April 6, 2025 • 47 mins
Step into the electric atmosphere of Collective Con during these live interviews with the talents behind some of your favorite characters across film, television, anime, and video games. A huge thank you to the event organizers of Collective Con and the extraordinarily talented Jack Drain, who allowed us the opportunity to take part in these live interviews. We hope you enjoy this episode and we will see you at next year's event!
We start off with Shawn Ashmore (0:15) talking about his favorite fandoms and how he's always wanted to be in a western. David Wenham (4:05) offers perspective on how certain performances become part of cultural heritage over generations. David Hayter (6:02) reveals how after all of these years, the iconic gravelly voice of Snake has become inseparable from his own identity.
The Arcane phenomenon takes center stage with JB Blanc (10:14) and Mia Sinclair-Jenness(14:24) sharing deeply personal reflections on how the Netflix hit has transformed their careers. For those aspiring to enter voice acting, Lucian Dodge (19:02) shares invaluable wisdom, and we talk to Kaiji Tang (25:34) about his dream role of voicing a Roomba. We close the episode with Sons of Anarchy veterans David Labrava (29:39) and Theo Rossi (41:29) offer compelling insights into the show's enduring legacy.
What emerges across these conversations is a celebration of the powerful bonds formed through storytelling—between performers and their characters, between creators and fans, and within communities of people who find connection through shared cultural experiences. Listen now to experience these intimate moments with the voices and faces behind characters that have shaped our entertainment landscape.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey, collective Con Eric from the Wait For it
Podcast here with Sean Ashmore,one of our special guests for
the three-day weekend here inJacksonville, florida.
Sean, I know that this is dayone, you're just kind of getting
your feet settled, but how areyou doing coming in today?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, doing great.
I'm excited to be here inJacksonville.
I've never been here before, sothat's kind of nice.
And yeah, the con has been fun.
Everyone's really nice.
So, yeah, I'm excited for agood weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Whenever you're coming into these things.
Obviously there's so manythings that you are known for
X-Men, animorphs, the Boys, andthat's just such a little sliver
.
I'm so curious when you'recoming to a convention like this
, when you get a chance to peekaround, are there any fandoms
that you're looking for as a fanof shows, media or anything in
pop culture that catches youreye?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I'm a big.
I grew up reading comic books,so I'm a big Marvel fan.
I also really like, so I alwaysenjoy like kind of bumping into
artists and also I just lovethe community of all the guests
that are here, like so often I'mlike, oh yeah, I'm a big Sons
of Anarchy fan.
It's like, well, ron Perlman'shere, you know.
So it's like, and I've got achance to meet him before, but I
always enjoy those interactions, like hanging out with people
(01:18):
that worked with or had a chanceto meet them, that I'm a fan of
myself and, most importantly, Ilove the environment at cons,
like it's a positive energy.
I love meeting everybody that'shere to celebrate the fandoms
that they love and it gives me akick to talk about all the
stuff that I've done over theyears with people that have
enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Absolutely, and I know a lot of times you've got
you know panels this weekend totalk about your previous roles.
I kind of want to talk aboutthe now with you and kind of
talk about you've done so muchand expanded your career.
I'm very curious is there ameaty role, whether it's in a
pop culture universe, or justthe role itself, maybe a certain
type of character you've yet toplay?
(01:59):
That's on your bucket list?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I want to make a Western.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I love Westerns .
The Good, the Bad bucket listyeah, I want to.
I want to make a western.
Okay, yeah, I love westerns.
Um, the good, the bad and theugly is like one of my favorite
movies.
I love the?
Um, you know, clean eastwoodleone uh, you know that, that
specific genre of western.
So, yeah, I would love to to dosomething like that.
I've never really had theopportunity, so if I were to, um
, pick a genre to work in, I'dlove to do something like that
(02:25):
they do say every movie is aWestern and I'm starting to
believe that.
Yeah, yeah, that's a valid.
I want to be in horsebackthough, you know yeah you want
to be in it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That makes sense.
My last question for you.
I'm always very curious forpeople like yourselves.
You always come to theconventions.
You're meeting so manydifferent people when you get
back to the hotel.
You get back home.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You need that time to decompress what's that go-to
movie show book, that media thatyou kind of pick up or you tend
to go to in those moments whereyou need that break.
I love to get lost in like a TVshow or a film, and I tend to
like thrillers, I like horrorfilms, I like genre stuff, okay
so.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Anything that's caught your eye recently, like
in the past year.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Oh man, now you got me on the spot, I know.
Oh, dude, this should be veryeasy.
Well, actually, you know, I wasjust reminded of Blue-Eyed
Samurai on Netflix I love that,you know.
And Samurai on Netflix I lovethat, you know.
And I love animated stuff aswell, so that was something that
I was completely caught up in.
I cannot wait for anotherseason.
Also, let me think I actuallyjust watched last night, when I
(03:34):
got in.
I watched Venom, the Last Dance, which I hadn't seen before,
which is super fun.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You gotta complete it .
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, I like, but yeah, I'm a big.
I fell in love with and I thinkI wanted to get into film and
television and performancebecause I'm a huge fan of movie,
films and television, so I'm abig consumer of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, I love to hear that You've got a long weekend
ahead of you here at CollectiveCon and I just want to wish you
the best.
Hopefully everything goessmooth.
It will, and I reallyappreciate the time.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Hey everyone.
Phil Barrera, with the Wait Forit podcast and Collective Con
here with our guest, could youjust take a moment to introduce
yourself to our audience andwhat you do?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Sure, hey, I'm David Wenham and I'm an actor and I've
been in well a number of thingsup there.
Yeah, probably Lord of theRings, van Helsing 300, a few
things.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Just a few things that you guys may have heard of.
So how has your weekend gone sofar here at Collective Con?
Speaker 5 (04:31):
It's been great.
I've loved being here.
The people have been absolutelyfantastic.
Yeah, very hospitable.
It's been fantastic, great,great.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Happy to hear that.
What's it like having fans ofall ages, people that have grown
up with the films that you'vebeen in, and then also new fans,
younger fans that are findingyour work for the first time?
Speaker 5 (04:50):
That is interesting, the fact that it's sort of a
generational thing.
With things like Lord of theRings it's like that is an
evergreen project because well,obviously the books to begin
with are pretty extraordinarypieces of literature and then
the films.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Films that peter made are pretty.
They're classic films.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
They're they're films that are going to always stand
the test of time.
Years from now, those willstill be there, right as far as
that's right as yeah.
After we've gone, phil, peoplewill still be watching exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Do you have a excuse me, after all this time, do you
have kind of a uh, a characterarchetype that you're more drawn
to?
I hear a lot of people you knowvillainous roles are more fun
and a little bit more layered.
Do you go either way as far asthose?
Speaker 5 (05:29):
In terms of favorite type of role, I don't really
Whether it's a villain, whetherit's, like you know, a man with
a good heart, whether it'scomedy, whether it's drama, I
don't.
As long as the character iswritten really well, that's
going to have a good indicationas to how successful the
character is going to be.
Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Well, we thank you so much for your time.
Please let our audience knowwhere they can find you and all
your work.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Where they can find me.
Basically, just search my nameon Google and then you'll see
whatever work you'd like towatch.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
David, thank you so much for your time, really
appreciate it.
Thank you so much CollectiveCon for hanging out.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It's Eric from the Way Forward podcast here at
Collective Com with David Hayter, the man himself, talking about
everything pop culture.
And of course, when we say popculture, one of the people that
come up is Snake.
I got to ask that questionright off the bat what is it
like playing that character andspecifically for that, every
time you are brought on to dothat voice, what do you have to
(06:22):
muster inside yourself to get tothat place, to do that
character?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Good question.
Well, first of all, playing thecharacter is pretty damn good.
As far as what I have to do, Ihave a bug on me.
Just like Snake Eater, I shouldhave eaten it.
It was planted Right.
What do I have to muster?
You know, the first game I didwas 27 years ago, so it's now a
(06:50):
part of me.
In fact, the older I get, thesneakier I sound.
So it doesn't take a lot tomuster it.
It's just um being in the boothreading a new script.
I mean, that's inspirationenough and I can tap into my
inner snake and off we go.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I love that and having that character be a part
of yourself is such a greatthing after all these years.
I mean, you're kind ofsymbiotic in that way and I love
to hear that.
I'm very curious because notonly do you do things so amazing
in the booth but also from awriting perspective.
I'm just really curious anytimeI meet somebody with that dual
ability.
What are the key differencesfrom when you're trying to get
(07:27):
into the mindset of walking intoa booth portraying a character
and then also from a writerperspective, having to be
involved in that creativeprocess?
What is the biggest challengemaybe for you between those two
things?
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Well, the challenge is always getting people to buy
your scripts and get your moviemade.
But as far as skills go, I meanfirst of all to be a writer, you
have to read a lot, you have towrite a lot, you have to really
develop those skills, in thesame way that you have to with
acting or voice acting.
But the process I find becauseI started as an actor I find it
(08:03):
similar in that as an actor, Iread the script, I imagine how
my character would act, Idevelop it and figure it out.
As a writer, I just play everycharacter in my head and I
imagine them stepping into thisworld.
What are they facing, what arethe obstacles, what do they want
, what are the issues?
And it's kind of a similarprocess.
(08:23):
I mean really the process ofboth of them, despite all the
skill and all the work and allthe practice, is just what you
played when you were 10 yearsold, when you were pretending to
be Wolverine or or, or snake oror whatever.
It's just that, that ability toimagine and play and and um,
and put yourself in the positionof another person.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, yeah and that's a great segue to my last
question for you.
I'm always very curious.
When you were such an integralpart of people's childhood,
young adulthood and all of that,what was that franchise and or
character for you at that age,or growing up?
Even now, what kind of standsout to you in pop culture as a
fan of the medium?
Speaker 6 (09:05):
The most significant one was raiders of the lost ark.
Um, harrison ford, stevenspielberg.
You know, I was watchingraiders when I was 12 and this
electricity ran down my spine.
I was like that, whateverthey're doing, I want to do that
.
Um, so that's what made me getinto the business.
And also, uh, the x-men comics.
I was just such a fan and Iloved those characters, like,
(09:27):
like family and, uh, when I hadthe opportunity to work on the
movie, I was prepared because ofmy love for them.
So, um, you know, and star warsand just anything else you know
guys my age would love.
I was a big pop culture guy.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Excuse me that was just like Snake.
Was that another plant?
Speaker 6 (09:49):
I think I might have fox dye.
No, it's just allergies.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
No, I love that.
I love that.
Well, you're here in Florida,so that's what we've got.
We've got weather and allergiesWelcome to Jacksonville but
we've also got a bunch ofamazing people that you're going
to meet.
I can't wait to see what youbring to the weekend, and thank
you so much for the time.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Thank you, thank you and hey, all of you, you're
pretty good.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Hey everyone, phil Barrera with the Way 4 Podcast,
here with my guest.
Please take a moment tointroduce yourself and what you
do.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
Hi there, my name is JB Blanc.
I'm an actor and a voice actor.
