Steve Blum and Taylor Gray from Star Wars
*Disclosure: I received an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles for the coverage of several press events for Disney. All opinions are 100% my own.
Interviewing Steve Blum and Taylor Gray of Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion was just amazing, they had great chemistry together and the room was full of laughs. Here are the insider interview highlights!
What drew you guys to the film?
Taylor Gray said his favorite part of the film was all of the action and that it was fun. The kids will enjoy the characters and, and their multiple layers and how they run around firing off blasters and taking down troopers.
Steve Blum was drawn to Star Wars as a kid. He even told us this story:
I was seventeen. I was fresh out of high school, and I went to the premiere in 1977, and I was one of those kids in the theater whose head snapped back when the imperial star destroyer comes across the screen and the whole theater rumbled. So, I get to relive this on a cellular level. It, it activates all of those memories from that time and, and, when I was graduating high school, I was one of those apathetic youth and I didn’t go to my own graduation.
And to get to go and see something like that that was brand new. It was stuff that we hadn’t seen before. It, it woke up something in me and kind of gave me a new hope. But to get to, to work on something like that now where it’s, we’re bringing this to a whole new generation. It’s really exciting for me, and I’m a dad. And so I, I like working on quality programming that’s safe for kids and it’s really got a great underlying message.
It does, offer a notion that there’s something bigger than we are and that we can strive to be better than we are and, and that a small group of people can be just as powerful as a large army against injustice.
But remember there is a little bit of the force as well!
Star Wars Fans
Vanessa, Freddie and Dave know more about Star Wars but we have all been fans. But until now Taylor Gray hadn’t been caught up into it, and never understood why everyone loves it so much. The best part of it is talking to fans of Star Wars and hearing their sentiments and why it’s so special to them, because everyone has their own connection to, the Star Wars story.
How have you embraced the hardcore Star Wars fans?
Taylor Gray: “I think it’s awesome. I had no clue that there, we went out to, the first little taste of it we got was they sent us this thing called Star Wars Weekends in Florida. And I had no idea what to expect. I was like oh, it will be fun to like hang out with a couple people who like Star Wars and go on some rides. There were like 60 thousand people who all had Star Wars shirts or full on,costumes, wardrobe, outfits, everything and, and light sabers. And just seeing that, I realized oh, wow, we’re in something much bigger than I thought. And it’s, it’s been so much fun and they’re saying there’s so much more to look forward to, and I can’t wait.
With all the media, it’s crazy. It’s on Twitter. It’s, it’s unbelievable. I’ve been telling people, I’ve had a Twitter before I’d gotten this, and I felt like half the people I see on Twitter somewhere in their little, description of themselves, it’s like
Steve Blum: “Yeah, I, I’ve been doing the convention circuit for the last 10 years for my other work for my other work and, ah, going to that weekend in particular seemed, you know, there was 20, 30 thousand people on the parade route, and they put us in convertibles and we’re waited on. It’s great, and I’m thinking the show hasn’t come out. Nobody’s gonna know who we are, and they’re chanting our names, you know. It’s my name. This guy had researched and knew everything that we did and people were bringing stuff up to me from my whole career. It was, in was amazing, and seeing the families, too.
There was this one family where there was a grandma in a wheelchair in her 90’s, and the way down to like a 2-year-old, and there are like 50 of them and they’re all together cheering for us as we’re coming out of the parade route, and they’re in first position right there, and they’re everywhere in the park . It’s been awesome. It’s a whole different level of fandom too, and so show-specific. It’s just amazing to me that after all these years, that the fandom is stronger now than it’s ever been. It’s incredible.
Favorite scene to voice over
Steve: Well, well, pretty much, I don’t know. I love all of it for so many different reasons. I, I think one of my very favorite scenes that I’ve seen so far was Ezra’s realization that he was doing something of value. Ah, after our first initial struggle, and then stealing stuff, and he’s sitting there and we’re giving away, ah, food, and that was the whole, ah, purpose of our mission. And we’re risking our lives to do that. And to see that look of, of, ah, realization on his face where he’s just going, well, I didn’t do anything. It’s like he didn’t deserve the praise and you see a little bit of a transformation in him and that was, that was a very powerful moment for me.
*Disclosure: I received an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles for the coverage of several press events for Disney. All opinions are 100% my own.
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