Airbender cast reunion all right let's waste no more time let's get these guests out here first first up he needs to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor everybody voice of Zuko Dante Bosco Bosco [Applause] hello Zuko here [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right all right all right next up we have everybody's favorite Boomerang boy voice of Saka Jack to Santa [Applause] hello hello and now our next guest just like his character he's been gone for a little bit but he's back and so I need you all to give lots of lots of love everyone the Avatar Aang Zach I [Applause] hello everyone how are we doing today hello hello I had to get I had to videotape Zach's first panel ever introduction [Applause] this is incredible oh my God Zach so I know this is your first convention appearance is this your first convention ever no okay it's not my first convention I've actually been to a number of them but it is the first time that I'm appearing and I gotta say this it's been incredible thank you all for coming uh it's been amazing meeting all of you and there's still two more days I get to meet so many more of you so yeah [Applause] and how has it been so far have these continue any tips and tricks on how to survive this weekend I'm very thankful for their advice they've been great to me um yeah it's it's been a good time hydrate I know hydrate that goes for all of you too so I gotta ask how has it been reconnecting like this and then being able to be here and talk to the fans about this amazing legendary series that is Avatar The Last Airbender yeah I mean it's been great uh Dante and I have seen each other a number of times over the years but Jack and I don't think we've seen each other since uh like probably the finale yeah and the and the weird secret is it's like a reconnecting but also like kind of an initial connect yeah yeah exactly because we we weirdly never recorded together specifically Zach and I it was all remote yeah yeah yeah I mean I was he was the voice of your air in the room we're like hi Zach he was the Avatar I mean he's had his own thing going on it was very important like character-wise that Dante never get in the same room as him that was really like creators did a great job they made Zach move to New York so that Dante was kept separated again finally found him in the streets of Brooklyn who would have known it was Brooklyn and you did find him and brought him on to um the podcast braving the elements that you are doing with Avatar Cora Janet Varney everyone so and both Zach and Jack have appeared how has it been for all of you now to kind of go back and revisit this series at such a different point in your life super fun podcast it's very fun to like book club this show to like get to like watch it and like think about themes and then come on and chat through it um I I've I've adored it and revisiting the show yeah because like I watched most of it when it was airing but not necessarily it didn't like catch all of it and didn't um so getting to like fully be far enough away to like kind of watch it fresh and not remember everything it's a it's a it's a good show I noticed I've I've clocked it I'm like oh the show is yeah good show great show yes yes I think it's fascinating because us three here we're all um we're all kid actors and uh and now we're we're growing up kind of most of us most of us and so would kid actors a lot of times you do things you don't really look back at the things you do you kind of just on to the next things like we all are in life but in the industry and so it's a very unique thing to come with the podcast to it's probably the first time my life I really went back and really watched something I was gonna say you still haven't seen the whole thing have you not all of it no no I'm not what we just finished book two on the podcast I'm very fascinated to go book three and so to really watch it I do feel like I'm being tested sometimes by Jana Varney and I feel like a bad student but I'm that student that has good points that come absolutely all the time have you seen the whole thing I have and I think similar to you as it was coming out you know I I did watch a good amount of it uh obviously like we had read all of the scripts and everything but it was a little inconsistent and it was kind of a really cool experience when it came out on Netflix being able to binge everything and really just delve into the story head first not have to wait you know so long in between episodes and seasons and books and whatnot um so yeah it was really cool to just like really go dive head first into the story it had been a very long time I recently realized that there is one episode that I've never seen which one Zuko alone how I'm not really just because you're not in it just because you're not in it didn't even joke to me I was just like well this one's not gonna be funny uh and then we were due we were doing like a re-watch on your Twitch and I legitimately just happened to miss that one and then realized what I always what are we talking about coincidentally we were do whenever we would do we would do panels and stuff and people would like talk in depth about like all the backstory that your character got and all this stuff about your mom and I was like what are you doing where are they getting this what like deep internet lore comic books have they read this all from there's a whole episode about it no I'm learning this so much I don't I didn't know because my memory of the show is actually just me Mae and Jack mostly in the booth telling the story about how we saved the world with another kid in our air I feel so left out I know it saved the world I remember it vividly yeah you're taking a lot of credit you kind of jump in right at the end and help save the world like you sort of contributed a lot to the almost destroying of the world and then right at the end um Derek is some good folks out there in the Fire Nation let's not forget that that need to like weighing fire and his wife Sapphire fire really nice it's a problematic Nation so you all talked about being uh younger when you were recording this at what