My mother always kept us involved in various types of art.
Dante Basco
I'm a poet, first and foremost as a writer. That's who I am. That's what I'm most comfortable writing.
I come from a big family of brothers and sisters and family dramas and honor and dishonor.
For me, my first fandom was 'Star Wars.'
But everyone comes to Hollywood hoping to get a role people are going to remember them for, and I get girls saying I was their first crush, or Asian guys saying Rufio was the first time they saw an Asian kid on-screen that wasn't nerdy or stereotypical, so I was lucky the character that resonated was cool.
I didn't have the regular high school experience. My experiences were on sets.
I feel like I grew up differently, when you're a child actor you grow up differently, but it's not that different than growing up as, like, a child basketball player who goes to the NBA. There are certain kids who become professionals at a very young age. There's a lot of sacrifice that goes into that.
I guess my voice is more recognizable than I know!
I look for us - people of color in Hollywood, to create more stories as writers, directors and filmmakers, creating more opportunities for ethnic actors. At the end of the day, we have to be the ones giving jobs and telling the stories, not just waiting to be hired.
Anyone who has been in this town long enough has their own 'True Hollywood story.'
The crazy thing about 'Hook' was it was one of the movies in town that everybody knew about. It was the biggest film shooting in Hollywood at the time and the idea of Robin Williams playing Peter Pan really captured everybody's imagination.
I grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood, Paramount, California, outside of L.A., like near Compton, that's where I'm from.
Look, everyone who ever comes to Hollywood, you hope to do something that people will remember you for.
A lot of times as an actor you watch a film it's like thumbing through a photo book from your past. It's people you haven't seen in a while, there are people that have passed away, and there are people you owe phone calls to.
I was 15 when I did Rufio and now I've been Rufio for more of my life than I haven't been. Wrestling with that is always interesting because you don't want to be fully defined by it, but at the same time it's you, and you don't want to be ashamed of you either.
My brothers and I came to L.A. as break-dancers when I was about 10, and by the time I was 15, I was working on this really big movie, with Steven Spielberg and Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams.
It's even rougher for the kids today because they have social media - it's as if they're being interviewed every moment of the day even when they're just interviewing themselves, putting out a tweet or an Instagram post.
Starting out so young meant missing out on a lot of things that kids do, that your friends are doing, whether it was playing team sports or school dances with friends. I remember having fights with my mother when I was young about 'Why can't I just go have frozen yogurt with my friends after school and go hit on the girls at the library?'
I come from a traditional media generation, you know? I'm like the last generation of that. And so the whole world has changed, ultimately. Coming into social media, Twitter, Facebook - I mean, the first social media I ever had was Tumblr.
I mean, he's one of the greatest characters I've gotten to play over my career, so there's a little bit of me in Zuko and a little bit of Zuko in me.
After 'Hook,' it was so sad for all of us to watch the set get destroyed. We were at the end of 'Hook,' and we're walking off the Sony lot and we're literally seeing the boat get destroyed. That was the sad thing, seeing that go.
I kind of got popular as a spoken word artist, and I ended up doing some ads and audio stuff for Nike and Sprite.
I came up in the '80s and '90s - there was no engagement with the fan base.
It's weird because I grew up in this town, so the things I really dug, I was constantly around them. Like Alyssa Milano - I had the biggest crush on her from TV, but I also saw her around town at parties. It's just funny.
Working with Robin Williams, and Bob Hopkins, and Dustin Hoffman and you're talking about 'gods,' really, in our industry. You look at legends everyday. It was so impactful to me as a young artist.
I think it's one of the coolest things especially as a young actor, actually at any time - even doing my stuff with Avatar - merchandising, video games come out and action figures and plushie toys. It really ignites the kid in you.
As far as geek culture, I didn't grow up in the comic con geek culture lane, then I started doing Comic Cons seeing the impact of it. The character, Rufio living on.
I've actually had a great career in Hollywood. I've been a working actor my whole life.
It's illegal to hire or fire anybody because of their race, appearance, or sexual orientation, but in Hollywood, ironically, it's the reason people will hire or not hire you.
Depictions of race have changed so much since, like, the '50s, where white people just played every race. But the pendulum swings both ways: I'm Filipino-American. If I had to wait for a Filipino role to come out to get work, I couldn't eat. There are barely any roles out there.
I love being part of the 'Avatar' family.
I am a California Kid.
My grandfather was a survivor of the Death March and his war buddies were among our neighbors. Where we lived in San Francisco, there was a cultural center where the Filipinos congregate to have parties and to celebrate Bataan Day.
In Hollywood, I was never restricted to just one Asian character. I've been cast as a Chinese, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Japanese and a Cambodian.
But being Asian American, a lot of Asian American guys come up to me who are in interracial relationships and they tell me, 'Growing up my partner had a big crush on you and so you're probably one of the reasons why she married me, so thank you.'
'Dead Poets Society' was a very influential film on me and so talking about that movie with him, he just inspired me to continue writing poetry and we talked a lot about our favourite poets. My wrap present from Robin was a beautiful limited edition copy of Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' and that's a great memory for me.
Some people have such strong memories of me as a young actor, that it's hard to see me as anything else.
The most fascinating thing for me is that 'Peter Pan' is a fairy tale, but now, this Filipino kid is a part of the folklore. Can you imagine telling the story of 'Sleeping Beauty' or 'Cinderella,' and all of a sudden there's a Filipino kid in there after all these years?
It's not always enjoyable to go back and look at things in your life. Things that you're not proud of, you definitely don't want to confront; dark times that you've already gotten over.
I had a different agent after 'Hook,' and they were, like, 'We don't know where to go with you. It's like you've already gone to the top of what's out there for a young Asian actor.' No one had done anything higher profile than that. And I'm, like, 'OK, but I'm only 15.'
And it's ironic that in my career I've done the black shows from 'Moesha' to 'Fresh Prince' to 'Hangin' with Mr. Cooper,' and then a lot of black films like 'Biker Boyz' and 'Love Don't Cost a Thing.'
Within the black community, I'm definitely a neighborhood celebrity.
You have to understand, when you're 15 and you're doing this Steven Spielberg movie with megastars - Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts - you know you want to be cool. I don't know how cool I'm going to look with my belly button out!
Rufio's a great iconic character for a certain generation and definitely something I'm always associated with, proud to be associated with which is cool.
'Hook' became a cult classic without all the lore.
I love seeing the new generation take something that we've done and reinvent it for a whole new time.
The first time I walked onto the set of Neverland, it was like walking into another world. They built the sets extra strong, so we were allowed to play on them when we weren't filming. It was cool!
Back In 1982, I started in show business with my brothers. We started a break dancing group.
My first professional acting role was a small part in a television series called 'The Wizard.' I later had the opportunity to work on Michael Jackson's Moon-walker music video.
Being a Filipino actor in Hollywood, the most frustrating part of landing roles in Hollywood is definitely the limited roles available and the lack of diversity.
