"Breaking Ranks" (S1E6) w/ SPECIAL GUEST DANTE BASCO!

Bangarang! The group is joined this week by Dante Basco (voice of Jai Kell). They discuss the episode, Star Wars as a whole and Dante shares some stories about his journey in Hollywood. Also, did you know Dante is the reason this podcast exists? And that he auditioned for the role of Ezra? 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When I did a hook I remember George Lucas coming
to the set and talking to him about Star Wars,
because you're like, oh my god, this like Island's doing
all this stuff here, and and you always get to
talk to people that got to work on Star Wars
and got to work on the Droids, and it doesn't
matter what you're shooting, and someone worked on Star Wars,
you're like, hey, how is that? Like what was that?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Like? You know, Hello, and welcome everyone to Pot of Rebellion.
I am Vanessa Marshall and the voice of Harrison Doula
Specter two, and I'm here with my friends.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Hi.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I'm TSR Car voice of Sabina Wren Spectr five.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
With Talor Gray spect six as your bridger, and we've
got leading us well.

Speaker 5 (00:51):
I am your non spector moderator, John Lee Brody. Always
always a pleasure to join my friends here on the
Ghost or Pot of Rebellion. But we're not alone today.
We have a very special guest, our first ever guest,
mind you, and this person is pretty much responsible for
us having this podcast. We're going to get into that.
You might know them from such shows as like Nash
Bridges or Hanging with mister Cooper or you know, giving

(01:12):
turnal custom nikes on entcharge, or smaller productions like Avatar
to Last Airbender and Hook. You might have heard of
those last two. Please welcome our first ever guest. I'm
Potter Rebellion, mister Dante Bosco's.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Up you guys. Hey, I'm glad to I'm glad to
join your rebel alliance here.

Speaker 6 (01:27):
We're happy to have you welcome.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
So, as I mentioned, you are pretty much the reason
we had this because before I came into the fold,
it was a Vanessa te and Taylor had had a
conversation with you, and you were the one that I
believe and I'll let I'll throw it to you all
to tell this my side that the only side of
our story I know is that you put the bug
in their ear that they should do with rebels rewatch podcasts.
So we're here all thanks to you, my friend.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Hey, I'm glad to be of service. I'm glad to
be of service to my fellow artisans out here.

Speaker 6 (01:58):
Yeah, where were we were? In air Arizona? I think
at a convention at a convention and yeah we're talking.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
I've known Dante since we go back, I know Donte
longer than anyone I've known on here actually because we
played in the entertainment before.

Speaker 6 (02:13):
Yeah, that was.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yes, years ago. Were cool.

Speaker 6 (02:19):
We might have been teammates.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
We might have been teammates one season, I think so.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
But then, yeah, we were just talking in Arizona and
you were like, yeah, have been doing this podcast which
we'll have to talk about later as well.

Speaker 6 (02:32):
You're in your what fourth season?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah? Four since coming up right now.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Exciting and you were like, you should get after it,
and Vanessa jumped at it in a very great way,
put it together with Tia and John, and I think
it's sort of just took off like wildflop. I wasn't
expecting it to go so quickly, and it's been great.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
It's phenomenal. I love that you guys are doing. It's
picking it up. It's really you know. The thing is,
we're all actors and we come from a different era,
like you know, tell us that we go back to
another time. And obviously we're all we've all been around
the block a few times, you guys. But the words
changed and things are changing, and media is changing, and
all these different avenues are opening up and it's new

(03:11):
ways to tell stories, new ways to explore the stories
we've already told, and it's really, it's really an exciting time.
So I'm glad you guys are doing this, and I'm glad. Look,
I'm glad to be a part of, you know, the
Star Wars universe. For me, like many many people, Star
Wars is the first fandom and no matter whatever else
we've got to do in our careers or whatever else

(03:32):
like get to do later on in this career, being
able to have a little piece of Star Wars is
just the childhood dream of mine. As I'm sure it's
a lot of people out there.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I was actually wondering. I was going to ask you
like you are First of all.

Speaker 7 (03:49):
I think you are the workingst actor.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
I know, yeah, that's real work, but y'all, for those
who are listening, just take a peek at Dante's IMDb
page and just like, look at the not just the
sheer scandal before.

Speaker 7 (04:04):
I know, you've been working for.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
A long time because I started so young. That's why
I started so young and repertoire.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
But I was curious about that because I was like,
you're you are part of so many fandoms and so like,
how does Star Wars.

Speaker 7 (04:23):
How does Star Wars compare.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Star Wars Number one? It's the og fandom.

Speaker 6 (04:28):
Let's go.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
I just, you know, since a little kid, before I
got to LA when I was ten, because me and
my brother break dancers, and we came to LA and
we started this industry as dancers and all that was gone.
But before all that was happening, we were kids playing
in the garage with lightsabers that were the red you
know flashlights with the PBC pipe coming out of it,

(04:51):
and going to watch you know, I mean, I was
a kid when Jedi returned to the Jedi came out,
Like I remember all the you know, the happy meals
and all stuff like that that but we would also
go in those days to all the you know, they
would re release Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. So
I saw those in the theaters and those were that was.

(05:13):
Those are the movies and all the toys that we
bought and destroyed and we wish we knew they were
gonna be worth something some day and we would not
have shot them with BB guns. And I haven't talked
to all these people, like you know, Boba Fet, like
no one knew his name was Boba Fett. He was
the bounty hunter. He was the bun for like years
until we got the toys, like who's bet.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
No.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
But so Star Wars is definitely just core memories and
just you know, we we all want to when we're kids,
we all want to be Luke Skywalker. Then we grew
up and we realized you actually want to behind solo. Yeah,
and you know everything, I mean, the Lower, I mean,
the whole thing is is great. Even when I got

(05:59):
to do things later on life and when I did
The Hook, I remember George Lucas coming to the set
and talking to him about Star Wars because you're like,
oh my god, this like Island's doing all this stuff here,
and and you always get to talk to people that
got to work on Star Wars and got to work
on the Droids, and it doesn't matter what you're shooting,
and someone worked on Star Wars, You're like, hey, how
is how is that? Like what was that?

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Like?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
You know it? And they carried on when I got
to do my character here is Jake kel would you
guys and sitting down and talking fol on me about
the Lower the lord of the whole world, the lord
that you're a character, and you guys, and I was
like sitting around with uncle Uncle fhlone will just tell
you this is what happens when that's happening. Your character

(06:43):
is doing this, and and it's just you just sitting
down for hours and just hear about the whole, you know,
the lore of Star Wars.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
It's like talking to an encyclopedia.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
And now you're you're like the Kevin Bake, you know,
like the fandoms because you've been in pretty much every
single main thing. You know, it's like, it's the Degrees
of Dante.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, I think, yeah, no, I think that's what That's hilarious,
And you know, it's crazy. Is the whole world of
com the comic con world, the community of comic CON's worldwide,
and we've all been having the good fortune traveler in
the world and interacting with different fandoms and cast members
and friends from different fandoms, and it's just a very

(07:23):
fascinating experience that we're having that was not here twenty
years ago, ten years ago. It started kind of happening,
but now it's a whole. It's really a worldwide community.
And these things like my Avatar podcast, this podcast comes
out of these communities and it's really you know, that's
I think that's the centergy and the connections. But we're

(07:44):
going to say of an s I'm sorry, Well, it's
really funny.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
I had never met you before, and I have sort
of a what it was like for me at the
very beginning of this this this show had not come
out yet, and I started to meet people on Twitter,
kind of on the down low, and I met a
Mandalorian who put me in touch with a five oh
first person where he's going to create a female Stormtrooper
outfit for me and hold on, I just stay with

(08:09):
me for one second, we'll get to the eleven. So
John Carlo Volpe, you know John Carlo. Of course, he
invited me to your birthday party.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
And I was like, are you.

