A recent poll that I ran on Twitter showed that people mostly wanted to see more interviews with Ryan being posted, I’m trying to make that happen as much as possible but he hasn’t done a lot of recent interviews. If you want to check out all the interviews we have posted, you can click here!

In the interview, Ryan talks all about his role on Titans and his audition for Titans, who he wants to cameo on the show, Representation between the actors, the backlash towards Anna being casted as Starfire and touches a little bit on how he worked with Disney (Big Hero 6) and now the DC Universe. You can watch (well… listen) below!

Ryan’s latest interview is with Supanova Expo // Supanova Comic Con as he’ll be appearing there in Adelaide from November 2nd to November 4th and in Brisbane from November 9th to November 11th. Enjoy reading this new interview!

You’re probably more likely to recognise Ryan Potter’s voice first before recollecting the young actor for his film and television credits. Potter voiced the character of Hiro Hamada in Big Hero 6, both the film and the television series, as well as in a variety of Disney Infinity War games. But soon that’s all about to change, with the release of the DC Universe live action series Titans.

Potter stars as Garfield “Gar” Logan aka Beast Boy, a young man who has the ability to transform at will into any animal he chooses. The show focuses on the Teen Titans characters from the DC Comics universe, which has been given a dark, on occasion hyper-violent makeover. Something that is a categorical step away from the animated series we’ve seen with both Teen Titans and also Teen Titans Go!. We caught up with Ryan ahead of his first ever Australian pop culture convention visit for Supanova Comic Con & Gaming Adelaide and Brisbane shows.

For many actors, getting “the call” that they’ve been cast to play a role is a cause for celebration. The acting life is one of highs and lows, of having an income and being out of work. Potter was born in the United States but grew up in Tokyo until when he was seven and he returned to the US. For Potter, the Teen Titans were pivotal in helping him adjust to returning to life in the United States after growing up in Japan. Citing that the look of the television animation reminded him of Japanese manga.  So getting told he would be playing the role of Beast Boy was both a surprise but also a bit of a whirlwind as he got thrown into production almost immediately.

“You know what’s funny? There wasn’t a moment like of like, “Oh, I was sitting down and got this message. And I got to celebrate.” I did my initial audition over Skype and then I came back to Los Angeles as I was currently in Japan. I came back to Los Angeles and I tested for the project. I kind of left there thinking like, “Okay, that went all right. We’ll see.” I don’t want to dwell too much on auditions because it’ll tend to ruin an actor’s mood if they get too invested. I think I was leaving my house. I was in my driveway and I got the text that, “Hey, you’re going to head to costuming on this day for a fitting.” I never got that message of, “Congrats. You got the role. We look forward to working with you.” Blah, blah, blah. That’s usually what you get. And it wasn’t that. I just got, “All right, this the address of the costuming. Fittings start on this day.” It was like, “All right, straight to work.” No time to take a moment, we’re getting right into it.”

Titans takes the characters and drops them into a tonally much darker, and more hyper-violent setting. If you’ve seen the trailer for the show, you’re probably familiar with Dick Grayson aka Robin’s (played by Australian Brenton Thwaites) infamous “F*ck Batman” line. The show’s first season narrative focuses on the character of Rachel Roth aka Raven (another Aussie in Teagan Croft) trying to understand the source of her demonic power. It also sets up the origins for both Kory Anders aka Starfire (Anna Diop) and Gar Logan aka Beast Boy. Then of course weaving each of our individual stories so that they come together to form their own team. With the show centering so much on the dark back stories of both Robin and Raven, it falls to Beast Boy to bring a little light-hearted fun and levity.

“A lot of the scenes I had read with Beast Boy, I could very quickly tell that he was supposed to help the pacing of the show. We weren’t just in this kind of dark mood the entire time. And every time I read a scene with Beast Boy in it, it involved humor. It involved conversations about, not about questioning morality, but about maintaining morals and maintaining this moral compass in such a dark world. Showing up to work every day allowed me to kind of just show up and have fun and be an absolute pain in the ass to my coworkers and try and make them all laugh because they’re not supposed to be laughing. It was nice not having to play the same tone that everybody else was. There are a few episodes in which it gets quite dark for Beast Boy, but even in those moments of darkness, his ability to quickly bring levity to the situation through his humor or kind of through his optimistic views, it made working on the project a lot more fun. I’m very glad that they didn’t go darker with the character, because then it would have been like, okay, kid that can change into animals but he’s also very emo. He’s very serious. We know that the character is not serious by any means. It was reassuring to see that that was kind of true to his actual nature.”

Obviously Ryan can’t turn into animals at will like his character, but what would be the animal he associates with the most or he would call his “spirit animal”.

“Interesting. I got a few. I can’t pick one because I love animals too much. There’s a boar that I connect with because it’s my Japanese zodiac sign. I love pandas. I love foxes. Pandas because they’re kind of lazy. Foxes because they’re cunning. Sloth. I relate to sloths. But ultimately, I would say a boar because of how hard-headed and how straightforward they are in terms of their thinking.”