point for you Dante and Jack did you realize oh this is a really Big Show and then Zach you were even younger did you process that at that age like how big it was becoming we definitely knew it was good I didn't never did I think that you know I'm 15 years later I'd be sitting here in front of a packed house full of fans [Applause] I don't think anybody really could have predicted that but like just even reading the scripts as a 12 year old I was like all right this this is pretty cool but no I did not yeah a couple like halfway through the season realizing like reading season one scripts realizing how like serialized and in-depth the show was getting I I was starting to at least appreciate like whoa um and then for me I was in college when the show was coming out um and starting to get peers of mine at College talking to me about it which at the time felt incredibly novel that this like kid show obviously we know now that Avatar is very like broad audience and like is a show for adults too um but at the time it was like a huge deal when like friends were like pulling me aside at parties being like hey don't tell anybody but I watch your show it's good and I think the first time I realized it was really big I went to Sundance Film Festival one year and we were in the snow and I ran to Jason Isaacs who plays General Zhao and lucious Malfoy that's right that's awesome and the Patriot or the opposite of the country yeah yes all that bad the ultimate bad guy and we ran into each other in the street and it's snowing and we're at the one of the biggest film festivals in the world and he's like Dante men that cartoon we did what's it called everyone's talking about this cartoon and I'm like and we're it's just as ironic because we're at a film fest I'm like I know what's going on he's like everyone wants to talk about this cartoon like what about the movies we have in this Film Festival that's when I was like oh this is kind of a big deal bigger than we know because you guys got to realize when it came out there was not the internet how we have it today no one had we didn't Facebook we didn't have Twitter didn't even exist any of that stuff so it kind of happened in a as we noted a vacuum and then when it really hit again during covid was an unprecedented thing where you're like it's like the number one show in the world yeah that was what incredibly cool to have so many like new people join the conversation about it get like New Perspectives on it get a younger audience re uh energize about the show just the whole thing was yeah really cool how many of you guys watched it for the first time in 2020 when it came out on Netflix good amount of you that's good that's great me too and and so for a while we only did have the TV series both uh both series and some Comics but now we're starting to get a lot more Avatar content with Avatar Studios announcing some movies who's excited for those mm-hmm nah except all of those got canceled bam April Fools got one even more exciting though is that we now we have confirmation that the first movie will be Aang and Friends uh so yeah so theoretically what would you what kind of Adventures do you think you would like to see those characters get up to in the movie go ahead go ahead I just think we need more I want more time spent with the day-to-day operations of a tea shop I thought that was one of the best side plots and I think we do a whole movie Zuko gets back into that business everybody's there to help and we're just running the shop it's like cheers for the Avatar Universe yeah yeah I feel like you know the love triangle between Aang and Katara and Zuko we can [Applause] a little more settled batter it is settled better [Applause] I'd love to see like you know we we got the show happens over like a course of like what a summer right so we really got we delved in depth to that time period a lot of you know between the end of the series and the start of quora we have no idea what went on so like let's see and grow up right [Music] and like if somebody's loitering and using like the Wi-Fi in the tea shop like how whose job is it to remove them like I think he'd be pretty good at that yeah yeah cool and speaking of even more content there is also now an avatar RPG anyone Play Avatar Legends anyone out there I was gonna ask any fans of RPGs have we played it are we interested I played it one time with uh with Jenny who plays Suki and we did it for something online which I was like we have to do we probably should just do one yeah that sounds great it's very fun of course I played a fire bender named Ezra actually it was cool the thing is we did it like a short campaign for online so it was only a few hours and I wanted it to be like a longer more drawn out campaign because it has a lot of different uh just things that are very unique to it that's not in regular d d games so I wanna you know we should do that you'd have you guys would be great I I would love to do they have a mechanic for like calculating taxes on T sales like if you is that a I just really there's different parts of the world that we all want to explore make it a whole new world now I want to ask about recording the series um you know some of you recorded together Zach You Were Far Far Away we only heard your voice but were there any memories that really stick out to you during the recording process that you can share um this this is funny uh in maybe it was one of the podcasts I did with Dante and Janet or or some other interview relatively recently um I feel like it was with you we were talking about The Great Divide and how that's like you universally considered like people don't like that episode I don't I'm sorry if that's not the truth um but I I had said in that interview I was like I really have vivid memories of recording that episode and it hit me a few months later that that was completely manufactured it's because there's the videos of us in the booth doing it there's that exists on YouTube that I've seen a million times in the video which probably also if my memory serves I think the footage of us recording it was we were children it's gone but I mean