Speaker 8 (08:19):
Sure this dude's going to be cool with me going
to his party. I mean, like, he doesn't know me
at all. He's like, no, you'll come, It'll be great.
So Kevin Weir was a I believe at the time,
the head of the Los Angeles five oh first Okay,
he was like, who are you? And I said, well,
I can't really tell you how I'm involved with Star Wars,
but I'm a huge fan and his wife was like,

(08:40):
who is this? So John Carlo said, tell Kevin Weir
of the five oh first to meet you at the party.
You will all be my guests and this will legitimize
you getting your femme Stormtrooper kit made. So I go
up to Hollywood Boulevard.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
You had like circus acts and like I was, it
was Christmas morning for me and I had my like
five or first Stormtrooper jacket on, and this and that,
and Kevin's wife finally got that I'm not like a
psychopath stalking her husband. You know, the theem trooper is
in the works, this and that. But your birthday party
played a pivotal role in linking me up with more

(09:21):
Star Wars family. I mean, it really is six degrees
of Dante. That's a thank you for your service. You
were being of service back then and you didn't even know. Hey,
you know, the whole thing was communities and fandoms. I
didn't grow up in this world like the comic con world.
In the community, I was I was a you know,
as a B boy, and I was a hip hop
kid and then I was a club kid in La

(09:42):
So when I got embraced by the fandoms on Tumblr, Twitter,
where you know, the comic con world, it's so much
as you guys know, there's so much love and there's
so much adoration coming to you.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
It's like you want to give something back. And I
the only thing I give back was like my exp rings,
which was the club experience. So I started throwing clubs
for the nerds scene and we did stuff like before COVID,
we were doing opening parties for common Con San Diego,
and I'd go around the country and if they wanted
me to come to Connell DJ and I'll do stuff

(10:15):
like that. So it was my give back to the
community for what what I could do authentically, you know
what I'm saying. And we had some cool I'm glad
you made it to one of those, but that's amazing.
Those are great parties.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Kevin Richardson was there the house. I think I'm trying
to find photos of it.

Speaker 6 (10:34):
It's just.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
It was crazy. It was it was I think that
was that was the one. That supper club, I think
it was it was. I don't know, I had a few.
Maybe my birthday was that.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Anyways, my birthday came sounds familiar. I'm trying to find
the pictures?

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Did find.

Speaker 7 (10:57):
Amore?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
I don't think there was a a.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
DJ danced you played in a band at What haven't
you done?

Speaker 1 (11:06):
I don't know, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 7 (11:08):
Have you written your autobiography yet?

Speaker 1 (11:10):
I have a book. My memoirs is out. Yeah, my
memoirs is out. Did really well.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
We released right for COVID and uh it's called from
Luefield to Zuko. I'm actually writing on one man show
right now that will probably be torn amazing.

Speaker 7 (11:25):
Sorry, I should have known that I should. I should.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
It's okay, I mean, I mean I didn't. I'm like,
I feel like I'm a journeyman, you know, like a
journey like a real journeyman actor, a dancer in this
in look, man, I feel so fortunate because this industry
has I've got to do so many things, from dancing
to acting, producing films especially, I mean I produced Asian films,

(11:48):
uh for the last ten to fifteen years, direct and
produce and so and I still act in voiceovers and
uh and I don't know, I try.

Speaker 6 (11:59):
I don't know if that's a career, and that's a
career in entertainment.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
I mean I wrote down questions and I wrote that
down like you've been directing as well.

Speaker 6 (12:05):
You really have done it from all sides in this industry.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, I got to direct my first film called The
Fabulous Filipino Brothers. That's the thing I wrote Belloyd Pride
and on me and Taylor from Lloyd Pride, So I
wrote it for my brothers and myself and we got
to shoot here in the Philippines and a premier at
south By Southwest and it did really well and we're
maybe doing the sequels soon. But yeah, as I got

(12:31):
to my forties, late thirties forties, I was like I
started producing Asian films and just trying to give something
that I didn't have for my generation, you know what
I'm saying, and like give it, pay it forward. I
started this group called We on the Eighth where it
was like the eighth day of every month, we just
have a have an event and we screened short filmed

(12:53):
by Asian filmmakers and we'd have speakers from like you
know Randall Park to like Tinto getto like YouTube were
stars Fortune five one hundred people just really Asians to
Asians talking about the industry and about their experiences and
trying to pass it forward and it's called We on
the Eighth and we did that for uh for four years,

(13:13):
and that those conversations led up to things like trade
rich Asians. JOHNA. True called me up, like we need
to talk. I got a film. We were doing some things,
and so it's great to be a part of the
dialogue and the conversation which led to this kind of
golden nere of what's happening for Asians in Hollywood right now.
And so I mean, we do, we can't, you know,
we do, we can't. We try to be of service
as it is.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
You've been doing it for so long and yet like
it's so refreshing you still have so much energy and
like love for it.

Speaker 7 (13:45):
Which is lovely to see. I mean, we all did
right like that, right, Yeah, I don't know something.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, there's like ebbs and flows and shirt floats, but.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
I can tell that you still like, you know, I
don't want to speak for us, but I feel like
I can to say, like there's nothing else we would
rather be doing than what we get to do and
are privileged enough to do. But it's like amazing to
see that you just man, you're like the energizer bunny.
You've got like so much energy and so much passion
for it, and you just keep going.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, And I think we also do this situation where
it's like we don't know how to do anything else,
Like I have any other skills, There's nothing else anyone
would hire me to do than to do this. I
have no other skills. I can't do anything else. So
that makes it easy, an easy choice.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
I guess, well, your skills are very very sharpened this one, so,
I mean, I think you're going to be all right.

Speaker 9 (14:41):
So should we get into this episode.

Speaker 6 (14:49):
Background?

Speaker 5 (14:50):
And I know the listeners are loving this pre show
talk and everything too, and you know, but we probably
given an episode too.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Well before we go. I don't know Taylor was how
we I got to this world. I was up for Taylors.
I was up for Ezra. You know Edra doesn't remember
because Edra got the role that so this is it
came down. Yeah, so it came down and I knew.
I knew Taylor, and I also knew the other. First

(15:20):
came out of three people at least from this happened.
Do you remember the final audition?