I play Vander in Arcane,Caustic in Apex Legends, Kano in
MK11, and a load of other stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Absolutely, and I talked to you about this last
night as far as your performanceand what Vander has meant to me
and so many other people.
I have a daughter as well, sowatching that relationship grow,
now that the story has comekind of full circle, how are you
feeling and how do you knowwhat's your relationship with
that character as well?
Speaker 7 (10:48):
I mean, it's one of the most important things I've
done in my career.
I think it's just.
It's very rare that you get aseries that's been so deeply
thought of, so deeply consideredin the making of it and
detailed characters drawnbeautifully.
The artwork is very special.
The relationship with the fansis extraordinary.
I mean, this really did affecta lot of people, and you never
(11:09):
know when you're going to dosomething, whether that's going
to be the case and then when itturns out that way, it's kind of
it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
It's a lot of fun Definitely be the case, and then
when it turns out that way,it's kind of it's amazing.
It's a lot of fun, definitely,and you know there's always so
much pressure as well when itit's related to another.
You know, ip yeah, that peopleare so very passionate about it,
but you've brought in fans thatdon't really know anything
about the game into thisuniverse and left them wanting
more.
Did you know anything aboutleague going into this or did
you kind of just learn as yougot involved?
Speaker 7 (11:36):
I did because I played a character called Brom
in League for many years, but Ihad no idea, you know, when they
were putting this together, Ithought it would be something
that League players would needto be involved in or you'd have
to have played League to watchit but as it turned out, it was
a complete standalone.
(11:57):
I had a lot of friends who'dnever seen and never knew
anything about league, a lot offans who didn't, and, uh, and I
think that's a testament to theconsideration and the thought
that they put into it.
You know, um, they were verycareful to show enough easter
eggs for people who were fans ofleague, um, and to introduce a
whole new story.
And, of course, v Vanderdoesn't exist in League.
Warwick does, which is acompletely different character,
(12:20):
and there's no spoilers here,and so I thought that's a real
trick.
You see a lot of video gameadaptations that don't work, and
I think this one was very mucha winner.
I mean, we knocked Squid Gameoff the top spot at Netflix, so
that must be saying something.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Absolutely.
That's definitely sayingsomething.
I spoke with Jason last yearand talked to him.
So sorry to hear that.
I spoke with Jason last yearand talked about his character
and I asked him is he drawn tomore complex, like villainous
characters and, as far asportraying them, do you have a
(12:57):
specific type of character thatyou are more drawn to?
Speaker 7 (13:01):
Villains are always more fun.
Yeah, that's what I hear a lot.
If you're going to play a goodguy, I like to play a kind of
scarred good guy, a guy withmaybe a checkered past, and I
think that's been a lot of mycareer.
I seem to be specializing infather figures who meet
unfortunate ends, which I don'treally like because the checks
dry up.
There will be a role in Disneyfor you eventually, though, but
(13:23):
it's you know.
Vanda's more complex becausehe's got a violent past and he's
someone who's come throughsomething.
He's conflicted, he's a forcedparent.
He's not really a parent, buthe's kind of taken that job on.
So that's always interesting.
But in general nice guys don'thave as much fun and so the
villains are always more complexto play.
The trick is that a villaindoesn't really know he's a
villain.
He's just trying to get hisknees met like an angry toddler
(13:47):
who spits out their food whenthey don't like it.
So villains generally are morefun because they're more complex
.
They're usually often betterwritten.
The hero characters are kind of, you know, it's just to kind of
stay on one level, which isn'tas interesting to play sometimes
absolutely well, jb.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Thank you so much for the time please let our
audience know where they canfind you and all your work.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
I'm on all the socials.
You can find me at the JB Blunkor at Blunky JB or on Blue Sky
as Blunky Pants.
I don't know why it justhappened that way Might have
been my kid, I don't know butgreat to meet you.
Thank you very much for comingby.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
You as well.
Thank you so much, thanks somuch.
See you guys, see ya.
Hey everyone.
Phil Barrera with the Wave 4Podcast and Collective Con here
with our guest.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
Can you please take a moment to introduce yourself?
And what you do is MiaSinclair-Ginness.
I am a voice actress.
You may know me best fromplaying Powder in Arcane's in.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Netflix's Arcane on Netflix, absolutely so.
How has your weekend gone sofar?
How has Jacksonville beentreating you?
Speaker 8 (14:44):
It's been great.
Everyone is so nice, everyoneis super supportive and there's
some amazing cosplays here.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
That's one thing we're alwaysblown away by.
Every time we come here.
Have you been doing a lot ofthe, a lot of conventions, a lot
of shows traveling around?
Speaker 8 (14:58):
Um, yeah, in the last couple of months I've been
trying to do at least like one amonth, just because I love
meeting people.
I love conventions, becauseit's truly a safe space for
weirdos and you know, I amincluded in that and it's like
it's unlike anything else in theworld.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yeah, I always compare it to a high school
reunion that you want to attendbecause you get to see people
you actually want to see oh myGod, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely, and I thinkwhat a lot of people are
surprised at whenever they meetvoice actors is you guys don't
get to see each other.
No, we don't.
So how is that?
Seeing your castmates?
Speaker 8 (15:29):
That's another thing that I really love about
conventions.
I didn't get to record with anyof my castmates, so doing
conventions and getting to seeall of my wonderful arcane
people and beyond is always likemy favorite thing, especially,
you know, we're all staying inthe same hotels, we get to go
out to eat afterwards and we allget to do, you know, fun stuff
like this.
It really is so wonderful.
(15:51):
I haven't seen JB in like fouryears, so this is like our
reunion and it warms my heart.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
It's my favorite love that, love that so much.
Yeah, what's it been like to bepart of this fandom?
I'm sure there was a lot ofpressure coming in there.
A league obviously has a verywell-known fan base.
What was it like, um, cominginto this?
And and how has that fan base,kind of like, treated you since
you you came in?
Speaker 8 (16:11):
I mean, the fan base has been nothing but supportive.
Obviously, in any fanbase, inany fandom, there are going to
be, you know, certain toxicities.
But what I really love aboutthe Arcane fanbase, it is truly
one of the most supportive, kindfanbases I've ever seen.
I think going into it we knewit was going to be something big
(16:36):
.
We knew that leak had this huge, you know fan base and it was
really really intense.
But I don't think we ever couldhave predicted how you know
worldwide it was going to become.
And I remember we were all umat the season one premiere and
we watched it go live on Netflixand we watched the site crash,
(16:59):
we watched it shut down and Ithink in that moment we all kind
of realized that this was goingto be bigger than any of us
could have ever expected yeah,that that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
So, um, yeah, I tell I told this to Jason last year
like Arcane.
A lot of people are surprisedwhen I tell them Arcane is my
comfort show, like I put it onreally at any time, but like
just because there's so manylayers to this, the characters
are so well-written, theperformances are outstanding, so
you know we put it on at anytime.
Most important question yes,who has the best chicken tender?
Who has the best fast foodchicken tender?
Speaker 8 (17:31):
Okay, so let me lock in for a sec.
So me and my best friend Kim,who's over there, we are we are
chicken tender connoisseurs, ifI may.
Um Canes, I am a Canes girl, Ilove Canes and I love their
coleslaw I also really love.
There is a bar and restaurantin New York City where I live
(17:53):
called hi Berniebernia Bar andGrill.
Their chicken tenders and theirhoney mustard is phenomenal.
Hibernia is the best restaurantin New York City.
It's my favorite thing in theworld.
So, yeah, that's what I think.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Interesting.
Okay, yeah, we are finallygetting a Cane's in Jacksonville
, but it's like all the way onthe other side of town from here
.
But do you agree that Cane's isvery sauce dependent?
I love.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
I definitely do think Cane's is super sauce dependent
, but I do think that theirtenders are already like super
juicy and well made, as is.
That I can do with or withoutthe sauce.
Plus, I love Cane's, but I'mnot the biggest Cane's fan or
the biggest Cane's sauce fan.
Okay, I can take it or leave it.
I can take it or leave it, yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
The most important thing is covered here, of course
.
Yeah, obviously At CollectorCon.
So please take a moment to leteverybody know where they can
find your work and anything else.
Speaker 8 (18:41):
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at Mia Sinclair
Janess.
You can find me on TikTok underthe same handle.
I am not on Twitter, but yeah,you can watch Arcanes.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Season 1 and 2 on Netflix and you can watch Disney
Junior's Fancy Dancing onDisney+.
Thank you so much for takingthe time.
Thank you, and thank you somuch for joining us.
Hey everyone, phil Barrero,with the Way4Podcast here with
Collective Con guest LucianDodge.
Lucian, how are you doing heretoday?
Speaker 9 (19:08):
I'm doing very well.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Good, good, it's so exciting to have you here.
Please take a moment tointroduce yourself and let
everybody know what you do.
Speaker 9 (19:16):
Oh sure.
Well, my name is Lucian Dodge.
I'm a voice actor, sometimes ascript adapter, voice director,
typically for anime, video games, anything that anyone wants to
hire my voice for.
Pretty much, and it's fun.
Absolutely, I'm game for it.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yeah, I'm curious when I speak to voice actors was
this something that you knewwas a goal of yours?
Did you discover that voiceacting was an avenue you could,
you know, tackle later?
Speaker 9 (19:46):
Well, it was a bit of both.
I mean, I, I, I didn't reallyeven know that this world
existed until I was in mymid-teens or so.
It actually came about fromwatching anime.
I kind of recognized a voiceand a light switch came on and I
realized, oh, there's peoplewho do the voices of these
(20:09):
characters, and how does thatwork and who are these people?
And a million other things, andit kind of spurred a whole
bunch of research.
But then, once that happens andI kind of started to really do
a deep dive on it, I realized,wow, this is really, this is a
lot of fun.
I had been doing theater andstage acting and school plays
(20:33):
and kind of local productions,school plays and you know, and
kind of local, local productions, uh, but this was kind of like
almost like an evolution orextension of that.
Um, getting to play all thesecharacters and and just creating
them with my voice and playingsort of to the, the, the, the
minds.
What is it?
The, the mind's ear?
Is that the expression?
(20:53):
Uh, I'm gonna be getting thatbackwards.
Um, but uh, yeah, I just reallytook to it and from that point
I was like, yeah, this is, thisis the thing I want to do so in
in a lot of regards I did knowpretty early on in my life, you
know, that this is what I wantedto do and I just kind of set
(21:13):
everything in motion to to thathappen.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
It's so funny I mean so many of the origin stories
when it comes to a lot of VAs istheater, it's stage acting.
So I know a lot of people willcome up and ask where do I start
when it comes to voice acting?
And it seems like an answer weget a lot is an acting class.
Is that correct?
Speaker 9 (21:32):
Sure, because I mean, the most, most important thing,
the most important tool you canhave as a voice actor is to be
a really good actor.
If you don't have the acting,the, you know, the voices are
really fun, um, and and casually, you know, they're great party
tricks.
If you do a spot-on impressionor something, or even like a
halfway good impression, uh,it's fun, but it's not, uh, you
(21:56):
know, without the acting enginebehind it, uh, you're not going
to be able to sustain any kindof uh, you know, significant
career as a voice actor.
