About 10 to 15 years ago , I was wait for a movie to set forth at San Diego Comic - Con and a conversant human face popped up in one of the commercial . It was actor Dante Basco , selling Sprite ( or Sprint perhaps ? ) and someone in the bunch screamed “ RU - FI ” to which everyone . else . in . the . theater . replied “ Ohhhhhhh ! ”
It was , quite candidly , a perfect second . A moment that spoke to a simple truth : To a sure coevals , no one is good than Rufio , Basco ’s character from Steven Spielberg ’s 1991 Peter Pan reimagining , Hook . Rufio was a leader , a badass , and the one Thomas Kyd feared by Captain Hook . He did n’t just have one mohawk haircut , he had three . He was the coolest and to this sidereal day , he ’s afan best-loved fictitious character in soda water civilisation .
So when I was contacted about interview Basco in the leadup to Hook free on 4 K HD this week , I replied quickly and eagerly . To get the chance to talk to an actor who wassuch a huge part of your childhoodwas too good to pass up and , afterwards , I realize the audience was too good to write out any of it out . We talked to Basco about how he got the theatrical role , the food fight , the awing costume , Rufio ’s bequest and so much more .
io9 : Take me back to the beginning What do you remember about getting the office ?
Dante Basco : The audition process is always , you go to audition and you go to recall . The unhinged thing about Hook was it was one of the movie in town that everybody knew about . It was the self-aggrandising motion-picture show shooting in Hollywood at the time and the idea of Robin Williams play Peter Pan really capture everybody ’s mental imagery . I remember calling my handler and enunciate “ I just want to audition for any of these theatrical role . ” My footling brother auditioned for one of the Lost Boys and I was like , “ I want to get in on it . ” And then I got an audition . I actually go to the audition with my other comrade . My short brother had audition for one of the roles , Dion , and then my other brother , Darion , we both auditioned for this Rufio lineament .
So I ’m get coaching on it and kind of dressing up and die in for the audition with the frame director , Janet Hirshenson , and it go gravid and a few days later on they were like “ Steven Spielberg wants to meet you . ” I was like “ Wow , that ’s coolheaded . ” So I think back go to Amblin which is where Steven Spielberg ’s office is on thebacklot of Universal Studios . I do n’t know if you know the studios but most of it is grey soundstages and what not . But there ’s a little subdivision in the back of it that ’s Amblin , which is like thisSpanish Villa on the back lot of Universal . It has its own security and all that form of clobber and I later find out , when I went to Steven ’s house for dry run , it ’s designed like his house .
So the fable of Steven Spielberg ’s office , peculiarly in the ‘ 90 , was that Steven had anarcade in his post . So we go to his situation , there ’s about a half 12 of minor there and they ’re like “ Go to the arcade . ” So we go to this elbow room and it ’s a full picture game arcade in the post . It was unbalanced . And this was before all the PS4s and clobber . And we were just playing for a while and someone goes “ Steven want to see you now . ” And I was like “ Oh , I ’m here for an audition . ” So I go in the back and I meet Spielberg and the mad affair about that auditory modality is we just verbalise . I commend we talked about a celluloid I did before that film and I brought up Ratso Rizzo because I was a really bighearted Dustin Hoffman rooter . And he was like “ What ? ” and I enjoin , “ Yeah this fibre I did was kinda like Ratso Rizzo . ” He goes “ Did you say Ratso Rizzo ? Midnight Cowboy ? ”
So we started talking about Midnight Cowboy and he was looking at me like “ Look at this vernal spunk . ” And in the middle of the interview , I was like , “ Do you require to read the shot ? ” And he order , “ No you do n’t have to read the panorama . ” We did n’t even record the view . He was like “ I just want to meet you . ” So we were leaving , draw out of the parking lot at Universal , and my mummy was like “ How did it go ? ” I allege “ I do n’t think I got it . We did n’t even read the view , we were just talking . ” Then a few Clarence Shepard Day Jr. later they offer me the role , which was crazy . Then I remember being on the set a few month into it , just hanging out and I postulate Steven what happened . And he said , “ You know Dante , we searched all over the rural area for this persona and out of the thousands of Thomas Kyd we record , you were the only Kyd that dash me . ”
io9 : That is amazing . So what did you bring to the theatrical role that was n’t already in the hand ? How much of it is you ?
Basco : I mean he was there . [ But ] I was a serious young actor and I was working with legend in the industry . So I would go home every dark and learn Hoffman motion-picture show , watch Pacino films and maybe I brought an aspect of that . Plus , he said I pit him . I mature up in a fairly pugnacious neck of the woods , Paramount , California , outside of L.A. , like near Compton , that ’s where I ’m from . What I was bring to the character , peculiarly at that time in my life-time , I grew up in a pack neighborhood . Gangsters were around , drugs and everything . It was a hard sentence to grow up . It was cool , but it was a tougher locality . And to a point , theLost Boys are a niggling crowd . So I think I had a bit of that coming into it .
