Dante Basco: The Story Behind Rufio, Zuko's Redemption & American Dragon Jake Long | AJ Buckley Show

AJ Buckley Show

Dante Basco shares his journey from Pittsburgh, California, to Hollywood, recounting his early life as part of a performing arts family, his

Key takeaways

• Early exposure to performance through dance and street culture laid the foundation for Basco's professional acting career.

Main topics

• Dante Basco's upbringing in Pittsburgh, California
• Formation of the Street Freaks breakdancing group

Notable quotes

To watch Robin Williams improv, Justin Hoffman do character work, I mean to see... Spielberg direct was like having the chance to see Picasso work or Mozart.

Conclusion

Dante Basco's story is one of resilience, creativity, and deep personal

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) To watch Robin Williams improv, Justin Hoffman do character work, I mean to see... Spielberg direct was like having the chance to see Picasso work or Mozart. You know, I knew that as a young actor and whatever you think Robin Williams is, people have like, he is like the witty and magical and knows everybody's names. And he's the genie from Aladdin. He's so crazy and fast. And he is all that on set at the same token. I got the, I get the really good honor spending quiet times with him. And we would talk about poetry because he knew I, I told him how much I loved that post aside. Speaker 1 (0:36) It's 1991. Speaker 2 (0:39) Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams. They're filming the biggest movie at the time in Hollywood. The movie's called Hook. And there's a kid on that set, 15 years old, with a red and black mohawk who is about to become the most quoted lost boy in history. That's not the part of that set that changed his life. The part that changed his life happened in the makeup room with Mr. Robin Williams. In the early hours of the morning, before any camera was rolling, something magical happened. But I'm going to make you wait for it. Please, welcome to the show, my good buddy, Dante Vasco. Speaker 2 (1:22) Well, dude, it is great to have you on the show, man. And your story, your career, man, you and I have been at this for such a long time. You have been at it. I rarely meet people that have been doing it longer than me, but you were one of the Gs that started it. But before we get into the acting career, I want to go back to the beginning in Pittsburgh and the group of... Guys that I met when I moved to Hollywood, but the sort of the story behind that, because you, the Bosco's are like no other family I've ever met. So there's five kids and you have one sister, right? Speaker 1 (1:58) Yeah. Four brothers, one sister, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, California. That is you guys out there. It's not Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, California, which is a small little town outside of San Francisco. And Speaker 2 (2:07) it was like a family of performing arts, right? Speaker 1 (2:09) Yeah. Basically we kind of grew up. dancing and singing in the living room and that kind of led to the streets of San Francisco became a breakdancing group called the Street Freaks. That's right, the Speaker 2 (2:20) Street Freaks. Speaker 1 (2:21) I remember you telling me about Speaker 2 (2:22) them. Yeah, Speaker 1 (2:23) I was popping fresh back in the day. Did you have the cardboard out? Cardboard in the streets, boom box, hat out for like tips. you know telegraph avenue berkeley pier 39 san francisco market street we were all around did a bunch of competitions and and we won a lot of competitions and we were you know it was it was kind of the pioneering days of hip-hop and you know for little kids we got really popular we won a bunch of competitions i think my mom did a whole thing one year like before we moved to l.a she was like you know you guys won like you placed in like 34 break dancing competitions in the last year. We do them on the weekends. You get all around dancing. We ended up getting picked up to dance in the San Francisco Ballet Company. We got scholarships to dance there. We were dancing for like halftime shows for the 49ers, fourth inning, seventh inning stretch shows for the Oakland A's. And we became professional dancers, dancing in front of thousands of people. And that was like our beginning into the entertainment industry. And then we decided to move to LA. When we moved to LA, I was 10. So all that happened before I was 10, which is crazy to think about now. Speaker 2 (3:31) Did you have, because I remember when I first got on stage and stuff, I just felt like, most people, when they get on stage, they... There a fear comes over them when I got on stage I everything in my mind slowed down It's the only place that I was like, I understand this way I didn't understand it in a sense that I knew what to do, but I felt comfortable. I wasn't nervous Was it like that for you guys? Speaker 1 (4:00) I think everybody had a different feeling over the years and we've all studied to get through the years So I got to kind of be a part of their creative journey also for me personally I had something like that where I don't I don't know if the thing slowed down, but I definitely kind of understood the relationship between like the performer and the audience. I could feel the audience. I could feel like even doing stuff at school plays and stuff like that. Like I somehow was able to make people laugh or people be interested in things going on. And I kind of felt, I felt it. I felt like the communication with the audience early on, whether it be through dance or doing, like I said, school plays or whatnot. Speaker 1 (4:42) So early in life, I was like, yeah, I think I want to act. I want to be an actor. That's something I want to do. And again, it's just weird that you said it slows down. That's