So, yeah, so, so, yeah, I would.
I would concur, acting, uh,classes is is really important.
I think it's funny.
(22:16):
My answer has kind of evolvedand shifted as far as where do I
start?
Because sometimes I get askedthat here and there and I would
say as far as where to start, isto just do it.
What I mean is I assume that ifsomeone is interested in voice
(22:41):
acting, there's a reason theyenjoy the voices, the character
voices or the scenes in theirmedia.
So just start there and juststart voicing those things that
you enjoy.
Don't worry about the businessside of it just yet.
That'll come about eventually.
(23:04):
Just start working on yourtools and again, that comes
first through just doing it andfiguring out what this does,
what you can do with it andhaving fun with it.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
So just start there and when it comes to the
business side, I feel like whenyou start networking, a lot of
that will come together as well.
So I just started my VA journey, so I'm in classes now and I
think one thing that reallysurprised me is just how many
you can go out there and findsomebody who's casting for a fan
cast or a web series orsomething along those lines.
So I think that's what you'retalking about Go do it and just
(23:37):
go give it a shot, and then youknow, you kind of go from there
build those relationships.
Speaker 9 (23:42):
Absolutely yeah.
And you know, yeah, don't worryabout it.
You know you don't need to bein.
You know the Hollywood, youknow feature film, whatever,
like that's down the road.
Just worry about doing it forfun first and yeah, the rest
will kind of you'll figure outthe other details.
(24:04):
And yeah, and all thenetworking, yeah, because
everyone else is kind of.
You know the people who arestarting out in animation or you
know audio design or whatever.
You know they're all kind of inthat same sort of starting
level with you.
So they're just trying tofigure out ways to express
themselves, put out works and dogood work.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
It's a whole ecosystem.
The writers need you, thestoryboard artists everything.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
We all need each other, especially when you're so
, if you can, if you can build,you know, a nice little network
with those people coming upthrough the ranks, working on
your craft together, helpingeach other out.
You know we all need each other.
We know we actors we need gooddirectors and writers and
animators, and you know, andvice versa, to make the whole
(24:56):
production work.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So yeah, Love that Well, lucian.
One more time, please let ouraudience know where they can
find you and any of your work.
Sure.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
Well, you can go to my website, which I am on and
off.
Good about updating.
Sometimes they get a little lax.
But you can go toLucianDodgecom
L-U-C-I-E-N-D-O-D-G-E, and I amon various social media here and
there it's usually Luciendodge.
Just want to try doing a searchfor me.
(25:26):
But yeah, it's mostly thoseavenues we'll get Lucien tagged.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Thank you so much for your time here today at
Collective Con.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Thanks, guys, hey everybody at Collective Con.
I'm Eric from the WayForwardPodcast.
This is KJ Tang.
You may know him and obviouslywe've got three days for you to
enjoy the convention.
But I'm very curious, just kindof jumping right into it.
You're known for so many roles,obviously within anime.
I'm always very curiouswhenever I talk to voice actors,
(25:53):
looking at things from adifferent perspective
perspective.
What is it like going into thebooth with all these different
characters and what do you putinto the characters yourself?
I'm always curious what is thatcore of each character?
That is cagey.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Well, I mean, that's, that's a really fun question,
like I think.
As actors, right, our, ourprimary job is to give you, the
audience, something about thecharacter of voicing that you
can empathize with, right,because we're all these weird
social animals.
We all have a lizard brain thatcan tell if someone's kind of
being disingenuous, right?
So the best thing an actor cando is to allow themselves to
(26:28):
really feel what thischaracter's going through and,
as long as those feelings aregenuine, any human can pick up
on those feelings and be like,oh, I remember when I was sad,
you know, I remember when thishappened to me.
So whenever you hear somethingthat really makes you actually
feel something, then the actorhas done their job and put a
little bit about with themselvesinto the character you know
(26:48):
that genuine emotion.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And you know in addition to that, a lot, of, a
lot of times I find whenever I'mworking on a project or trying
to be creative, there has to bethat passion.
I'm just so curious from a popculture standpoint and this can
be from anime and beyond what isyour passion, your fandom, that
you kind of lean towards?
That has maybe eitherinfluenced your performances,
your roles or what you'reinterested in when you're
(27:11):
seeking out a character toperform as yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So when I was a little kid, the whole reason I
got into acting in the firstplace was when I got to this
country.
I learned how to speak Englishby watching the original Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
Right, my first word ever wascowabunga.
I didn't know what it meant,you know, and my dad didn't know
what it meant.
It's a fun word, right, it's afun word.
So you know, that kind ofstarted me off.
(27:34):
Because of that show I tooktheater, you know, and because
of theater I ended up invoiceover.
So technically it was theTurtles that got me started in
the voiceover path.
But if you're asking whatfandoms I'm into, just generally
, I'm a giant like Magic theGathering player.
Right, I love magic.
You know Me and my wife competeat Evo for fighting games, you
know.
So that's another big passionof ours.
(27:55):
Yeah, dude, we're a StreetFighter family.
So you know, I haven't won anyEvos so far.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
But fingers crossed, you know what I mean Definitely
using the crying line in thosewins.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Oh my goodness right.
Can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
But I would also like , as we wrap it up, I would love
to ask you as well, when we'retalking about everything that
you're kind of enjoying andyou're getting into with these
characters um, what is a role,like a meaty role that you've
yet to attain?
So maybe that bucket list role,or have you already achieved it
?
What was that character, um?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
you know I, I I don't have too many, like I'm in a
position where I can't reallyask for too much.
You know, like it's like you'rejust glad, you know I, I'm so
happy I got involved withberserkerk.
That's one of the ones that Igot really, really excited about
Berserk in my opinion, such alegendary series.
You know, in my mind, no bettermanga than Berserk.
So that was one of my bigbucket list things.
But for stuff I really want tolook forward to in the future.
(28:47):
It sounds a little dumb, butlike two things Right.
One a little more serious thanthe other One.
I love Child's.
Play the horror movie.
I would definitely take a crackat Chucky one day.
You know that little ooh, Ilove him.
He's so funny, chucky, right.
And also I want to voice aRoomba.
You know little vacuum cleaners.
No, seriously, seriously,imagine, imagine the little
(29:08):
Roomba hits the corner and youjust hear me be like ow.
Like you know he cleans up yourCheetos and he's like, damn,
you live like this.
You know what I mean.
Like, I feel like that would bea lot of fun.
I would love.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know what it is.
It's just a matter of like yougot like a horror icon and then
a Roomba.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It was just a little startling Different passions.
You know I love thatno-transcript.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Hey everyone, phil Barrera from the WayForward
podcast here from Collective Conin Jacksonville Florida with
David LaBrava.
David, how are you doing thisweekend?
How's your Friday going so far?
Speaker 11 (29:54):
It's going fantastically, as you can tell.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Well, super excited to have you here.
Sons of Anarchy, one of myfavorite shows of all time.
And I just want to know afterall this time, people are still
continuing to find the show forthe first time.
Speaker 11 (30:12):
What's it been like to interact with, of course, the
OG fans and the new ones.
You know the show is like anenigma.
It's a worldwide show, likethese days.
When the show started, socialmedia was not giant.
It wasn't the way it is nowtoday.
Now you sell a show and they'llsay is that a United States
show or a worldwide show?
(30:32):
Meaning like, for instance, oneof my favorite shows, sopranos,
is a United States show,meaning people in the United
States will identify with thatshow.
This particular show is aboutguys wearing patches on
motorcycles.
That is everywhere.
It's in Slovenia, hungary,everywhere.
Show is Germany, bali, thailand.
(30:52):
It's everywhere.
So I think it's that alone islike you don't, 10 years later
and we're doing a panel and it'swall to wall.
You're not seeing that with awhole lot of shows.
And I think your question wasOlga, it's definitely when the
show was on.
It didn't matter who you askedhave you seen the show?
(31:12):
Yeah, I've seen that show.
No, it's like you sort of I geta lot of my parents watch that
show or I've heard of that show,or, if they're in the right
time frame, you could usuallysee who dug the show and the
older people like the show has.
It's older people.
Like the show has its own lore,right, you know, like, probably
(31:34):
you didn't know I'm Fat Bob.
On the FX Network site there'sFat Bob's blog.
I'm Fat Bob.
I also wrote Hands, episode 10in season 4.
So people would write what doesthis mean?
What does that mean?
I'd be like it means whateveryou want it to mean.
It's a television show, bro.
You know what I mean, um, but II think, uh, you know, like,
(31:58):
like frank says frank sinatra,without you we're dead.
And it's amazing the resurgence, what we're going on 10 years.
I think it's amazing how itgets passed on and people say
things to me like you stillcatching the sound, got to check
with the sound man.
You still go out of your way towatch my film Street Level.
(32:21):
Street Level it's on AmazonPrime, emilio's in it, a lot of
people in it, at any rate.
Yeah, I think the fans areamazing and the fans know things
like they, they search thingsout, they build their lore, they
, they do all that which madethe show super special.
(32:41):
I think another thing, like, uh, those patches on these shows
everyone's giving gifts, wrapgifts, they're all giving gifts.
You're giving a gift.
He's like, quit banging themicrophone on the thing, click,
click, click.
I'm keeping getting that.
On this show every departmentwould be like Sons of Anarchy
(33:02):
electrical Sons of Anarchy,construction, transportation and
all of a sudden people didn'thave to take two, three, four,
five years of their life to wearthis patch.
They could go buy it in thestore or work on the show and
that is like.
You know, I've ruffled somefeathers.
Other people thought it wasfantastic, but there were so
(33:25):
many special, unique things thatwent along with the Sons of
Anarchy and that whole empire.
I think that got number onedown.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
I mean over time again just to.
I re-watched it last year frombeginning to end, for the first
time since it had ended, andstill just so very visceral and
important, even in 2024.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
We were so groundbreaking way back then.
Every year was something elseand he really pushed the
envelope.
Do you remember?
I think it was either seasonthree, one of them opened with a
school shooting, yep, and therehad been a school shooting in
the off season.
(34:18):
Right then, and it's me andTommy and Charlie, and we're
riding around on the bike, we'reriding around the school and it
was a break.
And I said to him, to Charlieand to both of them, I said to
him, to Charlie and to both ofthem I go, man, this is kind of
strange, don't you think?
Kind of close to home for a lotof people.
And these guys are like this isthe job, this is the deal, this
(34:40):
is the art, this is what we do.
This particular showrunner ispushing these envelopes, but
yeah, it was a groundbreakingshow, it was an incredible.
I made the best friends of mylife.
I used it like film school forseven years, made a film and,
yeah, what a trippy little thingit became.
It really did it's.
(35:01):
I've been to like 30 countriesevery year.
Before the show, I go toThailand and after the show to
go to Indonesia.
After the show, I go toIndonesia and I would land.
I'm in the customs in Thailand.
You're walking in and you cansee that thing of when people
know who you are, they'rethinking where do they know who
you are?