But on top of that , when you ’re tag giant , I ’m studying a lot at the time , my act coach is going over scenes and again I ’m watching these film . later on in life , run into Dustin at dissimilar premieres and whatnot he ’d bring in me to some other actors and he ’d say “ This tike is chasing us . ” That ’s what you ’re bringing as a untested actor , especially solve with your paragon . Now appear back it ’s so uncanny . You ’re a foil . You ’re another kind of leader . There ’s Robin Williams , there ’s Dustin Hoffman , then there ’s you as this other force that ’s opine to be bear up to these bozo , not as the adequate but as the new star . So that ’s part of what I brought to it . It really was a young athirst doer kid from the neighborhood just trying to do a good job and to be a great histrion .
io9 : I have to demand about the food fighting scene . Any time anyone talks about Hook , they let the cat out of the bag about the food fight scene . What was that like , what do you remember about it ?
Dante : We in reality fool that food for thought fight double , which is screwball . But , the funny thing about the intellectual nourishment fight , for me , is if you remember it ’s a scene where Peter Pan and I are fight down . A fortune of time when you think back back to sure scene you remember your state of mind or how you were feeling that twenty-four hour period . And it ’s one of people ’ favorite aspect in the picture show . It ’s so fun , it ’s so entertaining but for Rufio it ’s a unsound day . It ’s like the last of his reign . So I always remember it like everyone else was throw a good time but I was not have a effective clock time that day .
But the gravid feeling of us going back and off and the banter with Robin Williams and really seeing the magic of Robin doing the lines then being able-bodied to improv and sit there trying to improv with Robin Williams is fairly crazy . Then we get to do what every kid wants to do which is have a food fight . At that time they had like a whole thing of food , not just the unhinged stuff we were throwing at each other , but there were all kinds of different foods out there . Then they started making all this frost stuff in different color that we were throwing at each other . Nowadays you could go to the supermarket and probably get like cobalt blue blue and pink and all that kind of stuff but back in those days you could n’t go to the store and buy that . They were making that stuff on the set right in the moment . Everyone had a fun fourth dimension doing the solid food fight and I always recollect later everyone washing up , groups of Lost Boys , we were just a mess . There was only a certain amount of wardrobe that we could do before they ’ve got to lap everything . It was just boys being boys . It was fun .
io9 : Did you do one take , dampen up , and then do a 2nd take or did you do the 2nd take on another day ?
Basco : We did small take then we did one take where everyone could kind of go crazy . And we get going back and dart another daytime because it was n’t easy to clean up that stuff especially off the costumes . One take and it ’s done . You ’re over . That ’s it .
io9 : talk of the costume and the hair , that ’s part of what made Rufio so iconic . Was that always the concept ? Did you have any stimulation ? Tell me about the look of the character .
Basco : He was the newest Lost Boy . The most innovative Lost Boy and he was n’t in theJ.M. Barriebooks . He was a new character created for this movie and there was a lot of sketch survive on . Sketches of Rufio with like dreadlocks , there were different spirit going on . And then they just started trying things and that ’s when the expression began , which now is great . But I always tell people when I go to Comic Cons , there are people dressed up as Rufio at all the Comic Cons , it ’s this really cool spirit , but when you ’re 15 long time old and you just want to be cool , you know ? It kind of take me back a trivial bit .
They were like “ We ’re going to essay some matter out . ” and all of a sudden … look , it was the ‘ XC . We were wearing top-notch sloppy wearable . We ’d come to the set every day in baggy jean , consignment pants , and hip - hop , double XL shirts and then all of a sudden it ’s like “ Put on these tights . ” “ What ? ” These ripped , skin - fuddled jeans and then put me in a midriff t - shirt with my belly release sticking out and I was like “ What is break down on here ? ” Throw on like a Michael Jackson jacket and this was ‘ 91 . Michael was not coolheaded in ‘ 91 . Likehe was coolheaded in the ‘ 80sthen he was n’t nerveless , then he came back and was cool again tardy ‘ 90 but at this bit it was like “ This is not cool . ”
So you ’ve got this whole Michael Jackson thing blend on . OK . And then what about the hair ? What about a mohawk haircut ? What about three mohawks ? Like what ? And I was just a good little soldier on set up like , “ Let ’s try it out , but what about the dreadlock look ? That dreadlock feel was cool . ” But they ’re like “ No , let ’s try these three mohawks . And literally this is like a three , four - hour situation putting together costume with costumers and go another two / three hours just to do the hair and the makeup and then you ’re like “ Okay , I do n’t know how I feel about all this justly now . I feel dotty . ”
Then they ’re like , “ lease ’s bring you to the lot , let ’s show Steven . ” It looked crazy . It felt crazy . And I just remember walk on the set the first clock time with the whole wardrobe makeup crew and they ’re like “ Steven we ’re perish to show you something . ”Steven is directingsome of the other Lost Boys at the base of the Nevertree or what not . I come walk around the corner and he slowly turn around and pop off “ Ummmm … Yes ! ” I ’m like , “ Yeah ? ” He was like , “ This is it ” and I went , “ Oh my God , I have to walk around with my paunch button out ? ” But now it ’s classic look . You see citizenry with blood-red mohawks you ’re like “ That ’s very Rufio ” now . But at the time when you ’re 15 , you ’re very disquieted about “ Can I just reckon nerveless ? ”
io9 : Though it was embarrassing then , it seems like you still really embrace the character reference . You’ve reprised the role onlineand poppycock and sometimes actors hate looking back and talking about their childhood roles . What ca-ca you so okay and chill about this one ?