like well it was so different for me just being alone and the uh voices were just coming through my headphones I mean I I it would I always had engineers and and family on the other side with me but I'd never really acted opposite you guys which made it difficult for me and also for you um but it's the magic of Television how that can work out yeah like we can really sound like we're having a conversation and the magic of Andrea Romano The Voice director yes shout out to Andre Romano like Andrea is incredible that specifically is such a skill to see both sides of these of these dialogue exchanges and know like okay if I get this from them and I get this from here and I remember what they did so if we get something like she just really held those scenes together in her head in an incredible way that made made it feel like we had uh great chemistry I still to this day don't know how she did it and we did somehow yeah but like we've been meeting for the second time ever or so yeah it was I mean it was fun that we were all in the studio together because I always because my memories of it is definitely Well Jack being late we're waiting on Jack all right let's wait on Jack and then uh I mean Marco who passed away who was who played Uncle Ira the original actor Michael iro rest in peace Marco a lot of those teams are very special because we were in the room together working together and he had played my uncle and my father several times in my career so really wonderful again Jason Isaacs walk in the room with Jason Isaacs it's kind of scary I was gonna say yeah they're like damn and his voice you know he's in the back of you and he's talking like damn that guy that's lucious Malfoy I'm scared of him and then when I got to work with my father Lord ozai and I didn't realize who was playing my father and Andrea Roman I was like oh yeah Mark's going to come in to play your Dad he'll be here in a bit I'm like okay and then the door swings open and it's Mark Hamill I recognize that guy from somewhere so weird and crazy I'm fan growing of course I'm fangirling and then it's it's just daunting very daunting to have a fight and yell and kind of talk to your father in a way that's and it's it's Mark Hamill but these memories are crazy and then just Jack and maves a lot of times it's just us three that was the main that was the main crew and then and then uh Michaela Jesse flower as she joined was was often in that she was very small very tiny um yeah that's most of my memories too was just like getting to work with this cast um and and and uh getting to my my like uh favorite thing to get to view as a cast member was I would occasionally show up early but not very late um to get to see D Bradley Baker of course ADR like when he would come in and match the picture and just like they would just point at an animal in the back and he would create the most like beautiful and perfect sound from places in his head that I didn't know could make sound uh that was like my favorite thing to watch that I'm jealous of that's very cool I got to meet him and he would do them live but like seeing him the artist at work oh my God it's probably so cool all right so this is going to be my last question and then I'm going when I want to open it up to all of you so there are two microphones one right here and one right there so feel free to start lining up oh there you go except we have no time for questions boom April Fool's prank yes so my last question for all of you is we talked about memories I want to ask about story lines not necessarily of just your characters but characters within the show itself were there any particular storylines you loved watching unfold yeah I mean zuka's Redemption Arc is legitimately it was it was a at the time it felt like a Marvel that we were making it was just like wow this is so cool feels really impactful um was then was just like a fun of like oh now we we've been in the booth with Dante for two years not really interacting that much and then and now like oh we get to work with him and explore this character in a new way but just start to finish minus this whole episode of exposition that I'd ever saw um it's just a it's just a beautiful Arc that I was like one of the many things about this show that was really astounding like as we were cracking scripts to go like man this we're really doing a lot I don't think I don't think I had the vocabulary then to really like talk about character arcs and things like that I was you know like a pre-teen but like just the memory of like getting the script in the mail opening it and reading through it and like me imagining what's going on and then a month later getting the ADR tapes and seeing the Final Cut and like seeing how it all played out was just really fascinating um and just seeing how my work which again was isolated from your guys was able to just fit in and make sense in context and everything it's just really cool to play out cool watch player I'm he just reminded me something I want to ask you because you know now you get scripts and most of the time they just email the scripts of course back in those days every week they would mail us they'd FedEx us the script like the week before and you kind of get to do your notes and you can write all your notes on the script and when you do it you go in the booth you write on the notes and script and of course none of us knew this show was going to be as important as it is I would have kept all those scripts and had them locked up somewhere the original scripts of Avatar the complete season complete series would be have been great or sold it and bought a condo but I have I have none of those scripts did you keep any of those FedEx scripts my my parents definitely have a number of them how many I don't know but there are boxes oh dude you gotta get a condo oh yeah you guys want to go in on a condo yeah do you have any of those groups none not a single one me yeah if you do this you do the thing and then Andrea says goodbye you're done and then you take the script and then you throw it in the trash politely take the Brads out yeah and then you'll throw it away and say bye