Ryan will be coming to Adelaide and Brisbane as part of the Supanova Comic Con and Gaming convention tour for November. He has visited our shores in the past but this time it’s his first ever visit to Australia for a pop culture convention.

“Yeah, this is actually my first convention experience in Australia. I’ve seen some photos and some videos now kind of looking through the hashtags of Supanova on Instagram. I got to say I’m quite excited. It’s very reminiscent of the cons that I have been to in the States. I’m looking forward to it.  Regardless if I work a convention or if I’m just there as a guest, I make it a point of searching out all the different artists. That’s one of my favorite things to do. And finding artwork of like, whether it’s anime inspired or comic book inspired, but art pieces that you can hang on the wall. Something that isn’t … not your average poster from a film. It’s kind of hard to explain. But, yeah, I go to conventions primarily to see the artwork. I love seeing fan interpretations. Usually because, not to say that the professionals don’t, but usually the fans put a little bit more time and love into a project than someone that’s hired to draw or animate something for the actual company.”

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Ryan Potter will be appearing as part of the guest lineup for Supanova Comic Con & Gaming in Adelaide (Adelaide Showground, 2nd – 4th November 2018) and Brisbane (Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, 9th – 11th November 2018).

For more information or to purchase tickets, go to the official Supanova Comic Con & Gaming website.

Another interview with Ryan has been released, this time with TrunkSpace as part of their Wingman Wednesday series. In this interview, Ryan talks his role on Titans and a little more about his inspiration for the role of Beast Boy.

Landing a role in the live action adaptation of a major, long-standing comic book franchise is no easy feat, but when that role is also based on a character who helped you cope with adolescence, it’s downright full-circle remarkable.

Ryan Potter was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Tokyo, Japan. When he returned to the United States at seven years old, he didn’t speak English and used pop culture to connect with the students at his new school, much like the teen hero Garfield “Beast Boy” Logan does in the various DC Comics he has starred in since first being introduced in 1965. Years after emulating the character he had such a personal connection to as a child, Potter, who also voiced Hiro in the immensely popular animated film “Big Hero 6,” is now portraying Gar in the new live action series “Titans,” which airs Fridays on the DC Universe streaming service.

We recently sat down with Potter to discuss his personal connection to the franchise, beasting out on camera, and why a movie like “Big Hero 6” and its ethnic diversity can positively impact society.

TrunkSpace: Gar has been a fan favorite character for comic readers for decades. Did that put any pressure on you to deliver in a way that not only makes a television audience excited, but the core comic fans proud as well?

Potter: Of course. There’s always the pressure, I think, with comic book characters, and unfortunately, in this day and age, there are just an insane amount of internet trolls, so regardless of how good of a job anybody does, there’s always gonna be haters. But bottom line, I know this character. I grew up with this character, and I’d say that my interpretation is an honest portrayal of every version of Gar, kind of an amalgamated mix, whether it’s the animated series or the comic books – “Teen Titans” 52, or the “New Teen Titans,” or “Titans.” It doesn’t matter what iteration. I pulled from every version of Garfield to create this new… not an iteration, but this new version of him. I don’t want the live action version to be too reminiscent of anything we’ve seen, ’cause it needs to be new to take liberties of its own, but it’s grounded in familiarity that people can recognize from their childhoods.

TrunkSpace: That’s what’s so interesting, because as a performer, you probably want to find a balance between the history that surrounds the character and bringing yourself into it at the same time?

Potter: Yeah. It’s interesting, ’cause the character was definitely one that helped to shape how I… not how I fit in, but I guess that’s the layman’s term for it. When I moved to America, this character was introduced to me at a time when I didn’t speak English, and I didn’t necessarily have friends, so him being green and using pop culture as his way of getting along and making friends, I used that as a model for when I didn’t speak English. I’d use pop culture, whether it was TV shows or music or toys, to try and make friends with kids at school. When I say I relate to this character, I relate to the character because this character actually helped shape a part of my childhood. I identify with him in many ways. There are other aspects that I had to kind of create as a performer in terms of him being a teenager and him being older, but the youthful aspect of the character – kind of the lighthearted curiosity of Gar – is unchanged. That’s something that I always related with and was almost introduced to because of him, so that remains.

TrunkSpace: That must really cool, too,  to be able to create this character that you have a personal connection with, and then, as it airs, there might be kids out there who are feeling the same way you were when you came to America, and now they’re finding a connection to him through you. That’s full circle!

