Dante Basco: American Actor, Voice Actor and Dancer

Best known for his role as Rufio in the 1991 live-action film ‘Hook,’ and his voicing of Zuko in the Nickelodeon series ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dante Basco has made the 14-hour long journey to Sydney for Oz Comic-Con this weekend.

As a slam poet and has boosted the LA scene with his Da Poetry Lounge for over 15 years, OutInSydney was excited to sit down to chat with Dante about his career so far and what we can expect to see from him in the future.  

Welcome to Oz Comic-Con! Is this your first trip to Australia?

I have been to Australia a couple of times before but have only visited Melbourne, this is my first time in both Brisbane and Sydney. I think Sydney is kind of like New York, being a multicultural melting pot with a similar energy and social scene. The best thing in Sydney so far has been the shopping and the food. I went to Mr. Wong’s for dinner last night and that was amazing!

Other than Oz Comic-Con, what else do you want to check out while you’re here?

I have had a long career that has varied from film and television, film making, to poetry, music and dance so I have a wide range of interests. I definitely want to check out the Sydney poetry scene while I’m here.

Have you been to many Comic-Con type events before?

Yeah, Comic-Con has been going on in the States for a long time, but the scene has really blown up in the last four or five years and has become a real buzzword. Upon doing Zuko in Avatar: Last Air Bender I went to the San Diego Comic-Con and that started opening doors about going to Comic-Cons all over the world.

Who are you excited about meeting at Oz Comic-Con?

One of the special things about coming to a Con is that even though we are ‘the celebrities’ or ‘the artists’, we’re also ‘fans’. I’m a big Harry Potter fan so I’m excited to meet Evanna Lynch who plays Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and Robbie who plays the young James Potter. Oz Comic-Con also features some amazing visual artists like Dean Rankin so I’m keen to meet them as well.

Your character in Hook, Rufio, had a lot of swagger. I read that you improvised a lot of the lines for Hook, which is a pretty brave thing to do in front of Robin Williams.  Was it the character that brought this out in you, or is it an innate part of your nature – hence the slams?

I did improvise some lines as Rufio but the lines were really well written for the character.  Robin definitely improvised a lot more lines then me! I feel that my ability to improvise some of my lines as Rufio came from slam poetry. Robin was a big poetry person and he supported me as a poet the whole time we worked together. Improvising lines when working with Robin is sometimes a brave thing because he is one of the best ever and maybe the best that will ever be at improvisation.

Da Poetry Lounge has become a great thing in your life. How and why do you think it’s survived?

Da Poetry Lounge really started about 20 years ago in my living room, so it has definitely grown. I’m really proud to be a part of that scene and part of my generation of poets that really solidified poetry in America in the 90's and beyond, and to curate and help educate the next generation of poets.

I think Da Poetry Lounge has survived for such a long time because of sheer luck and having the right guys at the right time and having such a great handful of poets at the start including Sheehan, Brother Joemel, and In-Q, who went on to be very successful in their careers.

What’s next for Dante Basco?

There is a bunch of things I still want to do, I have finished four films so far this year and I actually have a production company in Hawaii, Kinetic Films, that is an Asian Pacific Islander film company, So far we have released three films and have a slate of new films coming up, including, Red Roses for AJ Rafael. Beyond that I wrote a play called Midnight Make out Session that’s being produced in Los Angeles. I’m also finishing up my second book of poetry and am just continuing to be creative.

You can see Dante Brasco at Oz Comic-Con this weekend in Sydney. Click here for tickets and a full list of special guests.