Speaker 6 (15:25):
It was me, dude, I was so late to that.
I know Taylor was like, I'm not going I was
not because.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
When I got into VO two, I didn't know what
I was doing for the whole thing. But by this
time I had done a serious right and I was like, oh,
Taylor is exactly where I was few years ago. I
don't know, I'm an on camera guy, don't know what
I'm doing THEO Anyhow, to my knowledge, it came down
to Ezra, came down to three actors and Brighton James,

(15:51):
who's also in this episode, who plays the other character
that's wild right, So it came down to us three,
and then Taylor ended up getting it. Me and actually
Brian ended up doing another show called ZBO three together
where we were to the hero two of the five
heroes or whatever. But Taylor got this one, and then

(16:13):
they brought us back as these other rebel kids when
he gets locked in. So it all there's like the
whole you know, there's a whole backstories that we don't
even know that's in the stories in the production, and
this episode shows one of the backstories that we were
the other two actors up for Ezra. So it makes
sense that we're the two other kind of kids that

(16:34):
break out of the Empires.

Speaker 6 (16:37):
I love that circle perfect.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
To quote Darth Vada, the circle is complete, basically, isn't
what you've done with this? So we are doing Season one,
episode six, Breaking Ranks. Original air date November three, twenty fourteen.
I believe, and Jason can fact check on me on this.
I believe seven days after this, the first trailer for
Force Awakens came out or something like that, or maybe
it might might I think so, or something like that.

(17:02):
So something with the Force Awakens was tied to November
twenty fourteen, or it might be a year off. So Dante,
I do like a quick little recap, kind of like
how Teskane would do stuff on Clone Wars. But mind's
a little longer, and I don't sound I don't sound
like Tom Kane, but I just sound like me. But
without further I do, I guess. I wait for the
magic words from Vanessa since she's the captain of the

(17:23):
Ghost so she.

Speaker 9 (17:24):
Has to Johnny.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
There we go.

Speaker 5 (17:28):
So here we go, Season one, episode six, Breaking Ranks.
We get a glimpse of what Stormtrooper School looks like.
Into our surprise, one of the bucketheads and training is Ezra.

Speaker 9 (17:36):
No No. Ezra has not joined the Empire.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
He's actually undercover, opposing as a storm Trooper cadet under
the alias Dev Morgan and efforts to get information on
an Imperial Kyber Crystal shipment, much like how Ernie Rays
Junior's character would infiltrate the fook claning Partoo sect or
they use great movie, She got to check it out.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
By the way, you know a Filipino Taylor the Filipino and.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
As Martial Artis remind you that dude is no joke. Meanwhile,
the rest of the Ghost crew is on standby for
support as Ezra does his mission impossible thing. And even
though Canan clearly comes from the generation of men who
won't openly express their feelings, it's rather obvious he's worried
about his young padawan. While undercover, Ezra deferends two cadets, Jaikel,
who sounds a lot like the character Ben Mercado from

(18:18):
the Filipino American movie The Debut from the year two thousand.
We'll get into that too. I know it's a deep
poll and Zia Leonis, who is voiced by a guy
who was once Steve Urkel's neighbor.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
It's true.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
Look that up and after getting the needed intel from
Kallus's office, Ezra overhears the commanding officers talking to the
Inquisitor and decides to stay behind and help his new friends.
He even goes as far is blaming the Ghost Crew,
saying that their whole help others mentality has rubbed off
of him. It's the kind of projection that Sigmund Furroud
would have a field day with. As Ezra helps his
friends Canaan and Haarah intercept the Imperial shipment of Kyber

(18:48):
Crystal in a suspensi suspenseful high stakes battle, and Hara,
as she often does, comes through in the clutch like
Reggie Miller at Madison Square Garden in the nineties, by
destroying the Kyber Crystal shipment just in time and back
of the storm Trooper Academy, zeb Sabin and Schopper come
to the aid of Ezra and his friends, but in
the shocking move, Zara decignes to stay behind enemy lines,
but Ezra promises him he'll stay in touch. Zara, now

(19:11):
on his own, must maintain his cover while also answering
to the Inquisitor. Meanwhile, the Ghost Crew assures Ji they'll
get him to his mother. Well, have to go into hiding,
and Ezra expresses the Canaan that even though he's been
on his own, he's forgotten what it's like to be
on his own, but he has now embraced the idea
of being part of a team and finds comfort in
the fact that, like the Michael Jackson song, he is

(19:32):
not alone.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Wells, Deep Cuts, Deep Cuts, John.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
I knew we're gonna have Asian heavy episodes. I'm like,
God to throw some Ernie Race Junior in there. Oh yeah,
because people don't have. Reggie Miller was a bad bad man,
especially sware Garden.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
You know what I mean. He killed people ten seconds.

Speaker 9 (19:58):
Oh yeah, he killed Spike.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
Spike Lee has clearly gone nine lives because he got
killed many times by Reggie Miller.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
Guys, when you guys reapt the episodes since it's been
years back and as we do the avatar thing the
other things, do you even remember some of these things
or do you're like, is it just like a fog
some of these episodes.

Speaker 6 (20:16):
To you the lad Yes, yeah, this is a first
watch for me.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
No, I mean, listen, my first season of our podcast,
we were like, I gotta I'm watching every episode, but
I never watched the I never watched the show in
chronological order until the till the podcast. And it's fascinating
because I think a lot of we've all been actual
for a long time, right, So I've never gone back
to watch anything I've done in depth and have to

(20:43):
talk about it. I mean, I was like, this is
the first experience I've had of actually watching some of
my work and kind of trying to be you know,
have some thoughts about it, have some kind of new
things to talk about. So it was a It's a
very interesting thing just as a artist and as a
person to kind of go back and look at these things.

(21:06):
You know, I'm sure I feel.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Like, you know, no, I haven't watched any of these
episodes since they first aired.

Speaker 7 (21:13):
Taylor hasn't watched most of the episodes ever, So.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
We're like, that was a cool session. I'm gonna go
play some basketball in this sea.

Speaker 6 (21:23):
But I feel like.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
It's it's it's it's unusual because I've never gone back
after a long time and watched something I did, but
watched it. I'm not watching it for my perform you know.
I don't know if you guys like you go to
you go to a premiere and you and you're like
watching like between like like what what I'm constantly critiquing
my own performance. But this time time around, I feel

(21:46):
like I'm able to sort of because we were here
for something different, right, We're here to talk about the story.
We're here Reveniste about like what was happening, you know,
in those recording sessions, and so I'm able to like
watch it as audience member more so than I probably
did the first time I watched these episodes around you know, Lincoln,
and was like, oh, Tia, you know or whatever.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
However, we a yeah, and sometimes like, I don't know
any memory of this at all. I've never learned ever
saying that I said that, I don't remember those words
ever coming out of my mouth ever.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
Yeah, And I thing with this show is you don't
have to worry about I forget who first said this.
When you go to a premiere of a movie, you're
just like watching your hair a lot, and you're watching
certain things and you don't have to worry about any
of that.