I'm walking up and the guy'slike, oh yeah, autograph.
I'm like the show here is sovery big here, very big here,
(35:23):
and then I realized that there'smotorcycle clubs on a huge
level out there riding Harleys.
Yeah, so you know, the show istranslated into their language
and no wonder they're alltripping out.
It was sure it's kind ofinteresting, you know, it's cool
, it's.
I don't watch a whole hell of TV, this show, I'd rather write
(35:43):
things.
But this show, speaking ofwhich shameless plug, my new, my
new book, trust Issues.
Go get a copy.
It's an audio book also.
It's about a biker with hischick.
She cocktail waitress in astrip bar.
She wants to dance.
He won't let her.
He breaks up the whole bar,gets arrested, gets out, trades
his bike for a haunted 51 Chevyand goes after her.
It's awesome, yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
What's the character?
Speaker 11 (36:09):
question number three.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
I just want to know what's happened to you over
years, you know, and just overtime people telling you people
telling you what that charactermeant to you yeah, it's amazing
when people will walk up crying.
Speaker 11 (36:24):
I'm like don't cry, please don't cry here you can
have a free sticker, but pleasedon't cry, don't cry.
And the show had a profoundeffect on a lot of people will
walk up crying.
I'm like don't cry, pleasedon't cry.
Here you can have a freesticker, but please don't cry,
don't cry.
And the show had a profoundeffect on a lot of people.
Like I'm going to take a wildstab at it, I would say I was
going to say eight, five out often people, not the massively
(36:45):
rich people, five out of ten ofthe normal people from the
street.
I not the massively rich people, five out of ten of the normal
people from the street.
I'm a tattoo artist.
They know someone in a club.
They have a cousin or somebodyin a club.
Their cousins, girlfriends,friends, brothers, dad is in a
club.
Somebody's in a club, and notjust any.
There's so many clubs, bro.
There's, like you know, theDetroit Wheels.
There's nine of them.
If you're a man on a bike, youput a patch on your back.
(37:08):
You're a badass in your ownmind, that's for sure.
It changed my life on such alevel.
It taught me film.
I made a movie.
I was already writing, but look, I'm here across the country
meeting people that are intosome art that I was part of, and
that's a blessing.
That's a cool thing.
(37:29):
You know there's good and badin everything.
You know you lose a lot doingthese things.
You have to devote anincredible amount of time.
Seven years you ain't late onetime.
You don't miss a day.
Charlie came to work in walkingpneumonia.
You don't miss a day.
(37:49):
Charlie came to work andwalking pneumonia.
You don't miss a day.
You just it's a dedicated thingto do.
You lose a lot.
You can lose a lot.
It's possible to lose a lot.
I lost a lot, but I gained somethings and, yeah, they had a
profound effect upon life.
Tell me a bunch of new skillsand now I apply um yeah, I, I
(38:18):
mean uh, again, just kind of theuh.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
You talk about the uh , the sacrifice for the benefit
of us, the fan uh, you know,we're just so appreciative of
that, so so thank you, but uh,we uh, just to kind of wrap it
up, you already talked about thefans.
Speaker 11 (38:29):
We'd be dead yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Uh, to wrap it up, you know you already talked
about trust issues.
What else?
Anything else you want to plughere or let everybody?
Speaker 11 (38:36):
it's an audio book.
It's on Amazon prime.
All I know, my movie networks.
I try not to say things untilI'm doing them.
You don't want to attractnegative energy to your thing,
but yeah, I'm always.
You know, just, I'm writing2,000 Words a Day.
(38:57):
I'm in my fourth novel now.
Third one you can't do thisalone, so there's a team of
people in LA.
You've got to find people thatbelieve in your writing, that
want to work with you, that areinto putting forth the effort,
because once you write, you'vegot to put your producer hat on
and find the money to make themovie, which means you have to
(39:18):
find people with money who arewilling to invest and hopefully
it's people that see your vision.
Not only I want my money back,I want my, my 20%.
You know like, yeah for sure,the investors want their money
back, luckily for me.
And well enough, I just want tomake a movie.
I just I'm working on.
I'm working on something I'llnever see.
(39:42):
I'm writing these books for 400years from now that somebody can
read.
Have you read La Brava?
You know that's what I'm doing,but and I'm digging the road
while I do it I guess itdefinitely opened a lot of doors
.
You know, I wasn't trying to beon television and you ended up
on television.
I never knew how big it was tolast.
(40:04):
I didn't.
I don't really watch a lot oftelevision.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
How many shows have a legacy?
But to even be on seven seasonsis huge.
Speaker 11 (40:14):
Except for Law and Order and the Simpsons, people
have done it in like five or sixor something.
The guy with the camera isgoing stop standing up and down.
I thought you've done thisbefore Somebody.
Talk to the guy.
That's what it's about, youknow, just laughing, having fun.
(40:34):
Hey, best job ever had you rollup.
You got up at 4 in the morningso I could leave my house at 5,
so I could be on set at 520,race my bike there when, like,
this guy's ordered an omelet,I'm have my coffee and then
they're like okay, check it out,here's a machine gun, there's
your bike.
We're going to kill these sixdudes from this way.
Then we're going to kill themthat way, then we're going to
(40:55):
get coverage while we kill themand then we're going to cook you
a great lunch.
Imagine the job I was in, thatambush in the warehouse, and one
of my brothers calls me up andsays what are you doing?
I go we're about to ambushthese fools and cut them down
with machine guns and he sayswhat are you doing?
Saying that on my phone, I'mlike everybody who's listening
(41:17):
to us knows I'm on TV bro.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Well, david, thank you so much for taking the time.
It was so nice meeting you and,again, huge fan of your work
and the show.
This is David LaBrava here atCollective Con.
Hey everyone, phil Barrera withthe Wave 4 Podcast and
Collective Con here with ourguest.
Could you just take a moment tointroduce yourself and what you
do?
Speaker 10 (41:35):
Yeah, theo Rossi.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Theo, how's your weekend going so far?
Speaker 10 (41:39):
Very well.
Thank you so much for asking.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
I have a very important question for you how
John Cena heel turn in his finalyear.
Speaker 10 (41:46):
I don't know.
I mean, I think it's a good wayto go right.
Kind of interesting.
I like listen.
I love a good heel turn.
I'm a big fan of a good heelturn, especially when the
audience doesn't see it coming.
But it'd be interesting ifthat's the way he truly goes out
.
I feel like they're setting upkind of a redemption arc.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
I believe so too.
I think maybe somewhere towardsthe end he's going to come back
and realize like okay, this isnot what I really wanted to do
and we'll get that send-off.
Speaker 10 (42:12):
Yeah, because they're not letting him go out
as a deal?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 10 (42:16):
Not after his whole career as a babyface.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, but like you said, when something is truly
shocking, like that's the peakof wrestling.
Speaker 10 (42:22):
That's why we all watch had to make sure I asked
sean michaels yeah, I mean, Imean sean michaels doing the.
The kick anybody on the turnpiper's pit.
You wanted to see things thatdon't that you're not expecting
yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Um, I do want to tell you juice is one of my favorite
characters of all time.
I went back and re-watched theshow, uh last year and uh still
very much love that character.
What's that character meant foryou?
And also, what does it feellike when people come up and
also tell you how much juicemeant to them?
Speaker 10 (42:48):
I mean, I think they're all masochists because
it's hard to watch him, uh, no,I mean honestly, uh, uh, that
changed everything for me.
I'm so incredibly grateful.
I love doing these because Iget to see all these guys.
I mean, we talk every day.
Anyway, even though the showended almost 10 years ago, we're
still like as tight as we'vealways been, but it's um, that
really is the beginning of itall.
(43:09):
I feel like I learned it waskind of like going to college,
right.
It was like that was thebeginning, even though I'd done
50 different tv shows as gueststars, co-stars.
You know, I started as an extra.
That tv show kind of changedeverything for me and it's laid
the groundwork for everythingthat's ever happened in my life.
That's how I met my wife,that's why I have my kids.
It's like, let you know, I wentright from that to do a couple
(43:30):
movies, then luke cage and likeeverything just started from
that show.
So, uh, yeah, I just I love, Ilove that people loved you so
much and I think that,especially over the years,
they've kind of seemed tounderstand him more for sure.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
Yeah, absolutely watching in 2024 it was a
totally different lens thanwatching it back.
You know, 10 years ago, likeyou said, and David was
completely you know, justtalking about just the longevity
of this and how crazy it ispeople when you had shows that
lasted seven years 13 episodes,six months in between, weekly
(44:13):
shows.
Speaker 10 (44:14):
Those people become part of your family, so you kind
of hold on to them longer, asopposed to the model of like
just binging a show and thenit's over and you kind of don't
really remember it where I thinkthat people have a direct
attachment to this show.
I can't tell you how manypeople that I meet at these that
are like.
I used to watch this with mydad, who's no longer with us, or
(44:35):
I remember being in college andme and my friends on teller
Tuesdays would sit around andlike watch it.
So there's like a memoryattached to the viewing
experience and I just think thatthat's something we're kind of
missing yeah, yeah, I, Iabsolutely agree.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Um, I want to ask you so that if this shirt came in
right before this convention andyou we're having a good
conversation a little bitearlier as far as, like, the
marketing of cloverfield and howinsane that was, do you think
something like that can be doneagain, like now with the way
social media would have?
Speaker 10 (45:05):
to be so savvy to do it right because somebody would
give it away.
We're so big on like thespoilers now it's like we're
always trying to find somethingout.
Yeah, that to trick people, theway blair witch did like we
talked about, and whatcloverfield did with the myspace
pages and we shot the trailerbefore we shot the movie.
It's like I don't know if youcan do it anymore.
(45:28):
You'd have to be real tricky todo something in a viral sense.
Even batman with uh when he wasplaying the joker, they did all
this like cool viral marketing.
I mean, maybe we'll see.
I'd love to do something kindof, but you would have to not
know the actors.
You'd have to not know who'sinvolved, because that was the
trick with those you weren'treally familiar with.
That was the trick with thoseyou weren't really familiar with
(45:50):
.
Any of the actors in it youweren't really familiar with.
You know uh, what?
The situation wasn't a monster,what was it?
Speaker 4 (45:56):
what it was, we deal with aliens yeah, and that's, I
think, what made people so theappeal of it all yeah, and also
just not showing clover untilyou know you got to go to see
the movie first and all that youknow.
You get trailers where you knowthere's just so much in them
now and then it being shaky cam.
Speaker 10 (46:12):
There was like these things right outside the
theater that said like you couldget sick.
And you know people love that,like you know one of my buddies
who does Terrifier.
I remember there was an articlewhen Terrifier first came out.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
It was like there were people throwing up in the
theater and people like what andnow they want to go because of
the kind of thing that comeslong legs.
Did something similar to thatwith their, with their marketing
as well, with like people'sheartbeats and stuff like that
so it's cool that.
Speaker 10 (46:36):
so I think, anything to get, we're trying to get
people's attention in this kindof five second society that
we're in, where we don't reallypay attention to things months
uh much.