uh I lived in Irvine at the time which is a bit of a drive from La very far yeah and people so there was like a courier service that would have to bring it yeah my house every every night before before email did you have DHL I have DHL that that truck every week coming coming from the neighborhood yeah yeah but but as far as story story lines I would I loved seeing Uncle iro and going yes amazing what I want to see is the dragon of the West when you find out you know he's so chill and we all aspire to be myself included Uncle iro someday but to get to that place is in sagefulness I want to see how the pendulum swing the other way during the war and yeah he is the dragon of the West even just seeing him like rock push-ups in the jail oh yeah yeah this guy's got something I want to know more about what's popping off with Uncle IRA [Applause] [Music] all right let's go into some fan questions let's start with Avatar Aang hi guys I'm Patrick I'm from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and uh my question is if the three of you were forced to go back in time and play at one of the other characters that you guys played who would it be and why that like swap each other's roles because my answer is jet I want to be cool enough to be jet no jet no jet no jet okay I want to do jet also but we'd like to all do jet we'd like to do like a Greek choral performance of jet uh I'd love to be Saka I'm probably not back I was there was a good time it was great to watch Jack do soccer and I'll be like watching do things and try different takes on certain lines and some so funny so I was just jealous because I was just in the other room just being angsty also we you were in specifically like an isolation Booth though yeah sometimes they put me in an isolation Booth because which usually you use an isolation Booth if two people are in a scene a lot together they're gonna be like yelling over each other but it was not you were in an isolation with while Mae and I who had a ton of seats together we're just sitting next and then I'm just by myself yeah and I sometimes I take a nap they're like Dante you're lying Dante hello every Booth was an isolation booth for me so um to answer your question Patrick uh I mean Zuko is definitely my favorite character he's got the best Arc undoubtedly but I don't think I could do a villain um I would have loved a shot at playing Zuko definitely could not have done a better job than Jack uh but or soccer I'm so sorry um but like being the comic relief character that's it's great it was must have been really fun for you it was very fun I had a great time I feel the same way of like I don't think the question check is would you be Saka would you be soccer would you rather be Zuko or eggs I think I feel the same as Zach that like taking on like the the heft of the villainy that you carried I think would be would be tough I I don't think I'm naturally unlikable enough to be a now when i j my sincere actual thing is I don't think I'm cool enough to play Jet or Zuko you bring you bring like so much cool to that character that like you immediate it's it's the reason everyone wanted to see this Redemption Arc is just like I want to like that guy there is something so likable not at the very the very beginning the very beginning and with that real high ponytail it's just like this guy sucks questionable questionable haircuts the hair gets cool it's like ah I want to be that good um I would say and yeah I would say I think like because there is a ton of comedy in Aang too so that's like that was I feel like we got a lot of fun joke exchanges and then you also are carrying all this like big beautiful weight um and these like juicy ass monologues um so yeah I'd say yeah but we can all agree on jet though we're setting that [ __ ] we're doing recoil performances we all want to do jazz we all want to be a cool terrorist chewing a little straight straw that's cool thank you hi what's your name and what's your question hi um I'm Sarah from Lansing Michigan and I um I just want to say first of all thank you guys so much for being here I'm ecstatic to be here um but my question is um in the finale of the show we kind of ended on like a cliffhanger it was Zuko saying where's my mom and so I was wondering if there was any like talk or expectation of there being like more to the show more to the series if there was gonna be more and if there was you know even talk now would you guys consider like coming back for the the question where is Zuko's mom we recorded season four and they lost the files boom April fools I got you you guys keep falling for this um well first of all I appreciate the Fire Nation dress and uh but they they yeah of course when when that was going on I thought we'd like who knows it's gonna be a spin-off or anything but they went in in the comics and they explained the Zuko's mother which is amazing in the search uh as far as going back I think we all love the characters we'd always you know depending on the circumstance whatever with the characters uh we'd always love to revisit but um but yeah you read I've read the comics now and I just finished the rise of Kyoshi both books and the dawn of young Chen so they are going deeper and heavier into the storyline into the Canon through the stories and so I can't wait to see what Avatar Stevens comes up with for the future yeah at the I've heard subsequently that there was like conversations about season four and stuff but at the time it definitely felt like we were only doing three like I was I thought that time like yeah they had conceived of this like closed Arc three season things so while they were planting some seeds for like here's other story elements that we could explore in other areas when we have the time it definitely felt like okay this is this is the journey we're going on together it has reached a logical conclusion yeah um so it did feel to us when recording it quite final and complete yeah I I would imagine that Mike and Brian in their heads then just had so much more of this world are you know conceived um so whether or not they were really setting up a fourth book I don't know