Speaker 6 (22:31):
You're like, well, at least that looks fine.

Speaker 7 (22:33):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (22:36):
Something that comes up a lot the hair on this show,
Like everyone's had a hair like Jake Kell's got a
good head of hair.

Speaker 9 (22:41):
Man, He's got that click.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
He is he should have was on CW show with
that kind of hair going on and the character.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Made into a Soka. They were like, he made it
into the live action Jake Kill for real? For real? Yeah, crazy,
So I guess it's cool to have a little piece
of Star Wars. It's very And the thing is, yeah,
when you do the show for years, like it becomes
one big crazy memory. But because I was only with
you guys for a short period of time, I do

(23:09):
remember the session with you guys, and I asked the
great I asked some good memories because I remember we
were at It was at La Studios right right down
in Coiga, which which is one of my favorite studios
to record. We did all of American Dragon Jake Long
for Disney there. So they have the best food for
people out there. They have the for me. They have

(23:30):
the best kitchen in Voiceover studios. They always have ice cream,
hogging dogs, bars in the freezer and they'll hang out
coffee and they have good snacks. It's awesome. So I
love that place. And you guys had the big room
in the back because that's all the cast was there,
and I was like, Yo, this is so awesome that
everyone is here and we can actually hear the whole episode.

(23:51):
And it was kind of daunting because it was there's
got to be at least ten people in the room.
It was a lot of us. It was a big
girl but my boy Dee Bradley Baker was there, who's
one really good friends from Avatar, so it's nice to see.
Steve Bloom was there, who was also a good buddy
to see him work. Freddy Prince was there, who I
had known Freddy from. He was like, man, don't we
know each other? And we go back probably just from

(24:13):
my club days when we were kids. I was like, yeah, Grayer,
but yeah, we're probably running around Joseif sir, I don't
know name of my club from back in those days,
Lax we were Oh god, we were. We probably bumped
into each other durned those times. So it was kind
of cool to see everybody and the energy of everyone there,

(24:35):
and of course Filoni out there directing us was just amazing.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
This is the one me and O'Brien was there, uh
and he played was the voice of the Commander and
this was his first visit and he said that we
were all kind of buttoned up, and by the time
he came back, like, I don't know if it was
the next season, he's like, y'all are way more comfortable now.

Speaker 7 (24:57):
Because we had come off.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah, He's like, Wow, this is a different vive in here,
but this is this is his first visit, so I
guess he based his subsequent commentary on, Uh, I don't know,
did you feel that we were buttoned up?

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Or I don't I thought you guys at all were cool,
because it's always weird to be a guest star coming
into someone else's show because everyone's like it's like click,
you know, like okay, everyone's homies up in here, and
then you're just, you know, you're trying I step up.
I go on, Taylor, what's up?

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Man?

Speaker 1 (25:27):
What's up? You're just trying to like fit in and
not step on anyone's toes. And you know how it
is when you're doing a new character. You don't even
know if you have a new you know, you're like,
are they going to fire me in front of all
these people that the right person? There's all that doubt
that comes into your mind. It looks like everyone knows
what they're doing and you don't know what you're doing
yet you know so, but to me, you guys seemed

(25:48):
all cool. Now this was everyone's first animated series.

Speaker 7 (25:51):
Or or no, you're talking to Vanessa Marshall, right.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
But Taylor's first one, your first lat Yeah, Taylor and
I were.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Sort of like the newviies. I won't speak for Taylor,
but I was like just trying to, you know. I
had Vanessa Marshall, Steve Bloom and Freddy Frints Junior to
like just just try not to get fired a and
be just like be a sponge and try and soak
up as much of their expertise and just like talent

(26:22):
and experience as I could. I still try to do that,
But yeah, Taylor and I were sort of always kind
of giving each other's looks like.

Speaker 6 (26:32):
What are we doing it? What are we doing right?

Speaker 4 (26:35):
I mean you coming into the show, I don't know
if I ever told you it brought me this sense
of relief. I was like, oh, I'm comfortable because, like
a lot of things you'd go into, I knew someone
someone was producing it or another actor in this I
was like, I don't know anyone. I also don't know
much about stars. I'm literally I'm just trying to tread
water here. I don't I've never done voiceover. I don't
know why the hell I'm here. And then I was like,
Daunte okay. And I feel like when this episode started,

(26:59):
because I watched did last night, I was like, I
can hear that.

Speaker 6 (27:03):
I'm like a little more comfortable.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
I'm like, I'm like laughing through the first line, and
I'm like, oh, that's there.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
I am yeah, nice, I agree.

Speaker 7 (27:11):
I mean, I guess I'm so you just said that.
I hadn't thought about that.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
But you do sound very like like you've come into
your own and you've have like a sense of comfort
and like confidence and you're having you're.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Having It's like when you go to a party by
yourself and you're like you told all the boys to
meet there at seven and seven to fifteen.

Speaker 6 (27:29):
You're like, I'm the only one here, and then they
come in and the whole new thing turns on.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
Right Wait, the man that I was always here, why
why was he not acting like it?

Speaker 6 (27:37):
I was like, Oh, now we're kind of hanging out
and we're having fun. Look at this dude. Yeah, we
get coffee. I was able to breathe.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
It is nerve wrecking. I mean yeah, And when you
work with pros it gets a little you get a
little more nervous. I mean yeah, like yeah, ke macchister,
like like all these guys are great to liow you, like,
these people are so freaking good, and what am I doing?
Not a second? Were you guys for like the New
Voice actors? Were you guys? Did you standards or sitters?

(28:07):
Did you decide if you wanted to be a standard
or a sitter?

Speaker 7 (28:10):
Nobody said we all stood I was.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
A standard too. I'm definitely a standard. But there's so
many And that's there's so many sitters that are so
one hundred grand. There are sitters. I'd be like, oh no, oh,
I could knock Camels a sitter. Yeah, great, Delile doing great.
Delile is sitting down, great sitting, Kevin macution, They're all
sitting and I'm just standing, Like.

Speaker 6 (28:33):
I wish I would have made that power move early on.
That's what I was going to say.

Speaker 7 (28:38):
I didn't know that there was an option either. I
we all just went to our mics and stood. I
didn't know you could.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Uh, Vanessa your standard, I'm a standard. I stand one
hundred percent. The energy for me is good standing.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, but some people, I'm so amazed that they're just
sitting and killing the game. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
I think we're pretty I feel like all all five
of us are pretty like physical meaning there's like lots
of physicality even though we're voice acting. And probably for
some of us it's because we are on camera actors
primarily and then you know, trying to translate that into
a voice performance.

Speaker 7 (29:17):
But yeah, I feel like all of us.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
You know, Steve is like so big in his physicality,
especially playing zeb that there was always lots of like
I don't see how that man could have sat.