So it's like what they did wasreally what Matt did and JJ,
that's way ahead of the time,yeah for sure.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
And to bring it back to wrestling.
Speaker 10 (46:53):
that's why, whenever we are truly surprised by
things, it's that's why when meand Taker, when I just did
Taker's podcast, I kept sayingwe got to stop kicking out of
finishers.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Oh my gosh yeah.
Speaker 10 (47:04):
Kills me Maybe at a mania.
You can kick out a finisheronce.
You can't be kicking out offinishers at house shows.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
We can have a whole side conversation about kicking
out of finishers.
Theo, thank you so much foryour time.
Appreciate you.
It was a pleasure.
Thanks so much.
Thanks so much for watching,thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey, collective Con Eric from the Wait For it
Podcast here with Sean Ashmore,one of our special guests for
the three-day weekend here inJacksonville, florida.
Sean, I know that this is dayone, you're just kind of getting
your feet settled, but how areyou doing coming in today?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, doing great.
I'm excited to be here inJacksonville.
I've never been here before, sothat's kind of nice.
And yeah, the con has been fun.
Everyone's really nice.
So, yeah, I'm excited for agood weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Whenever you're coming into these things.
Obviously there's so manythings that you are known for
X-Men, animorphs, the Boys, andthat's just such a little sliver
.
I'm so curious when you'recoming to a convention like this
, when you get a chance to peekaround, are there any fandoms
that you're looking for as a fanof shows, media or anything in
pop culture that catches youreye?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I'm a big.
I grew up reading comic books,so I'm a big Marvel fan.
I also really like, so I alwaysenjoy like kind of bumping into
artists and also I just lovethe community of all the guests
that are here, like so often I'mlike, oh yeah, I'm a big Sons
of Anarchy fan.
It's like, well, ron Perlman'shere, you know.
So it's like, and I've got achance to meet him before, but I
always enjoy those interactions, like hanging out with people
(01:18):
that worked with or had a chanceto meet them, that I'm a fan of
myself and, most importantly, Ilove the environment at cons,
like it's a positive energy.
I love meeting everybody that'shere to celebrate the fandoms
that they love and it gives me akick to talk about all the
stuff that I've done over theyears with people that have
enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Absolutely, and I know a lot of times you've got
you know panels this weekend totalk about your previous roles.
I kind of want to talk aboutthe now with you and kind of
talk about you've done so muchand expanded your career.
I'm very curious is there ameaty role, whether it's in a
pop culture universe, or justthe role itself, maybe a certain
type of character you've yet toplay?
(01:59):
That's on your bucket list?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, I want to make a Western.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I love Westerns .
The Good, the Bad bucket listyeah, I want to.
I want to make a western.
Okay, yeah, I love westerns.
Um, the good, the bad and theugly is like one of my favorite
movies.
I love the?
Um, you know, clean eastwoodleone uh, you know that, that
specific genre of western.
So, yeah, I would love to to dosomething like that.
I've never really had theopportunity, so if I were to, um
, pick a genre to work in, I'dlove to do something like that
(02:25):
they do say every movie is aWestern and I'm starting to
believe that.
Yeah, yeah, that's a valid.
I want to be in horsebackthough, you know yeah you want
to be in it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That makes sense.
My last question for you.
I'm always very curious forpeople like yourselves.
You always come to theconventions.
You're meeting so manydifferent people when you get
back to the hotel.
You get back home.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You need that time to decompress what's that go-to
movie show book, that media thatyou kind of pick up or you tend
to go to in those moments whereyou need that break.
I love to get lost in like a TVshow or a film, and I tend to
like thrillers, I like horrorfilms, I like genre stuff, okay
so.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Anything that's caught your eye recently, like
in the past year.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Oh man, now you got me on the spot, I know.
Oh, dude, this should be veryeasy.
Well, actually, you know, I wasjust reminded of Blue-Eyed
Samurai on Netflix I love that,you know.
And Samurai on Netflix I lovethat, you know.
And I love animated stuff aswell, so that was something that
I was completely caught up in.
I cannot wait for anotherseason.
Also, let me think I actuallyjust watched last night, when I
(03:34):
got in.
I watched Venom, the Last Dance, which I hadn't seen before,
which is super fun.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You gotta complete it .
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, I like, but yeah, I'm a big.
I fell in love with and I thinkI wanted to get into film and
television and performancebecause I'm a huge fan of movie,
films and television, so I'm abig consumer of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, I love to hear that You've got a long weekend
ahead of you here at CollectiveCon and I just want to wish you
the best.
Hopefully everything goessmooth.
It will, and I reallyappreciate the time.
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Hey everyone.
Phil Barrera, with the Wait Forit podcast and Collective Con
here with our guest, could youjust take a moment to introduce
yourself to our audience andwhat you do?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Sure, hey, I'm David Wenham and I'm an actor and I've
been in well a number of thingsup there.
Yeah, probably Lord of theRings, van Helsing 300, a few
things.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Just a few things that you guys may have heard of.
So how has your weekend gone sofar here at Collective Con?
Speaker 5 (04:31):
It's been great.
I've loved being here.
The people have been absolutelyfantastic.
Yeah, very hospitable.
It's been fantastic, great,great.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Happy to hear that.
What's it like having fans ofall ages, people that have grown
up with the films that you'vebeen in, and then also new fans,
younger fans that are findingyour work for the first time?
Speaker 5 (04:50):
That is interesting, the fact that it's sort of a
generational thing.
With things like Lord of theRings it's like that is an
evergreen project because well,obviously the books to begin
with are pretty extraordinarypieces of literature and then
the films.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Films that peter made are pretty.
They're classic films.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
They're they're films that are going to always stand
the test of time.
Years from now, those willstill be there, right as far as
that's right as yeah.
After we've gone, phil, peoplewill still be watching exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Do you have a excuse me, after all this time, do you
have kind of a uh, a characterarchetype that you're more drawn
to?
I hear a lot of people you knowvillainous roles are more fun
and a little bit more layered.
Do you go either way as far asthose?
Speaker 5 (05:29):
In terms of favorite type of role, I don't really
Whether it's a villain, whetherit's, like you know, a man with
a good heart, whether it'scomedy, whether it's drama, I
don't.
As long as the character iswritten really well, that's
going to have a good indicationas to how successful the
character is going to be.
Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Well, we thank you so much for your time.
Please let our audience knowwhere they can find you and all
your work.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Where they can find me.
Basically, just search my nameon Google and then you'll see
whatever work you'd like towatch.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
David, thank you so much for your time, really
appreciate it.
Thank you so much CollectiveCon for hanging out.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It's Eric from the Way Forward podcast here at
Collective Com with David Hayter, the man himself, talking about
everything pop culture.
And of course, when we say popculture, one of the people that
come up is Snake.
I got to ask that questionright off the bat what is it
like playing that character andspecifically for that, every
time you are brought on to dothat voice, what do you have to
(06:22):
muster inside yourself to get tothat place, to do that
character?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
Good question.
Well, first of all, playing thecharacter is pretty damn good.
As far as what I have to do, Ihave a bug on me.
Just like Snake Eater, I shouldhave eaten it.
It was planted Right.
What do I have to muster?
You know, the first game I didwas 27 years ago, so it's now a
(06:50):
part of me.
In fact, the older I get, thesneakier I sound.
So it doesn't take a lot tomuster it.
It's just um being in the boothreading a new script.
I mean, that's inspirationenough and I can tap into my
inner snake and off we go.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I love that and having that character be a part
of yourself is such a greatthing after all these years.
I mean, you're kind ofsymbiotic in that way and I love
to hear that.
I'm very curious because notonly do you do things so amazing
in the booth but also from awriting perspective.
I'm just really curious anytimeI meet somebody with that dual
ability.
What are the key differencesfrom when you're trying to get
(07:27):
into the mindset of walking intoa booth portraying a character
and then also from a writerperspective, having to be
involved in that creativeprocess?
What is the biggest challengemaybe for you between those two
things?
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Well, the challenge is always getting people to buy
your scripts and get your moviemade.
But as far as skills go, I meanfirst of all to be a writer, you
have to read a lot, you have towrite a lot, you have to really
develop those skills, in thesame way that you have to with
acting or voice acting.
But the process I find becauseI started as an actor I find it
(08:03):
similar in that as an actor, Iread the script, I imagine how
my character would act, Idevelop it and figure it out.
As a writer, I just play everycharacter in my head and I
imagine them stepping into thisworld.
What are they facing, what arethe obstacles, what do they want
, what are the issues?
And it's kind of a similarprocess.
(08:23):
I mean really the process ofboth of them, despite all the
skill and all the work and allthe practice, is just what you
played when you were 10 yearsold, when you were pretending to
be Wolverine or or, or snake oror whatever.
It's just that, that ability toimagine and play and and um,
and put yourself in the positionof another person.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, yeah and that's a great segue to my last
question for you.
I'm always very curious.
When you were such an integralpart of people's childhood,
young adulthood and all of that,what was that franchise and or
character for you at that age,or growing up?
Even now, what kind of standsout to you in pop culture as a
fan of the medium?
Speaker 6 (09:05):
The most significant one was raiders of the lost ark.
Um, harrison ford, stevenspielberg.
You know, I was watchingraiders when I was 12 and this
electricity ran down my spine.
I was like that, whateverthey're doing, I want to do that
.
Um, so that's what made me getinto the business.
And also, uh, the x-men comics.
I was just such a fan and Iloved those characters, like,
(09:27):
like family and, uh, when I hadthe opportunity to work on the
movie, I was prepared because ofmy love for them.
So, um, you know, and star warsand just anything else you know
guys my age would love.
I was a big pop culture guy.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Excuse me that was just like Snake.
Was that another plant?
Speaker 6 (09:49):
I think I might have fox dye.
No, it's just allergies.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
No, I love that.
I love that.
Well, you're here in Florida,so that's what we've got.
We've got weather and allergiesWelcome to Jacksonville but
we've also got a bunch ofamazing people that you're going
to meet.
I can't wait to see what youbring to the weekend, and thank
you so much for the time.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Thank you, thank you and hey, all of you, you're
pretty good.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Hey everyone, phil Barrera with the Way 4 Podcast,
here with my guest.
Please take a moment tointroduce yourself and what you
do.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
Hi there, my name is JB Blanc.
I'm an actor and a voice actor.
I play Vander in Arcane,Caustic in Apex Legends, Kano in
MK11, and a load of other stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Absolutely, and I talked to you about this last
night as far as your performanceand what Vander has meant to me
and so many other people.
I have a daughter as well, sowatching that relationship grow,
now that the story has comekind of full circle, how are you
feeling and how do you knowwhat's your relationship with
that character as well?
Speaker 7 (10:48):
I mean, it's one of the most important things I've
done in my career.
I think it's just.
It's very rare that you get aseries that's been so deeply
thought of, so deeply consideredin the making of it and
detailed characters drawnbeautifully.
The artwork is very special.
The relationship with the fansis extraordinary.
I mean, this really did affecta lot of people, and you never
(11:09):
know when you're going to dosomething, whether that's going
to be the case and then when itturns out that way, it's kind of
it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
It's a lot of fun Definitely be the case, and then
when it turns out that way,it's kind of it's amazing.