because yeah I I really I was always told that it was a set three but um you know now with everything else in the extended Universe like they they had that in their heads because they're they're just geniuses thank you so much thank you thank you hi what's your name and what's your question hello my name is Alyssa I'm from Central Illinois and my question is during your time during the show what was something that was impactful enough for you that made you just grow as a person hopefully it's not too complicated being you know 16 17 when we started and then being like a freshman in college and coming to to the studio every week to record the just like being in this incredible professional environment of like just wildly talented people at all these different jobs getting to work with Dante and May and all the other voice actors that were coming through getting to work with Andrea getting to work with these writers and creators um taught me a ton about professionalism and the creative process that show always felt very collaborative it felt like you were able to the right questions of the writers and get interesting feedback and try new things so I'd say like as an artist I grew a ton getting to work in such a beautiful talented collaborative environment I think I like personally like I and I think you but many of you would agree that I've learned a lot of like life lessons from Aang and then the wisdom that he teaches and also Uncle iro I think that those two characters really have a lot to impart um uh is something in particular that I remember like I when I got the script for like the guru patique episodes um learning about spiritualism and chakras and all that kind of stuff that was really my first foray into any of that um and I always thought that was really cool how they kind of introduced that into a series that was intended for kids not a kid series um but yeah you know there was so much to learn from from the scripts whether life lessons or um yeah yeah and uh I was not a kid no but I but during the shooting during the filming of it all and the taping of it Marco passed away who I said was the original Uncle IRA and had played my uncle or my father several times in my life and I was very heavy and emotional for the whole a lot of us in the cast going through it and in his passing he's just a very still Uncle Arrow to me he he started a theater company called East West players that I grew up with in La which is an Asian American Theater Company and I've written plays there and done plays there and even in his passing he was very I don't know there's like a thing that came over me that I realized like I was in the same lineage of of Asian artists in Hollywood as him and it was time for me now to kind of create something to pass on the Next Generation that's when I started producing Asian American films during that time so thank you and it's it'll kind of it's like Uncle iro speaking to you even his past like it's time for you to kind of pass on to the next Generation so it's all during this this era thank you so much [Applause] hi I'm Jerome Green from Chicago Illinois what a tribe by the way nice people in the Water Tribe nice nice people uh I would like to know uh Dante how was it working with Robin on hook and Robin Williams is amazing rest in peace uh he was one he was one of the best to ever do it and he's was my memories I was a child at that time 15 years old and he was such a nurturing and just amazing Mentor for me at that time I'd show up on my set I'll show it I'm going to set my days off to see him work see him and Dustin Hoffman work and see him improv and uh you know one of my special memories is really mornings with him because Dead Poet Society is one of my favorite films especially at that time yes and I write poetry I'm a poet but we would spend mornings talking about poetry his favorite poems his favorite poets my favorite poems I'd show them some of my poems so he's just a special guy a crazy thing how special he is it's like we start me and my brothers and my crew we start our own Deadpool Society right and it's the address to this place we do write poems at it's called 13607 and a half was the address and so that was the name of the crew 13607 and a half and then I got a hat made for him at Compton indoor swap meet to have the name of the crew embroidered in it and then underneath it it said Oh Captain My Captain from the movie right yes and so I gave it to him on set all these years ago and he's passed away and whatnot and his daughter Zelda Williams who was on cora as part of the Avatar family I ran into her uh at a restaurant or bar in L.A one time we're talking when we're gonna catch up and have lunch and then she goes hey she texts me like a few days later and she's like I was going through my dad's stuff and look what I found it and she sent me a picture of the Hat so rest in peace Rob Williams [Applause] hello hello you look like an earthbender I mean you all look handsome hey [Applause] how y'all doing first welcome Chicago guys thank you welcome to the crazy weather we were loving Chicago but we have to leave in five minutes got you again four probably from yesterday uh my name's Adam from here from Chicago hey guys uh so I have to ask so you guys obviously went through this whole many years to this oh this experience did you have a favorite moment in the show or like oh with makosan like he I was talking you yesterday Dante about if you had any less and oh you wanted to part with oh with oh from Marco oh or something that you guys hold right here that you enjoy okay to keep that you can't always go hold back like remember that any special moments from the show or any I'll say a side one which is um watching the finale together they had like a big cast and crew um it was when we actually finally got to in person uh interact um the like four-part finale season three they did it like in a in a theater with like full cast and crew and like so that's a lot of people you never get to see working on a storyboard artists and stuff but you're not really interacting with while we're just in a booth and getting to see the totality in