When Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered on Nickelodeon, the series not only acted as a gateway for young viewers to explore different types of animation style but it also gave the world a very layered and dramatic story with amazing characters. One of the best examples of that was fire bender Prince Zuko.
Zuko's character arc has been one of the best examples of a three-dimensional character since someone like Vegeta or Loki. The inner struggle he goes through while finding his path makes him one of the best characters in the series. However, none of that could have been achieved without a talented voice to make him come to life.
For over a decade, without many knowing it, voice actor Dante Basco has been impacting the minds of many people with his extensive voice work over the years. From beginning his career as Rufio, leader of the lost boys in Hook, to hunting down the Avatar as Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Basco has been apart of many childhoods and helped create some of the most memorable stories of the modern age.
Most recently, his work on the interactive Twitch show Artificial: Remote Intelligence has seen the actor take on a new challenge in entertainment, a series that the fans actively create! We recently caught up with him on Comic Book Movie to hear his thoughts about the show. Give it a look below, and don't forget to give the audio interview a listen at the end!
Joe: So how do you like it on the show? I know you haven't been on very long.
Dante Basco: I just started, I mean we just did the first character building episode and so I'm really excited. I really have never done anything like this outside of theater. It feels like theater in a digital age, so I'm pretty excited to see how the whole process goes and I'm looking forward to working with Bernie, I'm a big fan of his.
Joe: I tuned in the other day when the fans were working on making your character so I'm curious to know which facets of your character you were surprised to receive?
Dante Basco: You know, I can't remember all of the characteristics but the whole thing is a new experience, and it's kind of like putting together a D&D character but with thousands of people together.
Joe: And that's funny because when I talked to Bernie he had mentioned that you likened the process to character creation in D&D. Do you feel like your experience playing D&D has helped you with the off-the-cuff and interactive nature of Artificial?
Dante Basco: Yeah totally, I think it's going to. I'm not a big D&D player, I sort of got back into it a few years ago when working with Rooster Teeth. I just realized as I got back into improv and involved in shows like Critical Roll with my friends Laura and Travis.
Joe: Is that Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham?
Dante Basco: Yeahhh!
Joe: Yeah see, I know my voice actors! So, I'm curious - Twitch is a perfect platform for the concept of Artificial. Were you familiar with Twitch before taking on this role or is it something you're new to?
Dante Basco: I'm definitely familiar with Twitch, you know, I have a channel called Honor Society in which me and my stream team play video games on Twitch and currently we're doing a Let's Watch of Avatar: The Last Airbender every Friday at 3pm PST. We're raising money for direct relief for COVID frontliners. We have Phil Lamar and Greg Baldwin and a lot of the stars from Avatar on there for good causes.
Joe: I love that! They sent me one of those 15th-anniversary Avatar: The Last Airbender steelbooks, and those are amazing and beautiful!
Dante Basco: They're great, I have one too.
Joe: Yeah, I figured you have one, haha, I have it sitting up on a shelf and it's one of the coolest things I have now.
Dante Basco: That's awesome, man.
Joe: Back to Artificial. When I was chatting with Jennifer Field and some of the other cast members they mentioned they like to hop in the chat under secret screen names. Is that something you like to do?
Dante Basco: You know, I've never done that. You know, with the technology there is a lot of things going on so for me to just be present is one thing. You kind of feel like you're Captain Kirk on the brig of the Starshiip Enterprise and you gotta run everything, especially now during COVID where I don't have my tech guys with me or anything and I'm running everything myself.
Joe: Now, I know you're still getting used to your character, but what can you tell us about what the audience has built for you? What's your character's name again?
Dante Basco: My character's name is Zander. He's gonna be a rival to Sebastian, who is the owner of the company. And I'm a childhood friend that's coming back into his life and I'm just as eager as everyone else is to find out how I fit into this story and what kind of mischief and mayhem I'm going to bring to these characters. For me it's almost like a soap opera kind of thing which is really interesting because I haven't done any soap operas since the 80's and 90's. I did Santa Barbara for NBC back in the day and then I did a short run show for MTV back in the day, I forget the name of it. So doing soap operas are fun, there's all these different facets of filmmaking like with film television.
Joe: You've mentioned your experience in theater. What kind of experience in theater to you have that help prepare you for this?
Dante Basco: Yeah, well you know, I'm theater trained. You know, I studied theater and acting classes for over twenty years, you know? So that's a big part of my training, doing live theater and everything from Shakespheare to modern plays, and I even wrote a play. So I'm very excited to get back into a live setting and act live, it's going to be really great.
Joe: That's awesome. So have you always been into sci-fi stuff then, your whole life?
Dante Basco: Totally, I grew up in the 80's and 90's. Star Wars and Star Trek and even Harry Potter and Hook even, you know that's fantasy and stuff? And with Terminator, Skynet ended the world and that's my birthday August 29th.
Joe: That's funny, that's one month away from my birthday, July 29th.
Dante Basco: That's my mother's birthday!
Joe: We Leos are special people, man! Is there anything else you'd like to share about Artificial or any of your other projects?
Dante Basco: Yeah, just that I'm excited about Artificial. Beyond that I do have my memoirs book out right now From Rufio to Zuko and I'll be touring for that as soon as the COVID restrictions let up. I also have my first project with the Filipino Brothers, hopefully in the fourth quarter of this year.
What do you guys think of Dante's comments? Have you had a chance to check out his portrayal of Zander on Artificial? Make sure to give the full interview a listen on Literaryjoe's Inner Child Podcast!
Every story has a beginning. Elle, Sebastian, Ruby, and Justin begin the new journey of the AI to be named. Catch up on the story, and jump in.
Artificial is a Live and Interactive Science Fiction series where the audience changes the story. It is the first original sci-fi series on Twitch and was the winner of the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Innovation in Interactive Media.
Artificial: Remote Intelligence airs at 5 pm PST/8 pm PST tonight and every Thursday. You can catch the previous worldbuilding episode here.