It's a lot of fun, definitely,and you know there's always so
much pressure as well when itit's related to another.
You know, ip yeah, that peopleare so very passionate about it,
but you've brought in fans thatdon't really know anything
about the game into thisuniverse and left them wanting
more.
Did you know anything aboutleague going into this or did
you kind of just learn as yougot involved?
Speaker 7 (11:36):
I did because I played a character called Brom
in League for many years, but Ihad no idea, you know, when they
were putting this together, Ithought it would be something
that League players would needto be involved in or you'd have
to have played League to watchit but as it turned out, it was
a complete standalone.
(11:57):
I had a lot of friends who'dnever seen and never knew
anything about league, a lot offans who didn't, and, uh, and I
think that's a testament to theconsideration and the thought
that they put into it.
You know, um, they were verycareful to show enough easter
eggs for people who were fans ofleague, um, and to introduce a
whole new story.
And, of course, v Vanderdoesn't exist in League.
Warwick does, which is acompletely different character,
(12:20):
and there's no spoilers here,and so I thought that's a real
trick.
You see a lot of video gameadaptations that don't work, and
I think this one was very mucha winner.
I mean, we knocked Squid Gameoff the top spot at Netflix, so
that must be saying something.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Absolutely.
That's definitely sayingsomething.
I spoke with Jason last yearand talked to him.
So sorry to hear that.
I spoke with Jason last yearand talked about his character
and I asked him is he drawn tomore complex, like villainous
characters and, as far asportraying them, do you have a
(12:57):
specific type of character thatyou are more drawn to?
Speaker 7 (13:01):
Villains are always more fun.
Yeah, that's what I hear a lot.
If you're going to play a goodguy, I like to play a kind of
scarred good guy, a guy withmaybe a checkered past, and I
think that's been a lot of mycareer.
I seem to be specializing infather figures who meet
unfortunate ends, which I don'treally like because the checks
dry up.
There will be a role in Disneyfor you eventually, though, but
(13:23):
it's you know.
Vanda's more complex becausehe's got a violent past and he's
someone who's come throughsomething.
He's conflicted, he's a forcedparent.
He's not really a parent, buthe's kind of taken that job on.
So that's always interesting.
But in general nice guys don'thave as much fun and so the
villains are always more complexto play.
The trick is that a villaindoesn't really know he's a
villain.
He's just trying to get hisknees met like an angry toddler
(13:47):
who spits out their food whenthey don't like it.
So villains generally are morefun because they're more complex
.
They're usually often betterwritten.
The hero characters are kind of, you know, it's just to kind of
stay on one level, which isn'tas interesting to play sometimes
absolutely well, jb.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Thank you so much for the time please let our
audience know where they canfind you and all your work.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
I'm on all the socials.
You can find me at the JB Blunkor at Blunky JB or on Blue Sky
as Blunky Pants.
I don't know why it justhappened that way Might have
been my kid, I don't know butgreat to meet you.
Thank you very much for comingby.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
You as well.
Thank you so much, thanks somuch.
See you guys, see ya.
Hey everyone.
Phil Barrera with the Wave 4Podcast and Collective Con here
with our guest.
Speaker 8 (14:36):
Can you please take a moment to introduce yourself?
And what you do is MiaSinclair-Ginness.
I am a voice actress.
You may know me best fromplaying Powder in Arcane's in.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Netflix's Arcane on Netflix, absolutely so.
How has your weekend gone sofar?
How has Jacksonville beentreating you?
Speaker 8 (14:44):
It's been great.
Everyone is so nice, everyoneis super supportive and there's
some amazing cosplays here.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
That's one thing we're alwaysblown away by.
Every time we come here.
Have you been doing a lot ofthe, a lot of conventions, a lot
of shows traveling around?
Speaker 8 (14:58):
Um, yeah, in the last couple of months I've been
trying to do at least like one amonth, just because I love
meeting people.
I love conventions, becauseit's truly a safe space for
weirdos and you know, I amincluded in that and it's like
it's unlike anything else in theworld.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yeah, I always compare it to a high school
reunion that you want to attendbecause you get to see people
you actually want to see oh myGod, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely, and I thinkwhat a lot of people are
surprised at whenever they meetvoice actors is you guys don't
get to see each other.
No, we don't.
So how is that?
Seeing your castmates?
Speaker 8 (15:29):
That's another thing that I really love about
conventions.
I didn't get to record with anyof my castmates, so doing
conventions and getting to seeall of my wonderful arcane
people and beyond is always likemy favorite thing, especially,
you know, we're all staying inthe same hotels, we get to go
out to eat afterwards and we allget to do, you know, fun stuff
like this.
It really is so wonderful.
(15:51):
I haven't seen JB in like fouryears, so this is like our
reunion and it warms my heart.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
It's my favorite love that, love that so much.
Yeah, what's it been like to bepart of this fandom?
I'm sure there was a lot ofpressure coming in there.
A league obviously has a verywell-known fan base.
What was it like, um, cominginto this?
And and how has that fan base,kind of like, treated you since
you you came in?
Speaker 8 (16:11):
I mean, the fan base has been nothing but supportive.
Obviously, in any fanbase, inany fandom, there are going to
be, you know, certain toxicities.
But what I really love aboutthe Arcane fanbase, it is truly
one of the most supportive, kindfanbases I've ever seen.
I think going into it we knewit was going to be something big
(16:36):
.
We knew that leak had this huge, you know fan base and it was
really really intense.
But I don't think we ever couldhave predicted how you know
worldwide it was going to become.
And I remember we were all umat the season one premiere and
we watched it go live on Netflixand we watched the site crash,
(16:59):
we watched it shut down and Ithink in that moment we all kind
of realized that this was goingto be bigger than any of us
could have ever expected yeah,that that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
So, um, yeah, I tell I told this to Jason last year
like Arcane.
A lot of people are surprisedwhen I tell them Arcane is my
comfort show, like I put it onreally at any time, but like
just because there's so manylayers to this, the characters
are so well-written, theperformances are outstanding, so
you know we put it on at anytime.
Most important question yes,who has the best chicken tender?
Who has the best fast foodchicken tender?
Speaker 8 (17:31):
Okay, so let me lock in for a sec.
So me and my best friend Kim,who's over there, we are we are
chicken tender connoisseurs, ifI may.
Um Canes, I am a Canes girl, Ilove Canes and I love their
coleslaw I also really love.
There is a bar and restaurantin New York City where I live
(17:53):
called hi Berniebernia Bar andGrill.
Their chicken tenders and theirhoney mustard is phenomenal.
Hibernia is the best restaurantin New York City.
It's my favorite thing in theworld.
So, yeah, that's what I think.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Interesting.
Okay, yeah, we are finallygetting a Cane's in Jacksonville
, but it's like all the way onthe other side of town from here
.
But do you agree that Cane's isvery sauce dependent?
I love.
Speaker 8 (18:17):
I definitely do think Cane's is super sauce dependent
, but I do think that theirtenders are already like super
juicy and well made, as is.
That I can do with or withoutthe sauce.
Plus, I love Cane's, but I'mnot the biggest Cane's fan or
the biggest Cane's sauce fan.
Okay, I can take it or leave it.
I can take it or leave it, yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
The most important thing is covered here, of course
.
Yeah, obviously At CollectorCon.
So please take a moment to leteverybody know where they can
find your work and anything else.
Speaker 8 (18:41):
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at Mia Sinclair
Janess.
You can find me on TikTok underthe same handle.
I am not on Twitter, but yeah,you can watch Arcanes.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Season 1 and 2 on Netflix and you can watch Disney
Junior's Fancy Dancing onDisney+.
Thank you so much for takingthe time.
Thank you, and thank you somuch for joining us.
Hey everyone, phil Barrero,with the Way4Podcast here with
Collective Con guest LucianDodge.
Lucian, how are you doing heretoday?
Speaker 9 (19:08):
I'm doing very well.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Good, good, it's so exciting to have you here.
Please take a moment tointroduce yourself and let
everybody know what you do.
Speaker 9 (19:16):
Oh sure.
Well, my name is Lucian Dodge.
I'm a voice actor, sometimes ascript adapter, voice director,
typically for anime, video games, anything that anyone wants to
hire my voice for.
Pretty much, and it's fun.
Absolutely, I'm game for it.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yeah, I'm curious when I speak to voice actors was
this something that you knewwas a goal of yours?
Did you discover that voiceacting was an avenue you could,
you know, tackle later?
Speaker 9 (19:46):
Well, it was a bit of both.
I mean, I, I, I didn't reallyeven know that this world
existed until I was in mymid-teens or so.
It actually came about fromwatching anime.
I kind of recognized a voiceand a light switch came on and I
realized, oh, there's peoplewho do the voices of these
(20:09):
characters, and how does thatwork and who are these people?
And a million other things, andit kind of spurred a whole
bunch of research.
But then, once that happens andI kind of started to really do
a deep dive on it, I realized,wow, this is really, this is a
lot of fun.
I had been doing theater andstage acting and school plays
(20:33):
and kind of local productions,school plays and you know, and
kind of local, local productions, uh, but this was kind of like
almost like an evolution orextension of that.
Um, getting to play all thesecharacters and and just creating
them with my voice and playingsort of to the, the, the, the
minds.
What is it?
The, the mind's ear?
Is that the expression?
(20:53):
Uh, I'm gonna be getting thatbackwards.
Um, but uh, yeah, I just reallytook to it and from that point
I was like, yeah, this is, thisis the thing I want to do so in
in a lot of regards I did knowpretty early on in my life, you
know, that this is what I wantedto do and I just kind of set
(21:13):
everything in motion to to thathappen.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
It's so funny I mean so many of the origin stories
when it comes to a lot of VAs istheater, it's stage acting.
So I know a lot of people willcome up and ask where do I start
when it comes to voice acting?
And it seems like an answer weget a lot is an acting class.
Is that correct?
Speaker 9 (21:32):
Sure, because I mean, the most, most important thing,
the most important tool you canhave as a voice actor is to be
a really good actor.
If you don't have the acting,the, you know, the voices are
really fun, um, and and casually, you know, they're great party
tricks.
If you do a spot-on impressionor something, or even like a
halfway good impression, uh,it's fun, but it's not, uh, you
(21:56):
know, without the acting enginebehind it, uh, you're not going
to be able to sustain any kindof uh, you know, significant
career as a voice actor.
So, yeah, so, so, yeah, I would.
I would concur, acting, uh,classes is is really important.
I think it's funny.
(22:16):
My answer has kind of evolvedand shifted as far as where do I
start?
Because sometimes I get askedthat here and there and I would
say as far as where to start, isto just do it.
What I mean is I assume that ifsomeone is interested in voice
(22:41):
acting, there's a reason theyenjoy the voices, the character
voices or the scenes in theirmedia.
So just start there and juststart voicing those things that
you enjoy.
Don't worry about the businessside of it just yet.
That'll come about eventually.
