Interview with Ryan Potter (Hiro) and Daniel Henney (Tadashi) for Big Hero 6

It is no surprise that Big Hero 6 won big time at the Oscars! The movie is amazing and so are the people behind it. I loved getting to meet and interview Big Hero 6 Directors Don Hall and Chris Williams and Big Hero 6 “FEAST” Director Patrick Osborne on my trip to LA. I also got to meet and do an interview with Ryan Potter (voice of Hiro) and Daniel Henney (voice of Tadashi).

Q : Daniel, you’ve been in a Wolverine movie already, and now you’re in the Marvel Big Hero 6. Were you a big comic book fan as a kid?

DANIEL : Yeah. I was into Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, stuff like that. It’s still very surreal, though. It doesn’t get, like, oh, this is my normal Tuesday, you know, fighting Wolverine and dying in a helicopter. That’s not normal for me. I mean, it’s still very surreal. This movie was very, very special. You could feel the Marvel influence, but it was just a whole other beautiful experience. It was just bigger than anything I’d done before. After I finished Big Hero 6, I was like, oh yeah, I did Wolverine, too, so there is a connection there, but I didn’t think about it until afterwards.

Q : Daniel, even though your character is a small part of the film, you made a huge impact. So how is Tadashi different from your character- your real personality?

DANIEL : I dress just like Tadashi. I always have. I don’t usually wear suits, so like there’ll be days when I walk out of my house and I’ll take a look in the mirror, and I look just like Tadashi. I wear a cardigan and a baseball hat. But to answer your question, he’s made me a better person. He really has. Living in this world, we get caught up in things and sometimes it’s hard to appreciate every moment like everyone preaches. And it’s hard.

Then it was a beautiful opportunity for me to go and play this guy who is such a role model for what a man should be at such a young age – so smart, beautiful, intelligent, caring, genuine, the ultimate big brother, and he’s very selfless. And so every day using your voice- lending your voice to that, I would walk out of that room feeling like I just sat through a therapy session. I wanted to tackle the world. I’d be at the grocery store afterwards, just smiling and ran into people- probably creeping them out. [AUDIENCE LAUGHS]. It was great, he’s really helped me a lot.

Q : What challenges did you face in channeling the emotions you had to bring forward.

RYAN : I’m Hiro so I didn’t go into that room acting at all. I went into that room simply being myself and living in those circumstances. The creators of the film made a really comfortable environment, so I just revisited a lot of things that I felt before. It was very much like therapy. I walked out of there like I was able to purge a lot of things and it was awesome. It was absolutely awesome.

Q : How do you feel about the small fan base? Whenever you see the younger kids, and as your character, and they see you on shelves, what is that like for you?

DANIEL : It’s just the funniest thing. I think people think when you do movies they just throw a bunch of figurines and action figures your way. The coolest thing- let’s be honest – when you do movies is to get your action figure. [AUDIENCE LAUGHS] It took me a long time to find my Wolverine action figure because I wasn’t a huge part, but I found it. [AUDIENCE LAUGHS] This one, Tadashi’s not a huge part of it, but he did get a figure. That’s so surreal to have that moment. It’s very satisfying and fun.

Q : What’s next for you guys?

DANIEL :  I can’t really disclose much, but I have a TV show I’m probably doing here in the states. I guess it’ll be coming out this fall. Pretty excited about it and it’s another one of those things where it’s not necessarily a role that you see an Asian-American man cast for so I’m proud to bust those doors open a little further. So this will be a big one, and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully, everything goes well.

RYAN : I applied for college. (at this we all expressed our approval. His response was…) I love it, all the moms, like, yep, [AUDIENCE LAUGHS]. But I applied for an art school, Cal Art’s, it’s like the top. My entire family, they’re all educators. They all had four years of education. They’re all pushing USC on me and it just simply wasn’t an option. My mom grew up in the ’60s, ’70s. Her dad just said you do whatever you want. She followed all her dreams and carried out all these different fantasies, basically. She is the only that has really encouraged me to do what I want. I’ll continue just pursuing my craft and all these different aspects- designing, shooting, acting, and then school on the side.

The interview with Ryan Potter and Daniel Henney was amazing. They did an amazing job as the voices of Hiro and Tadashi and have many wonderful things a head of them. And lets face it – it won’t be so bad watching Daniel on TV every week 😉

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This was an all expense paid trip provided by Disney. All opinions expressed are my own.