the audience and the totality on screen of like what we created and how we created it and who we all were um that was really cool that's a special experience that I really um look back fondly on of just uh I I just love the collaborative environment of uh making any art but television is such a like long pipeline there's so many people involved that getting to be in a room and go like I am this little Cog in this giant thing and look at this you know I don't know 600 people or whatever who have created this thing and that's you know not including a lot of the 2D hand animation done in South Korea that were like I think some of the artists came out but just being part of this big Collective creating this really beautiful thing um is something I always hold yeah I I personally I think like it was a bit of a blur looking back now and like to be completely honest but so much more of like my like what the show means to me is come afterwards and seeing like how fans have received it and how long it's lasted um and coming to this is my first con and just seeing all these years later how impactful it can still be um that I think is really like what has like kind of shaped uh my memory I like just because I was so young when I did it I was again isolated um that that really like I think what you're asking like has come later for me yeah I agree with you I mean it's all blur I mean it's years ago many years ago and we're doing a lot of different work and really what Zuko and what the show represents to me is uh it's kind of like don't know so much like have this room to be surprised like it reminds me to leave room in life to be surprised because this it was great doing the show and it was I thought the story was amazing we made some really good friends Jack in May and we did this great project together but it's not something that I I knew what was going to become of it or what it was going to be or the impact it was going to have um you know we act in front of the camera do voices I write produce directed these things are you're making all these stories but what it a character like this a show like this can change the world and you may not even know it and so that's where and it reminds me it's like hey just leave room to be surprised there are things that are happening that you may not have any control over that's gonna be more exciting than you can possibly imagine thank you guys and thank you my father Lord hi Zuko here um my name is actually Alice I'm from Chicago unlike a lot of people I know I've been doing kung fu for 10 years and when I first watched the series unlike most people who got inspired to do kung fu through the series so have y'all do y'all have any martial arts experience oh Dante I know you did some sword work on hook but have you got delved into the wonderful world of Chinese martial arts sense or anything I did a fair amount of Tai Chi in college and it was like when we were recording it was like it was just like a class I was taking at college but it was like while we were recording Avatar and and water tribe is heavily influenced by Tai Chi so it was uh yeah it was a cool I was like learning this and I was like I could do it I could Bend like if they needed me to I got it no um I well growing up I did study uh coaching Campbell the style I grew up in to Orange Belt I was still an orange belt and couch and Cambo nice yeah you never lose that Fire Nation color was stopped there but no and while we were doing the show I did study a bit with sifukisu and was learning some of uh some of the fire just the fire betting stuff in the shower and stuff and the Chinese kind of food but I did not go deeper into it I mean I've had done either Brian right was that Brian was deep in the greatest was super deep into it with superkissue yes so uh yeah so I dabbled let's put that way I would say I dabbled it but I would love to you know maybe I'm at a time in life where I can study again I don't know you know other other Masters like you should study I'm like I'm not ready you're waiting for your hips to get I don't know I think I reached uh yellow belts with like two stripes maybe when I was like seven or eight so if you guys want to spar later make that happen yeah yeah um yeah that's about as far as I got I did have a karate birthday party so there's that I don't think my parents sprung for that option but yeah thank you thank you um and Zuko also here another Zoo guy um hi I'm Destiny I'm also from Chicago um I just want to know like what were your favorite parts of being able to voice your like individual characters because the show is just so Dynamic where it's like it was a kid's show it was like on Nickelodeon so like had a lot of funny times but also a touch of fun like a lot of heavy and serious topics so you guys all had like also a lot of serious things that you're like acting with and I was just curious like what were your favorite parts that you remember having to do yeah I'll say it was a very very fun experience to be like comedic relief on a show like this they were there would be a very playful collaborative environment when we were doing particularly like jokey like the cactus shoe stuff was very just like get in here let's play let's try a bunch of stuff uh it'll quench you yeah quenchiest uh [Applause] so that was the stuff that regularly was very exciting and very fun and when we started I kind of just assumed that's what I was going to be doing for as many seasons as we made the show just like getting a bunch of really fun jokes um so to then later start cracking scripts where they're like oh no they're really like challenging this character and having this character evolve too that this is also the comedic relief is also going to have a big Arc and gonna grow um was really cool to to like by the end of season one be like okay now I'm like oh I'm like we're in the north and I'm like falling in love and then oh oh boy don't want to read that yet it was really it was just a a beautiful gift as an actor to get to explore a character like them yes again I think I don't I didn't really know where the story was going I wasn't even thinking about where