(23:04):
Just start working on yourtools and again, that comes
first through just doing it andfiguring out what this does,
what you can do with it andhaving fun with it.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
So just start there and when it comes to the
business side, I feel like whenyou start networking, a lot of
that will come together as well.
So I just started my VA journey, so I'm in classes now and I
think one thing that reallysurprised me is just how many
you can go out there and findsomebody who's casting for a fan
cast or a web series orsomething along those lines.
So I think that's what you'retalking about Go do it and just
(23:37):
go give it a shot, and then youknow, you kind of go from there
build those relationships.
Speaker 9 (23:42):
Absolutely yeah.
And you know, yeah, don't worryabout it.
You know you don't need to bein.
You know the Hollywood, youknow feature film, whatever,
like that's down the road.
Just worry about doing it forfun first and yeah, the rest
will kind of you'll figure outthe other details.
(24:04):
And yeah, and all thenetworking, yeah, because
everyone else is kind of.
You know the people who arestarting out in animation or you
know audio design or whatever.
You know they're all kind of inthat same sort of starting
level with you.
So they're just trying tofigure out ways to express
themselves, put out works and dogood work.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
It's a whole ecosystem.
The writers need you, thestoryboard artists everything.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
We all need each other, especially when you're so
, if you can, if you can build,you know, a nice little network
with those people coming upthrough the ranks, working on
your craft together, helpingeach other out.
You know we all need each other.
We know we actors we need gooddirectors and writers and
animators, and you know, andvice versa, to make the whole
(24:56):
production work.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So yeah, Love that Well, lucian.
One more time, please let ouraudience know where they can
find you and any of your work.
Sure.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
Well, you can go to my website, which I am on and
off.
Good about updating.
Sometimes they get a little lax.
But you can go toLucianDodgecom
L-U-C-I-E-N-D-O-D-G-E, and I amon various social media here and
there it's usually Luciendodge.
Just want to try doing a searchfor me.
(25:26):
But yeah, it's mostly thoseavenues we'll get Lucien tagged.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Thank you so much for your time here today at
Collective Con.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Thanks, guys, hey everybody at Collective Con.
I'm Eric from the WayForwardPodcast.
This is KJ Tang.
You may know him and obviouslywe've got three days for you to
enjoy the convention.
But I'm very curious, just kindof jumping right into it.
You're known for so many roles,obviously within anime.
I'm always very curiouswhenever I talk to voice actors,
(25:53):
looking at things from adifferent perspective
perspective.
What is it like going into thebooth with all these different
characters and what do you putinto the characters yourself?
I'm always curious what is thatcore of each character?
That is cagey.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Well, I mean, that's, that's a really fun question,
like I think.
As actors, right, our, ourprimary job is to give you, the
audience, something about thecharacter of voicing that you
can empathize with, right,because we're all these weird
social animals.
We all have a lizard brain thatcan tell if someone's kind of
being disingenuous, right?
So the best thing an actor cando is to allow themselves to
(26:28):
really feel what thischaracter's going through and,
as long as those feelings aregenuine, any human can pick up
on those feelings and be like,oh, I remember when I was sad,
you know, I remember when thishappened to me.
So whenever you hear somethingthat really makes you actually
feel something, then the actorhas done their job and put a
little bit about with themselvesinto the character you know
(26:48):
that genuine emotion.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
And you know in addition to that, a lot, of, a
lot of times I find whenever I'mworking on a project or trying
to be creative, there has to bethat passion.
I'm just so curious from a popculture standpoint and this can
be from anime and beyond what isyour passion, your fandom, that
you kind of lean towards?
That has maybe eitherinfluenced your performances,
your roles or what you'reinterested in when you're
(27:11):
seeking out a character toperform as yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
So when I was a little kid, the whole reason I
got into acting in the firstplace was when I got to this
country.
I learned how to speak Englishby watching the original Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
Right, my first word ever wascowabunga.
I didn't know what it meant,you know, and my dad didn't know
what it meant.
It's a fun word, right, it's afun word.
So you know, that kind ofstarted me off.
(27:34):
Because of that show I tooktheater, you know, and because
of theater I ended up invoiceover.
So technically it was theTurtles that got me started in
the voiceover path.
But if you're asking whatfandoms I'm into, just generally
, I'm a giant like Magic theGathering player.
Right, I love magic.
You know Me and my wife competeat Evo for fighting games, you
know.
So that's another big passionof ours.
(27:55):
Yeah, dude, we're a StreetFighter family.
So you know, I haven't won anyEvos so far.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
But fingers crossed, you know what I mean Definitely
using the crying line in thosewins.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Oh my goodness right.
Can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
But I would also like , as we wrap it up, I would love
to ask you as well, when we'retalking about everything that
you're kind of enjoying andyou're getting into with these
characters um, what is a role,like a meaty role that you've
yet to attain?
So maybe that bucket list role,or have you already achieved it
?
What was that character, um?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
you know I, I I don't have too many, like I'm in a
position where I can't reallyask for too much.
You know, like it's like you'rejust glad, you know I, I'm so
happy I got involved withberserkerk.
That's one of the ones that Igot really, really excited about
Berserk in my opinion, such alegendary series.
You know, in my mind, no bettermanga than Berserk.
So that was one of my bigbucket list things.
But for stuff I really want tolook forward to in the future.
(28:47):
It sounds a little dumb, butlike two things Right.
One a little more serious thanthe other One.
I love Child's.
Play the horror movie.
I would definitely take a crackat Chucky one day.
You know that little ooh, Ilove him.
He's so funny, chucky, right.
And also I want to voice aRoomba.
You know little vacuum cleaners.
No, seriously, seriously,imagine, imagine the little
(29:08):
Roomba hits the corner and youjust hear me be like ow.
Like you know he cleans up yourCheetos and he's like, damn,
you live like this.
You know what I mean.
Like, I feel like that would bea lot of fun.
I would love.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know what it is.
It's just a matter of like yougot like a horror icon and then
a Roomba.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It was just a little startling Different passions.
You know I love thatno-transcript.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Hey everyone, phil Barrera from the WayForward
podcast here from Collective Conin Jacksonville Florida with
David LaBrava.
David, how are you doing thisweekend?
How's your Friday going so far?
Speaker 11 (29:54):
It's going fantastically, as you can tell.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Well, super excited to have you here.
Sons of Anarchy, one of myfavorite shows of all time.
And I just want to know afterall this time, people are still
continuing to find the show forthe first time.
Speaker 11 (30:12):
What's it been like to interact with, of course, the
OG fans and the new ones.
You know the show is like anenigma.
It's a worldwide show, likethese days.
When the show started, socialmedia was not giant.
It wasn't the way it is nowtoday.
Now you sell a show and they'llsay is that a United States
show or a worldwide show?
(30:32):
Meaning like, for instance, oneof my favorite shows, sopranos,
is a United States show,meaning people in the United
States will identify with thatshow.
This particular show is aboutguys wearing patches on
motorcycles.
That is everywhere.
It's in Slovenia, hungary,everywhere.
Show is Germany, bali, thailand.
(30:52):
It's everywhere.
So I think it's that alone islike you don't, 10 years later
and we're doing a panel and it'swall to wall.
You're not seeing that with awhole lot of shows.
And I think your question wasOlga, it's definitely when the
show was on.
It didn't matter who you askedhave you seen the show?
(31:12):
Yeah, I've seen that show.
No, it's like you sort of I geta lot of my parents watch that
show or I've heard of that show,or, if they're in the right
time frame, you could usuallysee who dug the show and the
older people like the show has.
It's older people.
Like the show has its own lore,right, you know, like, probably
(31:34):
you didn't know I'm Fat Bob.
On the FX Network site there'sFat Bob's blog.
I'm Fat Bob.
I also wrote Hands, episode 10in season 4.
So people would write what doesthis mean?
What does that mean?
I'd be like it means whateveryou want it to mean.
It's a television show, bro.
You know what I mean, um, but II think, uh, you know, like,
(31:58):
like frank says frank sinatra,without you we're dead.
And it's amazing the resurgence, what we're going on 10 years.
I think it's amazing how itgets passed on and people say
things to me like you stillcatching the sound, got to check
with the sound man.
You still go out of your way towatch my film Street Level.
(32:21):
Street Level it's on AmazonPrime, emilio's in it, a lot of
people in it, at any rate.
Yeah, I think the fans areamazing and the fans know things
like they, they search thingsout, they build their lore, they
, they do all that which madethe show super special.
(32:41):
I think another thing, like, uh, those patches on these shows
everyone's giving gifts, wrapgifts, they're all giving gifts.
You're giving a gift.
He's like, quit banging themicrophone on the thing, click,
click, click.
I'm keeping getting that.
On this show every departmentwould be like Sons of Anarchy
(33:02):
electrical Sons of Anarchy,construction, transportation and
all of a sudden people didn'thave to take two, three, four,
five years of their life to wearthis patch.
They could go buy it in thestore or work on the show and
that is like.
You know, I've ruffled somefeathers.
Other people thought it wasfantastic, but there were so
(33:25):
many special, unique things thatwent along with the Sons of
Anarchy and that whole empire.
I think that got number onedown.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
I mean over time again just to.
I re-watched it last year frombeginning to end, for the first
time since it had ended, andstill just so very visceral and
important, even in 2024.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
We were so groundbreaking way back then.
Every year was something elseand he really pushed the
envelope.
Do you remember?
I think it was either seasonthree, one of them opened with a
school shooting, yep, and therehad been a school shooting in
the off season.
(34:18):
Right then, and it's me andTommy and Charlie, and we're
riding around on the bike, we'reriding around the school and it
was a break.
And I said to him, to Charlieand to both of them, I said to
him, to Charlie and to both ofthem I go, man, this is kind of
strange, don't you think?
Kind of close to home for a lotof people.
And these guys are like this isthe job, this is the deal, this
(34:40):
is the art, this is what we do.
This particular showrunner ispushing these envelopes, but
yeah, it was a groundbreakingshow, it was an incredible.
I made the best friends of mylife.
I used it like film school forseven years, made a film and,
yeah, what a trippy little thingit became.
It really did it's.
(35:01):
I've been to like 30 countriesevery year.
Before the show, I go toThailand and after the show to
go to Indonesia.
After the show, I go toIndonesia and I would land.
I'm in the customs in Thailand.
You're walking in and you cansee that thing of when people
know who you are, they'rethinking where do they know who
you are?
I'm walking up and the guy'slike, oh yeah, autograph.
I'm like the show here is sovery big here, very big here,
(35:23):
and then I realized that there'smotorcycle clubs on a huge
level out there riding Harleys.
Yeah, so you know, the show istranslated into their language
and no wonder they're alltripping out.
It was sure it's kind ofinteresting, you know, it's cool
, it's.
I don't watch a whole hell of TV, this show, I'd rather write
(35:43):
things.
But this show, speaking ofwhich shameless plug, my new, my
new book, trust Issues.
Go get a copy.
It's an audio book also.
It's about a biker with hischick.
She cocktail waitress in astrip bar.
She wants to dance.
He won't let her.