Speaker 7 (29:26):
That would have been a tragedy.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
You know. But yeah, don't get me a fight scene.
Don't get my content character in the fight scene, because
you will see me. I become a kng FU master
on that microphone, a Measley orange belt in real life
as a you know, year old kid, but on a microphone,
on like ten degree black belt. We're going in. Let's go.

(29:50):
I love it.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Oh, you're you're the grand grand Master at the microphone,
the grand grand Master. So, Dantelle, I want to circle
back to something you just said, because I find I
think are same. Sort of really appreciate your insights on
this because you do have such a long, illustrious career,
a very diverse career. But you talked about being a
guest star, which can be a daunting thing when you're
coming into a very familiar space. I just wonder in general,

(30:12):
if there's any insights you can share in terms of
aspiring actress that may be listening to our podcast of
if you could offer advice of obviously do that would
like know your work, know what you gotta do, but
there's anything that you've learned over that process of doing
hundreds of episodes of television that you would want to
pass on to people, because I think that could be
very valuable.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah. Okay, first of all, we got to say guest
star because I'd said guest star on TikTok one time
and say, oh, you're like, we're really on on yourself.
I'm like, no, I'm not. You're saying You're not saying
you're a star. There's a title for the character that
comes out for an episode. They're called the guest star.
It's not us saying we're stars that are guesting on
the show. Title that a guest show who is you know,

(30:53):
as you guys know, the guest star has the main
character of that show. If you give us short lines,
they'll call you a co star role. These are like idols.
This is business titles you guys of when you're doing
your contract. It's a guest star contract, co star contract,
featured character meaning you have maybe five lines or less,
you're like a featured actor. So that's what we're talking about.

(31:14):
So when we say guest star, that means when you
watch the episode and it's whatever, growing pains, But then
there's that one kid that came on the episode is
the bully. He's the guest star of the episode.

Speaker 7 (31:24):
Right, dancing yourself up right now?

Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, up, the guest star of the Show's clarification. I
never thought of that. I know what it sounds like,
but that's not what we're talking about. But as far
as advice goes, yeah, you know, when you come on
a show and you're guesting, it's daunting because you're the

(31:49):
thing about every show is it's a little families, right,
it's a little families, and you're coming in to hang
out with that family and you feel like an outsider
looking in, and uh, that's kind of like the whole gig.
But you gotta you know, you got to remember they
hired you for a reason. There's a role that you're

(32:09):
playing that's very essential for whatever's going on, and uh,
everyone wants to see you succeed. Mora, you know what
I'm saying. I mean there's stories obviously shows were like,
I don't think the person wants me wants me to
get fired, but more or less like the people that
hired you because they want you to succeed in this

(32:31):
role and there's something pivotal that you're supposed to be
doing that's gonna help their characters in the story that
they're doing ultimately. Right that being said, it's daunting. It's
it's we we've all been on shows and we're like,
don't have the full character yet. We feel like the
first before lunch, they're gonna fire me. They're gonna fire
me before lunch. They're gonna find out I'm not the

(32:51):
one for this situation. Uh, but I don't know what
the you know, you just gotta do your best and
go for I remember being you know, it's crazy, so
I remember it when I was like I did a
guest star one time on the Fresh Prince of bel Air,
right right, Yeah, I was doing that and they brought

(33:12):
me in and I'm playing Ashley, the daughter's boyfriend, and
so I mean there, but then the other guy, and
I'm nervous because I'm like, I don't I'm a fan
of the show.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
Matter of fact, it's a multi camera, don't people know,
like how hard multi cameras are, Like multi so tough
to do.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
I was at a club called Bar One, like the
week before in Hollywood. Click. I don't have a borrow
boots bells, but it was Bar One back in the day.
And then Tatsi Ali taps me on the shoulder and
she's with her boyfriend time Jonathan Brandis. Shout out to
Jonathan Jonathan and she's like, you're playing my boyfriend next week.

(33:55):
It's like what She's like, Yeah, you're gonna play my
boyfriend on Freshman, So oh yeah, I'm gonna do That's like, yes,
so you're my boyfriend. I we talk and she's super
cool shout to talk and then I go to and
I'm nervous on the set. Right, But the other guest
star of the show that week was Robin Gibbons, and
Gibbs was you know start the time she'd get married

(34:17):
Mike Tysonce you'd done had the class, all this stuff
and super hot. We all read a crush from Robin Gibbs.
And during the table read on Mondays. When you do
a show, you shoot on Friday, usually just a table
read on Monday. We're just around the table reading the script. Right,
I'm just talking to the people out there. We all
know what the tablewad is. And Robin's next to me,
and I'm nervous, and then she leans into me. She says, hey,

(34:39):
don't you don't you hate being the guest star of
the show, and like it's like a whole big family
here and just trying to like it looks like it
was judging you and stuff. And I'm like looking at
Robin like totally. So it just made me feel good that,
you know, other stars on the show are like feeling
what I'm feeling, and we're kind of like commit are

(35:00):
writing together. But in the end, you know, if you're
a young actor out there, the reality is you got it.
Bring it every time, even at the table read, bring it,
like the reason don't there's no cruising, there's no like
they hire me. I'm good I'm gonna bring it on
the day. I know people that got fired off of
the the table read, they're like, oh, this is the

(35:22):
wrong choice. It's like you're not the regular, the series
regular in the show. This is you, don't you know?
These series regulars have this job, they're contracted to have
this role through the whole season. You can get fired
before lunch. You can better make sure you're constantly letting
them know that they've made the right choice. So never
cruise through your things, like constantly do your work on

(35:44):
the rehearsals, kill it, I mean, find new things. So
by the time you're shooting is like you're really on
point and you're just giving up the confidence of the
producers and the writers and the directors like we made
the right choice. And then sometimes they bring you back
and you then you become a recurring character, recurring the character.

Speaker 9 (36:00):
Of recurring stars.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
I'm just gonna you made a good point, Dante, that, like,
no matter what status you're at, like Robin Gibbons at
the time being very big, you always feel those nerves.
And I forget who told the story sent of like
they were on a set, uh, and it was Meryl
Streep and Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep is like, I
feel a little nervy with these. We just think that
she's in previous things. And she was like, can we
run lines? And they were like, Meryl Streep is over

(36:24):
here asking can we just run lines?

Speaker 6 (36:25):
I want? I don't feel this yet, and I was
like it just goes.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
To show no matter how far you go, you're always
just working and trying to do your best.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
And I read like a premiere article back there. Meryl Streep,
she was like some movies coming on. She's like, I
just feel like this is my last thing. You know,
we're about to rap, and I feel like that my
last movie I'm ever gonna do. Like that's how we
all feel. We're about to wrap, like I'm never gonna
work again. This is my last thing. It's nice to
be so real. We're all equally crazy.

Speaker 9 (36:55):
Yeah, and as artists are always trying to figure it out.
I mean, uh.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
One of my first big bookings I got was this
indie movie called Pawn. It was with Michael Chicklis and
Forrest Whitaker and one of my yeah, and Forrest was
had only gotten the sides of that day. And I'm
telling you what it's Forest Whitaker, which who also of
course the Forest. He's like, it's word perfect what he does,
it's pitch perfect. I'm like, damn and he's like, no,
I'm still trying to figure it out, and like and

(37:19):
I'm nervous. This is my first big thing because I
I could have been fired off. I wasn't like a
main character in that. And he's like, hey man, just
just take it easy on me if I mess up,
and that that put me at such ease. Said that
word booking guy.