the story was going it was kind of later on booktuber through we were like this is crazy those things are happening I really just thought I was gonna be a villain first when I first signed onto the show and they showed me the picture of Zuko with that ponytail and uh and the in the scar because me and me and may were both doing uh American Dragon Jake Long yes uh on Disney and that was like more like a sitcomy comedy but me and they were both doing that and then we both got offered this other thing to do and I was like oh we have another show uh and I was like oh I'll just be the the hero on on Disney and I'll be the villain on Nickelodeon little did I know what was going to happen with this character I haven't seen American Dragon but does he have a villain Arc does it be does he become he ends up going the other way wow so I think one of the when when you're doing a weekly show the the joy of it sometimes is just kind of being in the moment and trying to fulfill each of these scenes and with Zuko he I I don't know what he was doing I mean he was I was happy for him I'm upset with him like everybody else what is he doing I'm with the gang I'm not I'm leaving the gang you know I'm going with Azula for some dumb reason [Music] what are you doing man um but it was I just went on the roller coaster ride with everybody else and each week when you're in the booth you're just trying to fulfill like that scene at that moment and do a good job especially when you have someone like Andrea you're just you're not foreshadowing at all you're just like what am I trying to do right now and so when you're kind of doing that moment-to-moment stuff and you look at it later on years later you're like oh that was what's going on so hopefully in life it's going to work out too you know I think we all like zuku because we all want to be redeemed for something in our life in our lives [Music] I I started to touch on it before just like how how much life lessons you can learn from the show and then like again a lot of that came later with re-watching it and seeing just like how real really really deep this show can get in so many different topics whether it's like the geopolitical conflict and the ways that that takes shape and how that reflects the real world um or just like the wisdom um you know of the characters um and yeah just opening the script reading that through was just it was a great experience thank you very much thank you thank you I want to know as a kid because how were you when you did it how old were you like I was like 10 to 14. so how cool was it that you knew you were the avatar at 10 years old like it was pretty cool it's cool right that's all and it still is it gotta be like you're saying like on the Avatar yeah yeah a series is called Avatar it's called Avatar and I'm the Avatar so guess what that's me yeah thank you hi guys my name is Sandra I'm from Chicago and seeing you guys here um a week before I moved to LA to pursue animation is just an amazing send-off [Applause] um I was one of the OG fans I watched the show back in the early 2000s and it inspired me to change career paths and go into animation and study it and I was just so inspired um to just make it in animation production Zach it's awesome to see you I just wanted to say one thing before I asked my question hello you are alive after all I had and thought you'd survived but it doesn't matter I've known about the invasion for months gray is that you pretty good I had other messages for Jack and Dante I don't want to waste any more time um don't scare me don't scare me the PTS my question is um have you been approached by people like me and over the years who have been inspired to pursue animation and voice over voice directing um and what have been the words of advice and wisdom that you've given them so many I mean I love uh I love having this conversation because we're all artists and I love coming to cons because we're this is our people we're this is a community of creatives worldwide every Comic-Con consists of actors and cosplayers and illustrators and designers and just that's one of the things that I love to come to the economy a part of this community so the people that choose to move on and go to the next level and try to make it their profession or and try to live with it you know uh I always wish him good luck on the journey for sure I've been an actor Alexa we've all been kid actors I've been an actor over 37 years and gone on to film filmmaking and directing and writing it always comes down to first knowing your craft getting good at your craft you know you need a little bit of luck the better you get the luckier you'll get for sure and then I always want to remind people whether that they're in any kind of acting voice actor be it's a good acting but if you're going to be an artist be a good a great artist even and as much as we dive into other stories and other characters and we do these other things I always try to remind them it actually always is going to come back down to you you there's a million people coming to LA to Hollywood to New York to do the industry and there's a million things that people can do and they're going to ask you to do and there's one thing that none of them can do it's you and so the courage to find yourself and put yourself in everything that you do is your one piece of like magic that you can bring that no one else can bring to everything you're doing so get good at everything else get as good as you can get it that's that's your job but the courage and the magic is always going to come back to you I mean yeah oh yeah buy like one other piece of advice that I I think about a lot is like try as often as possible to be the least talented person in the room like go into spaces where you know you're like gonna have to punch way above your weight and where you're gonna be able to absorb stuff from people who are more experienced or more talented or whatever and yeah obviously all that is personal perception or whatever but like be the oh yeah here we go ready an avatar thing be the non-bender in the room right like get find go be of course Saka says that no be