Basco : I mean , I ’ve never not liked it , but you move on in your career . You uprise up . But after 25 eld it ’s sport to have characters on your survey and your past that people still love . I think societal media modify a pile of things . Rufio ’s a classic grapheme and I did Zuko ( fromAvatar : The Last Airbender ) for Nickelodeon that became really popular within the whole funny con world . I recall it ’s one of those things that , as you turn up , you ’re able to appreciate aspects of your career and celebrate them with fans out there andunderstand and engage on social medium . Like it ’s nostalgic for me too so it ’s kind of merriment to capsulize a part of your life which , to me , was 15 . distinctly , it intend a pile to so many people and it ’s something I ’m gallant of too , workplace - smart .
Look , everyone who ever comes to Hollywood , you hope to do something that mass will recollect you for . We exercise on so many thing and I continue to work today , not just as an actor but as a writer and a manufacturer . But [ sure roles ] really kind of mean things to people . [ sweetener ] has become , for a sure generation , a part of the vernacular . The way they speak to each other . How they imagine of it , who they are . It ’s eldritch . I ’m constantly gasconade away . And , again , with societal medium , you’re capable to experience it in a unlike way with multitude . Like hoi polloi sent metattoos of Rufio on their bodies . As far as like“Bangarang ” coming out by Skrillex , and talk to him about the whole thing and just forgather other creative person that were influence by it and impacted by it . It intend so much to a multiplication of the great unwashed .
Also , being a person of colour , that fictional character Rufio , as a someone of colour in a leadership role in a major celluloid , for a lot of the Asiatic American community , that was the first cool Asiatic American character they ’d visit in their lifetime . And that impacted even a picture today . Jon Chu , [ conductor of ] Crazy Rich Asians , he ’s become a good friend . And verbalise about theatrical performance in film and him go “ That was the first sentence I mat represented ” and how he feel he could be a part of Hollywood because of that character . Those are the sort of thing that you do n’t even know until subsequently on in spirit , the impact you had . These part we do in our life history are like pebbles on the pool , we never know what wavelet they make .
io9 : Man , I could talk to you forever , but I only have prison term for one more question . When was the last meter you watch out Hook and how did you feel it help up ?
Basco : I went on atour for the 25th anniversary , which was about two year ago , with Jimmy Madio who played Do n’t Ask , we always stayed friend throughout our careers . We pass on a tour together with Alamo Drafthouse and we see it together once with [ executive manufacturer ] Jim V. Hart . And it was magical , man . It was the first time I ’d seen it in like , over a decennary or so and in a motion-picture show theater with a packed audience , ride next to Jimmy and sitting next to Jim Hart and Jim tell me some stories , since I was a kid , secernate me a bit about what ’s going on on the adult side of the film , it was pretty sorcerous .
The further aside from a project you get you could begin appreciating it as a fan and not as being attach to it . In that way I really loved it . It really held up to me and it really represent … so much has changed in the world and so much has changed in our earth of Hollywood , filmmaking , the connectedness to how we used to make movies . I mean we do n’t make moving-picture show the same way anymore . No one is doingwhat Spielberg did . I seek to explain to new filmmakers now , there is no CGI . You see that pirate ship ? You walk in the way and there was a life - sized pirate ship in a big soundstage , in the H2O . It was crazy . It was just a magical way to do oeuvre . They just do n’t make movies the same mode right now . So kind of being link up to old Hollywood in that room is pretty magical .
It ’s weird . A lot of sentence as an actor you watch a film it ’s like finger through a photo book from your past . It ’s people you have n’t seen in a while , there are people that have pass away , and there are citizenry you owe phone calls to . And again , like , it ’s my teenaged days . Who receive to take care back at their teenage days in a crazy base video like Hook ?
If you ’d like to see Basco ’s crazy family videos from the historic period of 15 , it was finally released in 4 K this week . It ’s call Hook .
FantasyHookRepresentationRobin WilliamsSteven Spielberg
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