Speaker 9 (37:32):
Yeah, he's very like, yeah, I don't worry about a.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Quick story about Forrest, you know, guy, but this is
the podcast. But check this out.

Speaker 9 (37:43):
No, now we have to with you're saying that.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
I love Forest music. He came.

Speaker 9 (37:51):
Rebels, Yeah, he came home.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
So I'm up for this movie. They sent me these
this the sides for this movie. And they're doing the
Fat Albert movie, Fat Album, right, and they send me
the stuff and I'm like, what the Junkyard Gang. They're
all black kids, but you know it's Dante, you know,
and I grew up black Hollywood. I did all the
I mean, I'm I'm a brown dude in Hollywood. So

(38:14):
it's like, I'm I grew up in black Hollywood, like
that they pay my bills for forever. Like I'm of
the I'm of the culture, as they would saying, right,
but I'm like, but I'm not black. I can't be
with the whatever. That's like, go in. So I go
to the audition and it's all the hottest young black
actors at the time. We're all there. I called back
Bill Cosby. Everything for us with it at the time

(38:34):
is directing, right, and they got me playing dumb Donald.
Dumb Donald is the character in Junkyard Game with the
beanie and his eyes and stuff, you know what I'm saying.
And I'm like, but you know, it's an audition, Like
I'm a good I'm I'm gonna do it. You know,
Ruben Camp, I knew everybody, all the priests. I never
so it's not like I'm gonna turn down the gig.
I mean the audition. I still got to show face

(38:57):
and like it's a good politician, you know what I'm saying,
and his Forest Whitaker and I I'm everyone They're looking like,
what are you doing it? I'm like, I don't know, bro.
So I go in and Forrest Bless us all. He's there,
he's directing at the time. He says, you're doing dumb
Donald and say, yeah, okay, let's see it, Dante, and

(39:17):
I do it. I do this whole ten page frigging audition,
doing the whole thing, you know, and then I'm done
in silence in there, you know, thet'll copy all this stuff.
And he's like, Dante, I love you, man, I said, thanks, Forrest.
He goes, yeah, Man, I love I love what you do.

(39:38):
I love you. I just I just can't get through
my head that after all these years, dumb Donald's gonna
take off his beanie. It's gonna be you. That's what
I agree, Forrest, Forrest. I agree you said, after all

(40:02):
these years, dumb Donald's going to take off his baby.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
That's funny.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
You Wow, who got the job? I think who did that?
I feel like it was uh guy. His name is
my tongue, not one of the beach k guys like
righte that click good dude, hilarious.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
I mean, who of us hasn't had a had a Sorry,
I'm trying to check real quick.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Marcus Houston, Mark Marquise Houston, Marquis Marquis Marquise Houston yes, yes, yes, yes, I.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Love that guy who hasn't like gone. You know, I
can't even tell you how many auditions I've had where
I'm like, how.

Speaker 7 (40:50):
Could this possibly do me?

Speaker 6 (40:52):
But you know what, I'm going to give.

Speaker 7 (40:54):
It my best shot, but like, how couldn't.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
But times have changed his starting like I started when
I was young, and like now it's way more like
that would never happen. But early on, especially being ambiguous
in a way, they can't really place you like that,
no one knew what I've played.

Speaker 6 (41:12):
I mean, I just played out Franken.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
But the first role I ever played was John Loguizamo
and Rosie Prez's son, and they were speaking Spanish to
me in the first take. Brad Furman also Eligue friend
he had directed it. Do you remember Brad, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he was directing and he goes, Taylor, why are
you not speaking? And I was like, well, dude, I
don't know Spanish. I was like, wait, I thought you
were Colombian. I was like, what are you talking about?

(41:36):
And so I'm already on the job and talk about
that thing.

Speaker 6 (41:38):
I was like. I went to my mom.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
I was like, well, I'm obviously fired, and they're like no, no,
like just they're going to say Spanish to you. You
just like not along and then they'll speak in English.
And I was like, I guess that's how it goes.
But now I feel like where we're at everything has
changed and that things change.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, I mean, like you know when you're like again
a m being I'm Filipino. But it's very ambigu with
like half the roles, you can't wait to like have
the perfect role come to you. No one's driving that
particular roles. Like my career has been playing anything everything
from Asian to Latino to you know, maybe dub Donald

(42:14):
if you get luck. You know what I'm saying. It's
like these are the kind of things you're always I've
always been the other choice, like we can we can
go this way, or we can go with Dante and and.

Speaker 5 (42:27):
That's the that's kind of the cool thing about because
I remember Dante. And fun fact, my childhood friend neighbor
was Jason Fisher, who worked with you, Yeah, who.

Speaker 9 (42:36):
Played for Chicago. Yeah yeah, yeah, man, that's that's my guy.
We still we still keep in touch.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Shout out to Jason Media, tell him please, well for sure,
I'll text him as soon as we're done here. But
I remember everybody wanted to be Rufio. And I'm not
saying that the blow smoke. That's just how it was.
But we didn't think of like, oh, it's the Asian
guy and Hook, like you had this way of just
like owning you like your Dante. You happen to be Philip,
you know, but you're a Dante.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Right, And I don't know, Yeah, with characters, man, hey,
you know that's one of those characters that yeah, you know,
I was fifteen when I did Hook, and uh, you know,
I always talk to young actors or any actors like, hey,
we all come to Hollywood from wherever we come from,

(43:22):
and you hope that you get to do something that
someone's gonna give to get. You know, you're gonna get
to care about later, you know what I'm saying. Like
you and you don't know when that character is gonna come,
and you don't even know if you're gonna actually even
like that character, you know what I'm saying. Because we
don't know what characters kind of enter the zeitgeist. I

(43:43):
am thankful that one of the characters is this cool kid,
you know what I'm saying. In it Silberg Movie and
the Stilberg Movie and most the most phenomenal. Now now
that movie is like thirty years old and I look
back on it, and the most amazing thing when we
talk about that film is, look, you guys, I'm like
this little brown kid from the Breakdancer. You know, they

(44:04):
became an artist, and through storytelling, we infiltrated a fairy tale,
like a fairy tale, like there's fandoms and there's ips,
and we're a part of those things and loved being
a part of things. Peter Pan has been around longer
than any of us on the planet Earth has been alive,
and it's going to be around well after we're all gone,

(44:26):
and somehow this fairy tale forevermore canon. It's gonna be
this little brown kid with a try hawk running around
and it's phenomenal. And you're like, I don't you know,
like once upon a time they prefer to Rufio again
later on and it's like, oh my, Like it's just
part of what is in this world of Neverland and