Potter: Yeah, at this point in the script, he’s still very much just kind of a regular teenager. There’s rumors online of, “Ryan Potter confirms Beast Boy will be green by the end of the season!” That’s actually not what I had said. These characters are in an intermittent stage. They’re in a place where they’re not the characters from the animated series. They’re not the characters from the comic books. They’re not the solo iterations of themselves, but they’re also not the “Teen Titans” iterations of themselves, so they’re in this gray area where every character is learning to harness their powers, accept who they are, and there will be changes along the way for each of the characters. But yeah, as it stands, Garfield is very much a new representation, so it’s nice to have that freedom. It’s nice to be able to pull away from source material as of now, but the source material is so interwoven with the script that when anybody watches the show, they’ll be able to recognize it, whether it’s costume details or plot details or character details. They remain, and it’s reassuring to see that the writers took that much care in portraying these characters on the silver screen.

TrunkSpace: And really, because this is a television series, the long play is so important. You want it to go multiple seasons, and if you give it all away in the first season, there’s no story left to tell.

Potter: Exactly. Thank you. I’m glad someone understands television. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: We were always worried that, for logistic reasons – budget and scheduling – we wouldn’t get to see Beast Boy beast out, but that is not the case. In fact we get to see quite a bit, which is exciting.

Potter: Yeah, I think that was something that was really important to Geoff Johns, that Beast Boy didn’t become a secondary or tertiary character, that he was still a primary character, and one of the ways that you see that is if you put the budget into Robin’s costume and Robin’s bike, then you do it for Starfire visual effects and her storyline, etc. He wanted to make sure that everybody has equal representation in terms of the amount of care that the writers or the producers put behind each one. It’s definitely not cheap by any means, but the way they kind of show Beast Boy that love is to make sure that he’s not always doing some kind of changing behind something or an off-camera type of deal. You actually do get to see him mid-transformation, post-transformation, and beginning of transformation, or sometimes the entire transformation. It’s interesting to be able to see every stage of the transformation, in my opinion, because we’re used to seeing Beast Boy kind of Beast Boy, and then gelatinous blob – animated gelatinous blob – and then the animal. To be able to see the anatomical change from human to tiger, and then potentially human to something else… it’s not that we haven’t seen that on television before, but we definitely haven’t seen it shot in this way, and I think produced this well.

TrunkSpace: Has it sunk in yet that in 20 years, you’re going to be part of the source material when people look at Beast Boy in the future?

Potter: Well, man, I’m just thinking about what’s on the schedule for tomorrow. (Laughter) Now that you bring that up, that’s an interesting thought. I would hope that the character of Beast Boy, that the general public will begin to be able to see him as different, maybe as different races and different iterations each time. I mean, the kid’s green. I don’t think it really matters who is playing him in terms of their race. Ultimately, as long as the heart is preserved and the humor is preserved, and his outlook on life is preserved, I don’t think it really matters, whether it’s a guy or it’s girl. I think there’s a certain level of size that has to be maintained. Like, you can’t have a 6’10 Beast Boy, or like a 4’10 Beast Boy, but why not? I don’t know. It’d be interesting to see these characters potentially live on in different iterations and to see someone, whether they’re full Asian or a different ethnicity, take on the character. It’d be cool. Considering the character has roots in Africa, I think it’s not a far stretch to say that the character could have African origin, as well.

TrunkSpace: A lot of us here have kids so we’re used to watching movies over and over again, which is usually torture, but we have to say… we put down the phone and watch with full attention when “Big Hero 6” is on. Was that a once in a lifetime project?

Potter: No. It was to the 15-year-old version of myself, and like, the 17-year-old version of myself, but I wouldn’t say it was once in a lifetime because that is a project very similar to “Crazy Rich Asians” that made waves in the entertainment industry, and big production companies started looking at a different market, and they started to realize that the overseas markets in Asia are just as profitable as the markets at home, and also, the markets at home respond to content with Asian characters and Asian storylines and artwork inspired by Asia, so I don’t think it’s a once in a lifetime. I think it’s a launching point and I think it’s kind of the beginning of a new interest, and a push for more Asian American content like “Big Hero 6.”

But in defense of it being once in a lifetime… it is one of the most ethnically diverse casts and most colorblind projects that I’ve ever seen, so maybe as it stands, now, in terms of ethnic diversity, it’s not once in a lifetime, but it’s definitely a little further away from seeing a project that is that inclusive. It depicts and represents culture and society to a T, but in terms of the Asian American aspect, I think it’s just the beginning, so we’ll see.

TrunkSpace: As an actor, is it difficult to come across a project like that film where you have both an interesting character and an interesting storyline?

Potter: Yeah. It’s not often that good characters and good scripts come around for Asian American performers. Regardless of race, I think that was just a pretty exceptional project, and good characters and good scripts don’t come around that often, period. It definitely gave me new eyes in terms of reading scripts and reading auditions and thinking of the impact of the character that I play would potentially have. And the importance of the project in not necessarily popularity standing, but societal standing and how that project can help change and affect the society that I live in, but also the society that my kids will live in.

New episodes of “Titans” debut every Friday on the DC Universe streaming service.