Ryan Potter makes an obvious Hiro in 'Big Hero 6'
The more you learn about actor Ryan Potter, the clearer it becomes that he was meant to voice Hiro Hamada, the protagonist of Disney's Big Hero 6.
In the animated film, opening Friday, teenage robotics genius Hiro, his robot and his science-superpowered friends band together to fight evil. The film is based on the Japan-set Marvel Comic of the same name.
Voicing this character is "surreal," says Potter, who uses that word often to describe his Big Hero 6 experience. The role marks Potter's first feature film and voice-acting experience. He's best known for the Nickelodeon show Supah Ninjas.
"I grew up watching Disney films, reading Marvel Comics, (watching) Japanese animation. This film really combines every aspect of my childhood together," he says.
Hiro was designed before Potter took the role, but the two have bold eyebrows, round faces, bright smiles, slim physiques and aren't very tall — well, Potter has several inches on the approximately-five-foot-tall Hiro. Also, they're both half-Japanese, half-Caucasian.
Seeing the character for the first time, at Potter's audition, "was kinda surreal," he says.
Then there's Hiro's hometown: San Fransokyo.
Though Potter has never spent time in the fictional hybrid city, he's quite familiar with San Francisco, where he spends holidays, and Tokyo, where he lived the first seven years of his life. (He lives in West Los Angeles now.)
The actor isn't exactly a brainy inventor like his animated counterpart, but he does enjoy creating. Instead of programming robots, he builds with LEGOs, popsicle sticks, clay or wood. "I've always been building and building," says Potter, who sometimes posts his artwork to Instagram.
It's true that Potter doesn't quite fight evil, but he is a skilled fighter with about 12 years of training in traditional Kung Fu.
That's actually what got him into acting in the first place. There was a casting call in his martial arts studio for a part in a series that would become Supah Ninjas. Potter almost tossed the flier, but his mom convinced him to give it a shot. "You'll be able to take the day off of school … and we'll be able to see what Hollywood looks like," she said.
He got that day off from school, all right. And now, after graduating from high school, starring in a show, and leading a Disney voice cast, Potter's getting a glimpse of what being a recognizable Hollywood face is.
"When people come up to me and ask for a photo, ask for an autograph, I'm like 'Me? Are you sure?' I don't consider myself to be a public figure. I just happen to be," he says, now that he has over 35,000 Twitter followers.
"It's surreal to have people beg me to follow them. It's like, why? … A majority of my life is spent getting donuts, doing martial arts and seeing friends," he says, contending that he's just a normal guy. But if someone wants to take a picture, "I'll be happy to do it."
Potter began working on Big Hero 6 a year and a half ago, before his voice dropped. "I went through the change during recording," he laughs, explaining that he used his regular voice at the start of the shoot, but now, demonstrating Hiro's voice, he has to "go in a slightly higher register."
Does that mean it's time for the 19-year-old to try for more adult acting roles?
Not necessarily. "I love acting, and I'm going to continue to do it," but I also want to learn about "the other side of the camera," he says. Potter, who cites filmmakers Ray Harryhausen and Tim Burton as inspirations from his sixth-grade stop-motion animation class, is looking into Los Angeles film schools.
In Big Hero 6, Hiro is thinking about applying to schools, too — but in robotics, of course.
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USA TodayJamie Chung is living a dream with new Disney flick 'Big Hero 6'
Chung first dreamed of being in a Disney movie since she saw the re-release of 'Bambi' at age 7. And now that she's had the chance to voice an animated character, she hopes other actors and actresses like her get that same chance.
Forgive Jamie Chung if she gets animated talking about her latest role.
As soon as she heard her voice coming from one of the characters in “Big Hero 6,” the Brooklyn-based actress fulfilled a dream first stoked when she watched a re-release of “Bambi” in a movie theater when she was just 7 years old.
“For the first 10 minutes at the screening I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is really happening,’” Chung told the Daily News of becoming an animated Disney character.
Chung may be 31, but she grins like a kid discussing the film opening Friday — in which she voices Go Go Tomago, a tough-as-nails student inventor who joins her friends to become superheroes to save their city — and what it will eventually mean to her future children with fiancé Bryan Greenberg.
“I’ll probably have kids within five years, and I do think it will still be relevant in about 10 years when they’re going to see it,” she said, adding that those tykes will have to wait longer to see her R-rated movies like “The Hangover Part II” (2012) and “Sucker Punch” (2011).
Empowering roles like Go Go also don’t come around very often for a Korean-American actress in a business that isn’t as diverse as it should be, she said.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s still about race, because I feel like those are the kind of walls that I’m always hitting,” said Chung.
While auditioning for a recent part in a sci-fi project, she was told that she didn’t have the right “essence” for the part and that producers would be looking for an African American actress — though they eventually went with a white actress.
“Quite frankly, it’s a show about reproduction and all the last people on Earth and all the characters are white,” she says. “What kind of message is that sending?”
So she’s been going the indie route lately, starring alongside her real-life future husband in three upcoming films — including the romantic movie “It’s Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong,” which she compares to “Before Sunrise.”
“We were quite terrified, because if it sucks, it’s a direct reflection of our relationship,” Chung deadpanned. “And if you don’t feel the chemistry, then we should definitely break up and call the wedding off.”
No matter how well those pictures do, it’s not likely they’ll be able to match the box office (super) power of “Big Hero 6.” How many people can say they’re a friggin’ Disney character — much less an empowered Asian female one that kicks butt?
“I’ve always wanted to play superheroes and I’ve had the opportunity to do that,” she said of her past turn in “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.” “But I’ve never gotten to play a superhero that’s also a robotics engineer.”
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NY Daily News