(44:48):
another dimension. And I think that's the amazing thing what
we do, that we're able to kind of be a
part of stories and be a part of great stories
and these things live on in people's hearts and souls
and minds and imaginations, and why didn't the scope of
what is possible? You know what I'm saying, Like people

(45:09):
send me pictures all the time of them going to
Dissyland or or or you know, dressing for Halloween, and
like someone's like Captain Hook and someone's Peter Pan and
someone's tinker Bell, and then someone is representing this little
brown boy and like ripped jeans and red mohawks, and
I'm like, yeah, that is frigging phenomenal, and so yeah,

(45:29):
I love that. And I don't know, you know, people
like you you like I was a young actress fifteen,
and I'm very serious actor at the time that I'm
not serious now, but I was very serious at the time.
And my whole thing was like I gotta go up
against Dustin Hoffmann and Robin Williams. So I was like
just every day trying to go up against God's I

(45:51):
felt like, you know, you feel like you feel like
you're going on set every day trying to battle gods
and they're and it was it was great. It's great
to look at it now. It was nerve wreck.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
Oh you went toe to toe with Rainman and Morc
you know, I mean at age fifteen, that's the task.
And I want to bring this up too, because we
have a very Asian centric podcast today and Venaso, you
grew up going to the Korean church. You're pretty much
I'm been stowing upon you honorary Korean American status.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Go.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
We've talked about this before, where Star Wars was. People
know it was taken from Japanese cinema, hitting forgers, kudasala,
so many Asians, even with the way the Jedi fight
with lightsabers, straight up kendo. You know, it's all Asian things,
but very scarce until recent time, right, very scarce amount
of Asia. I think we have more Asians on our
podcast today than a New Hope had total, or maybe

(46:38):
it higher trilogy total. There's a fact check for.

Speaker 10 (46:39):
You, JC.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
It was a different error.

Speaker 5 (46:44):
Yeah, you know, But like that's that's the beauty of
these platforms like a podcast, where we can bring those
things up and it's not to like, you know, point
a finger in anybody. It's like, this is where we
are now, this is what the circumstances are. But I
don't really have a question. It's just pointing out that
the fact that we had this show in particular Star
Wars Rebels, and when I heard that, I was like,
I was like, oh, two circs like Southeast Asian, Like yeah,

(47:05):
I always swore we're not supposed to on this vodka.
And whenever I see more Asian brothers and sisters on it,
and then Taylor being Filipino and then Dante's on an episode,
I'm like, okay, there's and now Dynall and Osanto being
Morganelles been and you know, like more of it, and
then Paul Lee from Kim's Convenience coming on, you know,
like there's more and more.

Speaker 9 (47:23):
Yeah, you know, it's just so it's just.

Speaker 5 (47:25):
That's what's cool to me because when I found out
where George got the inspiration for Star Wars, like it's
like all these Japanese things but you know, got no
likes cats in it.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
But now it's a different time. It's a different time, but.

Speaker 5 (47:39):
Well here that we can talk about and again what's
done is done, but it's carving this new path of
where we are talking about where we were, but carving
a new path of where we can go.

Speaker 9 (47:48):
And that's the beauty of art.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
You know, because you know you've all I admire all
of you as artists and you've always owned what you do.
But now it's like, let's let's stay the quiet part loud,
which ye, it's the other meaning a pot of rebellion.
We're kind of right there.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
It's always been around the culture, I mean, in these
even before those days, like you know, Magnificent seven was
seven Samurai and Carousel was such an amazing prolific influential artists.
But even coming to this new fandom world and all
these ips, so much has been far from from Asian
culture inspired by Asian culture, anim may now inspiring everything.

(48:26):
I remember when when I started going to comic cons,
and again I talk a lot about Asian empowerment and
you know, just identity. Like hey, you guys, like I know,
we're always saying we're discriminating at this or this and that,
but you gotta see what you scale too. And comic
Con was one of those places where when you go
to Santa Comic Con, I'm like, you go, look at

(48:46):
the signs and Sante A Comic Con, which is the
mecca of all comic cons, right, and it says that
the biggest convention for the modern arts, the biggest convention
for the modern arts in the world, and everyone at
Comic Con h they kind of everyone respects Asian culture
in a way that it's the actually only community that

(49:07):
I can think of popular community where being Asian is
more sought after than anything. So if you look at
the hip hop community or sports community, everyone's being a
little more African American. If you look at arian communities,
everyone's kind of whether you're a black, white, or other,
you're leaning more European, white dressing everything. Right, you go

(49:28):
to a comic con, an anime con, whether you're black, white, Asian, Latino,
everyone's speaking some Japanese or Korean, everyone's kowhi every it's
the the Asian this is everyone's leaning more Asian. And
it's like there's something there and it's fascinating and it's interesting,
and you're seeing how cultures interacting in different places and

(49:50):
within this fandom world. And I guess it goes back
as far as Star Wars earlier, where George, you know,
it's like they're leaning into Asian art. Essentially, of the
modern arts, there's so many masters that we all look
to and we're all inspired by, and it's just kind
of coming out in other ways how they express it

(50:11):
through their experiences. But there's a lot of the source
stuff is coming from Asian masters, which is a phenomenon.

Speaker 5 (50:20):
I don't know what I have to follow that. I mean,
I know we were supposed to go over an episode
today it was this. I was so like, I love
these insights and the stories you offer telling and I
feel like you took me back to twenty thirteen when
you recorded it, Like I felt like I was in
the booth with you, and you're a great story. Will
you come back, Dante, Like I feel like we can
do we can do a whole Asian centered like bonus episode,
because we're planning to do bonus episodes in the.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Podcast that and I think I love that. And look,
we didn't know we're Asian, like coming to Hollywood. I
came in like eighty forty five, didn't no, well, we
didn't know one knew what the heck guy was. I
didn't know. You're too young. You don't even know what
you are and I'm ten years old. Like you have
no identity, you know, there's no you don't even have
identity yet. You just my Danny was like, I'm a dancer,
So like when it's an audition, it was time for

(51:03):
me to come and it's like going in the middle
of the circle and doing your thing, you know what
I'm saying. But later on, as life started going on,
I didn't realize that you start to do roles and
people start seeing themselves in some of the roles you're doing.
In the eighties, you know, I remember talking to people,
I was like, wow, you know what's crazy. It is
like when I did a role and it has something

(51:24):
like you're doing a guest star or you're doing some
kind of role that is significant for people, especially in America,
it would be one of a handful of roles that
they would see an Asian person do in their lifetime,
and they if they did not live by any age,
people especially at that time, it's like, oh, that's one
of the five Asian people I've ever seen do anything

(51:46):
significant that has made me think or touch or think
of them. Right, It's like you and long duck dung,
and you go like it or not. People are going
to make assumptions and think about full on, you know,
full on race or culture based on one of the
five things that they've experienced thus far. In their life

(52:06):
of whatever they're seeing and so not that that was
going I didn't let I don't want that to be
a something that ruled me. But that's something that you
had to think about as an artist, like, Okay, do
I want to do this, Dude? Do I want this
to be one of the five things, the one of
ten things. Great that now things have changed is like
a broader scope of people seeing. But especially in the
eighties early nineties, I was one of maybe five or

(52:30):
ten Asian characters that they may have seen their whole lives.
It's part of it. But it's great to know now
that it was we were more than just what they saw.
There was the essence of what was going on has
always been around and we're able to kind of feel
that more, experience that more and see And I love
that that we're part of the nerds because the nerd
scene investigates and knows and you know, talks about it.