the heart be the one who goes like oh wow all these people are incredible at all this stuff and how do I like rise to that level that's I think a challenge that if you set that for yourself as often as possible you're going to keep growing and growing that's so good you could do that and when no sorry no go ahead all right when you find yourself in those spaces don't be afraid to ask questions uh there's no such thing as a stupid question I'm sure we've all heard that a million times but it's true um you're there to learn you will learn you will get better and just keep creating just don't stop do you and the best of luck to you in your career hi I'm Katie I'm from Lansing Michigan hi the other person um my question is if there's someone in this room or out there who hasn't seen Avatar what would you tell them to get them to watch the show what would it mean for you to what would you want them to know just like if you're wondering how to run a tea shop like how long to see Jasmine how much uh I don't I mean the magic thing for me with Avatar would it would it kind of influenced a lot if not all most of the animation that's come after it um it depends how this person's like if you're already on the anime that's another thing like you're already deep in the water but this is I gotta look when I grew up when I grew up cartoons were very black and white in the sense of their Autobots and Decepticons and we looked at them we looked at the world in a certain way and especially when you're young your mind's developing and you kind of get these perceptions of the world and whatnot Avatar happened and you get to see that the world is much more gray and much more like it is there's four yeah there's this epic story of of these of this gang trying to save the world there are four elements but these four elements there's good and bad in every element and the the characters we don't know who's the heroes who's the villains things change as they do in life like this is the kind of story that that can change one of the craziest Stars I tell I'm at New York Comic-Con and I'm signing an autograph for for this kid who's doing his 20s now and he's like thank you I grew up with you I'm like I'm glad you grew up with us and he's like no no you don't get it and he goes I go what he goes you programmed Our Generation I said what he goes Avatar you guys you programmed Our Generation I go what do you mean he goes well why why do you think we're the generation that brought back protests black lives matter movement the metoo movement he goes we're trying to bring the world Back in Balance crazy I can't follow that thank you so before this will be our last question unfortunately but everyone here is so excited to see all of you so before everyone heads out after this last question could we all take a picture with all these amazing people oh yeah [Applause] question first oh my God yes question question first question first can we do two we got one yes yes yes yes we'll do what we'll do two more questions you and then we'll go right over here well my name is Mary I'm from Chicago shout out to Rogers Park and yeah that's what I like to hear so um I'm the kid of immigrants I'm a little sister and what was amazing about Avatar to me growing up was its commitment to the family Dynamic right you have siblings uncles all of these relationships plus like the way that the gang evolves over time and also the themes of chosen family as well as the family that you already have in your life so I was just wondering how did your personal relationships with your family your parents your siblings influence the characters that you played and did you ever bring those feelings of your own family into the way that you brought kind of the gang and the families together throughout the series yes I'm I'm one of five siblings I'm the middle child um so I am a little brother I am an older brother and I have a sister she has some Azula energy sometimes if I have brothers and I have a close group of friends that are that are family so I think definitely that that that played somewhere in my playing of Zuko yeah I definitely Saka is the older brother and I definitely brought a lot of younger brother energy to it very intentionally I was like yeah he's like trying to be a leader in this way but I am a very obnoxious younger brother to my older sister Jamie um and I and I felt that some of that needed to shine through the like sort of friendly antagonism of a of a brother I think I mean the crazy thing about Ang is that he he has nobody uh and you know I'm someone who's blessed to have a loving family um and I think the only thing I could really draw from would be to like imagine not having that and that's the you know because it's not an experience that I've ever had uh so just really just trying to imagine the absence of all of that is just how to create Aang in those moments thank you thank you hello my name's Olivia and I'm from Wisconsin [Music] [Applause] what's your favorite movie to play in thank you uh what which movie do I plan to playing hook it's not bad um my current favorite movie to to like uh uh pretend to be in is I have a three-year-old and she's set for some reason recently got very very into the Stage production of Newsies that's on Disney so I spent a lot of time with my three-year-old like staging a union strike like that's what she likes to right now I feel like this is the the last scene in tar if any of you have seen that movie I don't know I mean I think yeah I think I think a hook would be good I love I still love lost boys and Pirates and everything [Applause] Bangarang Bangarang you guys thank you so much Olivia thank you Olivia thanks Olivia you're welcome

Channel: Popverse

Views: 94,593

Keywords: comic con, comic convention, Popverse, Popverse Says, The Popverse, Reed Pop, avatar, avatar the last airbender, nickelodeon, dante basco, mae whitman, jack de sena, zach eisen, netflix, avatar studios, avatar legends, braving the elements, avatar braving the elements, c2e2, veronica valencia

Id: 2rHmKCNi13o

Length: 56min 53sec (3413 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 02 2023