He breaks up the whole bar,gets arrested, gets out, trades
his bike for a haunted 51 Chevyand goes after her.
It's awesome, yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
What's the character?
Speaker 11 (36:09):
question number three.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
I just want to know what's happened to you over
years, you know, and just overtime people telling you people
telling you what that charactermeant to you yeah, it's amazing
when people will walk up crying.
Speaker 11 (36:24):
I'm like don't cry, please don't cry here you can
have a free sticker, but pleasedon't cry, don't cry.
And the show had a profoundeffect on a lot of people will
walk up crying.
I'm like don't cry, pleasedon't cry.
Here you can have a freesticker, but please don't cry,
don't cry.
And the show had a profoundeffect on a lot of people.
Like I'm going to take a wildstab at it, I would say I was
going to say eight, five out often people, not the massively
(36:45):
rich people, five out of ten ofthe normal people from the
street.
I not the massively rich people, five out of ten of the normal
people from the street.
I'm a tattoo artist.
They know someone in a club.
They have a cousin or somebodyin a club.
Their cousins, girlfriends,friends, brothers, dad is in a
club.
Somebody's in a club, and notjust any.
There's so many clubs, bro.
There's, like you know, theDetroit Wheels.
There's nine of them.
If you're a man on a bike, youput a patch on your back.
(37:08):
You're a badass in your ownmind, that's for sure.
It changed my life on such alevel.
It taught me film.
I made a movie.
I was already writing, but look, I'm here across the country
meeting people that are intosome art that I was part of, and
that's a blessing.
That's a cool thing.
(37:29):
You know there's good and badin everything.
You know you lose a lot doingthese things.
You have to devote anincredible amount of time.
Seven years you ain't late onetime.
You don't miss a day.
Charlie came to work in walkingpneumonia.
You don't miss a day.
(37:49):
Charlie came to work andwalking pneumonia.
You don't miss a day.
You just it's a dedicated thingto do.
You lose a lot.
You can lose a lot.
It's possible to lose a lot.
I lost a lot, but I gained somethings and, yeah, they had a
profound effect upon life.
Tell me a bunch of new skillsand now I apply um yeah, I, I
(38:18):
mean uh, again, just kind of theuh.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
You talk about the uh , the sacrifice for the benefit
of us, the fan uh, you know,we're just so appreciative of
that, so so thank you, but uh,we uh, just to kind of wrap it
up, you already talked about thefans.
Speaker 11 (38:29):
We'd be dead yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Uh, to wrap it up, you know you already talked
about trust issues.
What else?
Anything else you want to plughere or let everybody?
Speaker 11 (38:36):
it's an audio book.
It's on Amazon prime.
All I know, my movie networks.
I try not to say things untilI'm doing them.
You don't want to attractnegative energy to your thing,
but yeah, I'm always.
You know, just, I'm writing2,000 Words a Day.
(38:57):
I'm in my fourth novel now.
Third one you can't do thisalone, so there's a team of
people in LA.
You've got to find people thatbelieve in your writing, that
want to work with you, that areinto putting forth the effort,
because once you write, you'vegot to put your producer hat on
and find the money to make themovie, which means you have to
(39:18):
find people with money who arewilling to invest and hopefully
it's people that see your vision.
Not only I want my money back,I want my, my 20%.
You know like, yeah for sure,the investors want their money
back, luckily for me.
And well enough, I just want tomake a movie.
I just I'm working on.
I'm working on something I'llnever see.
(39:42):
I'm writing these books for 400years from now that somebody can
read.
Have you read La Brava?
You know that's what I'm doing,but and I'm digging the road
while I do it I guess itdefinitely opened a lot of doors
.
You know, I wasn't trying to beon television and you ended up
on television.
I never knew how big it was tolast.
(40:04):
I didn't.
I don't really watch a lot oftelevision.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
How many shows have a legacy?
But to even be on seven seasonsis huge.
Speaker 11 (40:14):
Except for Law and Order and the Simpsons, people
have done it in like five or sixor something.
The guy with the camera isgoing stop standing up and down.
I thought you've done thisbefore Somebody.
Talk to the guy.
That's what it's about, youknow, just laughing, having fun.
(40:34):
Hey, best job ever had you rollup.
You got up at 4 in the morningso I could leave my house at 5,
so I could be on set at 520,race my bike there when, like,
this guy's ordered an omelet,I'm have my coffee and then
they're like okay, check it out,here's a machine gun, there's
your bike.
We're going to kill these sixdudes from this way.
Then we're going to kill themthat way, then we're going to
(40:55):
get coverage while we kill themand then we're going to cook you
a great lunch.
Imagine the job I was in, thatambush in the warehouse, and one
of my brothers calls me up andsays what are you doing?
I go we're about to ambushthese fools and cut them down
with machine guns and he sayswhat are you doing?
Saying that on my phone, I'mlike everybody who's listening
(41:17):
to us knows I'm on TV bro.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Well, david, thank you so much for taking the time.
It was so nice meeting you and,again, huge fan of your work
and the show.
This is David LaBrava here atCollective Con.
Hey everyone, phil Barrera withthe Wave 4 Podcast and
Collective Con here with ourguest.
Could you just take a moment tointroduce yourself and what you
do?
Speaker 10 (41:35):
Yeah, theo Rossi.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
Theo, how's your weekend going so far?
Speaker 10 (41:39):
Very well.
Thank you so much for asking.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
I have a very important question for you how
John Cena heel turn in his finalyear.
Speaker 10 (41:46):
I don't know.
I mean, I think it's a good wayto go right.
Kind of interesting.
I like listen.
I love a good heel turn.
I'm a big fan of a good heelturn, especially when the
audience doesn't see it coming.
But it'd be interesting ifthat's the way he truly goes out
.
I feel like they're setting upkind of a redemption arc.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
I believe so too.
I think maybe somewhere towardsthe end he's going to come back
and realize like okay, this isnot what I really wanted to do
and we'll get that send-off.
Speaker 10 (42:12):
Yeah, because they're not letting him go out
as a deal?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 10 (42:16):
Not after his whole career as a babyface.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, but like you said, when something is truly
shocking, like that's the peakof wrestling.
Speaker 10 (42:22):
That's why we all watch had to make sure I asked
sean michaels yeah, I mean, Imean sean michaels doing the.
The kick anybody on the turnpiper's pit.
You wanted to see things thatdon't that you're not expecting
yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
Um, I do want to tell you juice is one of my favorite
characters of all time.
I went back and re-watched theshow, uh last year and uh still
very much love that character.
What's that character meant foryou?
And also, what does it feellike when people come up and
also tell you how much juicemeant to them?
Speaker 10 (42:48):
I mean, I think they're all masochists because
it's hard to watch him, uh, no,I mean honestly, uh, uh, that
changed everything for me.
I'm so incredibly grateful.
I love doing these because Iget to see all these guys.
I mean, we talk every day.
Anyway, even though the showended almost 10 years ago, we're
still like as tight as we'vealways been, but it's um, that
really is the beginning of itall.
(43:09):
I feel like I learned it waskind of like going to college,
right.
It was like that was thebeginning, even though I'd done
50 different tv shows as gueststars, co-stars.
You know, I started as an extra.
That tv show kind of changedeverything for me and it's laid
the groundwork for everythingthat's ever happened in my life.
That's how I met my wife,that's why I have my kids.
It's like, let you know, I wentright from that to do a couple
(43:30):
movies, then luke cage and likeeverything just started from
that show.
So, uh, yeah, I just I love, Ilove that people loved you so
much and I think that,especially over the years,
they've kind of seemed tounderstand him more for sure.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
Yeah, absolutely watching in 2024 it was a
totally different lens thanwatching it back.
You know, 10 years ago, likeyou said, and David was
completely you know, justtalking about just the longevity
of this and how crazy it ispeople when you had shows that
lasted seven years 13 episodes,six months in between, weekly
(44:13):
shows.
Speaker 10 (44:14):
Those people become part of your family, so you kind
of hold on to them longer, asopposed to the model of like
just binging a show and thenit's over and you kind of don't
really remember it where I thinkthat people have a direct
attachment to this show.
I can't tell you how manypeople that I meet at these that
are like.
I used to watch this with mydad, who's no longer with us, or
(44:35):
I remember being in college andme and my friends on teller
Tuesdays would sit around andlike watch it.
So there's like a memoryattached to the viewing
experience and I just think thatthat's something we're kind of
missing yeah, yeah, I, Iabsolutely agree.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Um, I want to ask you so that if this shirt came in
right before this convention andyou we're having a good
conversation a little bitearlier as far as, like, the
marketing of cloverfield and howinsane that was, do you think
something like that can be doneagain, like now with the way
social media would have?
Speaker 10 (45:05):
to be so savvy to do it right because somebody would
give it away.
We're so big on like thespoilers now it's like we're
always trying to find somethingout.
Yeah, that to trick people, theway blair witch did like we
talked about, and whatcloverfield did with the myspace
pages and we shot the trailerbefore we shot the movie.
It's like I don't know if youcan do it anymore.
(45:28):
You'd have to be real tricky todo something in a viral sense.
Even batman with uh when he wasplaying the joker, they did all
this like cool viral marketing.
I mean, maybe we'll see.
I'd love to do something kindof, but you would have to not
know the actors.
You'd have to not know who'sinvolved, because that was the
trick with those you weren'treally familiar with.
That was the trick with thoseyou weren't really familiar with
(45:50):
.
Any of the actors in it youweren't really familiar with.
You know uh, what?
The situation wasn't a monster,what was it?
Speaker 4 (45:56):
what it was, we deal with aliens yeah, and that's, I
think, what made people so theappeal of it all yeah, and also
just not showing clover untilyou know you got to go to see
the movie first and all that youknow.
You get trailers where you knowthere's just so much in them
now and then it being shaky cam.
Speaker 10 (46:12):
There was like these things right outside the
theater that said like you couldget sick.
And you know people love that,like you know one of my buddies
who does Terrifier.
I remember there was an articlewhen Terrifier first came out.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
It was like there were people throwing up in the
theater and people like what andnow they want to go because of
the kind of thing that comeslong legs.
Did something similar to thatwith their, with their marketing
as well, with like people'sheartbeats and stuff like that
so it's cool that.
Speaker 10 (46:36):
so I think, anything to get, we're trying to get
people's attention in this kindof five second society that
we're in, where we don't reallypay attention to things months
uh much.
So it's like what they did wasreally what Matt did and JJ,
that's way ahead of the time,yeah for sure.
Speaker 4 (46:52):
And to bring it back to wrestling.
Speaker 10 (46:53):
that's why, whenever we are truly surprised by
things, it's that's why when meand Taker, when I just did
Taker's podcast, I kept sayingwe got to stop kicking out of
finishers.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Oh my gosh yeah.
Speaker 10 (47:04):
Kills me Maybe at a mania.
You can kick out a finisheronce.
You can't be kicking out offinishers at house shows.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
We can have a whole side conversation about kicking
out of finishers.
Theo, thank you so much foryour time.
Appreciate you.
It was a pleasure.
Thanks so much.
Thanks so much for watching,thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
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