(52:53):
It's a part of it. So it's it's important. I
don't know, we can talk about it all day, John, we
talked about.

Speaker 5 (52:58):
All yeah, we will. We will definitely do like some
bonus episodes on that. But so now in the subject
of investigating. I feel like that's a nice segu way
to JC, even though we were light on episode specifics.
I feel like you're going about to see Jc's always
got some great.

Speaker 6 (53:14):
Highlight of the podcast. He probably it was some deep,
deep dives. We didn't give him too much to investigate.

Speaker 10 (53:19):
But all right, yeah, I don't have a lot. The
first thing I want to do, John, Earlier in the episode,
you made a reference to Darth Vader's line, the circle
is complete, actual line, The circle is now complete.

Speaker 9 (53:34):
Okay.

Speaker 10 (53:34):
I just want to make sure that nobody who has
the movies memorized like I do is offended by that.

Speaker 5 (53:40):
No, because they will add at me before that. So
I think, good looking out. I appreciate it.

Speaker 10 (53:45):
You mentioned November twenty fourteen, there is something big with
Force Awakens. In November twenty fourteen, November sixth, they announced
the title would be The Force Awakens. I just want
to clear up. Look, if you've gone this far, I'm
sure we've already googled it. When we are talking with
Dante about Avatar, we are not talking about James Cameron

(54:06):
and the Way of Water. We're talking about the last
Vender cartoon. So there's that mentioned Sagerera. Sagerera does voice
Forest Whittaker does voice Sagerera. We saw him first in
Rogue one, and then he does Star Wars Rebels as
well episodes Ghosts of Geonosis, which is season three episodes

(54:26):
twelve and thirteen, and in season four episodes three and
four called in the Name of Rebellion. Forest Whittaker ties
into Star Wars in many many ways there and then
just at the very end Asian representation in the original trilogy.
There's nothing in a New Hope. There's nothing in Empire
Strikes Back. In Return of the Jedi, there is a

(54:48):
b Wing pilot briefly on screen who crashes. I believe
they named Lieutenant Telsey is the in universe name played
by I'm going a this pronounces but it's like Eji
uh Kusahara as the actor. And then nothing in episode one,
nothing in episode two. In episode three, there's one guy

(55:11):
sitting in Palpatine's office that they call uh malay D
because he was just referred to as male Senator. Was
the character in the script, and he is played by
Key Chan And coincidentally, we're talking about the influence of Ruffeo.
Malay D has a red mohawk in the moo.

Speaker 6 (55:31):
How did that so?

Speaker 10 (55:33):
Somebody?

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Thank you?

Speaker 10 (55:35):
Yeah, somebody who grew up watching Hook pulled that and
dropped it in Palpatine's office for US two thousand and five.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
I love this information.

Speaker 9 (55:49):
That's great.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
I was going to say we can talk in our
later episode when Dante comes back about how pivotal all
of those roles that Jac just meant.

Speaker 7 (56:01):
Oh, did any of those people have speaking the roles?

Speaker 5 (56:04):
I know, so let it be known that we have
more Asians on today's episode than the prequels.

Speaker 7 (56:21):
I have one question for Dante.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
I mean, I've asked you a bunch of questions, but
one question, one more question for now.

Speaker 7 (56:27):
I've always wanted to ask you.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
How often are we talking like a weekly basis, daily basis?
How often do people like strangers passing you by chant
rufeo rufeo to you? Like in my mind, I want
it to be like daily.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
It could be. I mean, you know, it's a generational thing.
There's like a whole Rufio generation and a whole generation, sure,
and so, but I mean, at any at any given
time I've been in cafes on mail Rose or someone
would just honk and yelled, Bangering.

Speaker 6 (57:06):
Is this scrillic song with that?

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Yeah? No way, yes, So banger Ring is so scrilled,
so sunny. So I've known Sunny since he was like
twelve or so, ten or twelve, and then I had
not seen years. And then I ran to him at
the Paramount Grammy party. He's like, did you hear the song?
I'm like, yeah, bro, you just want you want to Grammy?
We've already he was just you know, he's a generations

(57:30):
I grew up with it. Also, he was in a
scream old band before he was this big DJ, and
I guess we feel one of his kind of things too.
And then he's like, you got to coming me to
the concert. He brought me to this. I went, I
came out on stage. He came in. She Can performed
at Downtown l A. I came out on stage. She said,
check us out, you guys play this song. It was
crazy that a shout the scrilltics, Sonny, what's up?

Speaker 5 (57:51):
Shout out the Scrillics? And thank you jac as always
for the awesome fact check. Thank you Donthe for joining
us today. Where can people find you on social media
or t What are you like Joe Kellen and I
do not want people to find.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
It out your handles for us TikTok. You can find
me at ruffield Zuko and on Instagram I'm at Dante Bosco.

Speaker 5 (58:09):
Love it, love it so And a reminder everybody rate, subscribe,
leave a nice review and everything, and write to us
Potter Rebelling Podcast at gmail dot com. You can ask
us questions, you can send us fan theories, you can
send us fan or just just write to us and
be nice, you know, hopefully no nasty messages.

Speaker 9 (58:26):
But what you can you do?

Speaker 5 (58:27):
But like and like I said, if somehow you don't
like our show for whatever reason, my idea, my proposal
to you is give us five stars and you can
say whatever you want in the comments section because that
engagement helps in the five star rating will help our
algorithmic rating. So if anything, once again, thank you Donte
for join us. We can't wait till you come back
to the conversation.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Thank you, good luck on the journey, good luck on
the journey.

Speaker 5 (58:50):
Thank you for getting this here because you are the
reason why we are here. The sixth degree of Dante
also applies to the podcasting. Let us go and if anything,
I guess we can just end by saying.

Speaker 9 (59:01):
Bang a rang.

Speaker 6 (59:04):
Drop that musics go.

Speaker 5 (59:10):
Potter Rebellion is produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts Producing,
hosted by Vanessa Marshall, Tia Surkar, Taylor Gray and John
May Brody Executive producer and in house Star Wars guru
slash back checker J C. Reifenberg. Our music was composed
by Mikey Flash. Our cover art was created by Neil
Fraser of Neil Fraser Designs. Special thanks to the Holly Frean,
Aaron Kaufman over at iHeart, Evan krascoor at, Willie Morris Endeavor,

(59:31):
Tresa Canobio, George Lucas for creating this universe we love
so much, and of course all of our amazing listeners.
Follow us on Instagram at Potter Rebellion and email list
at Potter Rebellion Podcasts at gmail dot com