pretty fascinating. Yeah, there's something. Once you get in that space, you either feel comfortable in it or you don't. And I don't feel comfortable in it. Speaker 2 (5:02) For me, because of my learning disability and all these other things, I would always get nervous. like if I had to read out loud or if I had to like in a classroom setting when I got on stage all that went away like all of that because all my ADD and all the things I could think about like oh here find your light here these like you know I was thinking so many things so fast that I was like I was able to slow it down in my own way and it didn't intimidate me it was like this I just felt I'm very connected to the work. And I was like, and that's, I didn't even know what it was, but I was like, I like that. I want to go do that again. Right. Speaker 1 (5:37) Now for you here, Speaker 2 (5:39) when you, cause you graduated from Orange County. Was it the Orange Speaker 1 (5:45) County high Speaker 2 (5:45) school of Speaker 1 (5:45) arts? Of the arts. Yeah. Ocean, Orange County school of the arts, high school of the arts, now Orange County school of Speaker 2 (5:50) the arts. Speaker 1 (5:50) You Speaker 2 (5:50) were Speaker 1 (5:50) grad 93, right? 93. Yeah. 93. Damn, you throwing dates out there? Throwing dates out there? Speaker 2 (5:56) I'm grad Speaker 1 (5:56) 95, Speaker 2 (5:57) man. come on you're two you're two years older than me bro well actually no because you you went uh you went back because of uh hook right you did hook and then you went back to school yeah Speaker 1 (6:09) i mean i grew up i started acting when i was 10 and uh spent a lot of you know i actually always stayed in public school and ocean is even a public school looks like a magnet of sort but um you know i i would always be i spent a lot of time sometimes almost full school years on the set on studio school but i'd always go back and be connected to school and uh public school so what was Speaker 2 (6:33) it like though Speaker 1 (6:33) going back to school Speaker 2 (6:34) like after hook i'm gonna help you out really quick take my advice right now go to ghostbed.com forward slash buckley code word buckley type that in get 10 off and get the best sleep of your life Here at the AG Buckley Show, we just started working with a company called CoreTrex. CoreTrex is an e-commerce team out of Walmart's backyard that takes brands from launch to millions a month. It is a risk-free guarantee. You want to book a strategy call with these guys? I highly recommend it. Go to CoreTrex.com. That's C-O-R-E-T-R-E-X.com. These guys are the game changer. After Speaker 1 (7:14) hook. Speaker 1 (7:16) That was kind of cool. I actually had just transferred to OSHA that year because I grew up in a little, when I moved to LA, we moved to a little town called Paramount, California, which is right next to Compton. And it was more of a, you know, we're, we're Speaker 2 (7:29) a Speaker 1 (7:29) very blue collar family come from blue collar towns and just kind of, Speaker 2 (7:32) that's Speaker 1 (7:33) where we grew up, like black and Mexican neighborhoods. And we're like hip hop kids. And then where were the Irish bro? The Irish? I don't know. There wasn't. You said there Speaker 2 (7:44) was Speaker 1 (7:44) no Irish in the hood? No, not this hood. Actually, one of my good buddies today is a guy named Patrick Celtic O'Sullivan, Irish dude from the Bay Area. And he grew up pretty much like us, but he grew up around a lot of Samoans up there. It's so true. Speaker 2 (8:02) It's not to cut you off there, but isn't it true that Samoans and Filipinos and Irish like... They're just in big groups of their families. Like that's their thing. And Italians too, just like they congregate in groups. Well, the Italians and Speaker 1 (8:16) the Irish are definitely like the ethnic white people for sure. That's right. Yes. Sweet. For sure. 100%. I mean, yeah, there's like the Roman Catholic backgrounds of all of them, especially Filipinos. Like there's a lot of crossover with Filipinos and Irish and Italians. 100%. Speaker 2 (8:34) 100%. Take me back to 1991. Okay, Hook. It's the movie that everybody's talking about. Yeah. Everybody knows about Spielberg is directing. Robin Williams is playing Peter Pan. Every kid in Los Angeles is going out for it. And how old were you? And sort of take me through that audition process, especially back then when it was so different in acting with callbacks and the whole thing. Speaker 1 (8:57) Totally. The crazy thing about that particular project was, you know, I've Speaker 2 (9:01) been Speaker 1 (9:01) acting for five years. And I was, in a lot of ways, you know, they say Spielberg. discovered me but i'd already been a working actor but being going to a spielberg movie kind of like puts you in a whole different stratosphere in the industry right and but so i was a very serious actor i found about this movie going on actually my little brother dm was auditioned for another part and uh and you know it was everyone everyone in town was talking about robin williams is playing a grown-up peter pan which captured the imagination of everybody oh yeah yeah spielberg movie is like of course a big deal I was like, I want to call my manager. I want to audition for anything in this movie, anything. And then I get an audition and we go for the audition. We prepare for it. Actually, my other brother, Daryl, auditioned for the role too. And we have pictures from that day of us dressing up like what we think a lost boy would look like and Speaker 2 (9:49) doing Speaker 1 (9:50) this whole thing. I do the audition for casting, Janet Hershenson, and they tape it. It feels great. You know, it's actually the scene. We do. I believe there's a scene that was the cross the line scene, which side are you on, that kind Speaker 2 (10:03) of Speaker 1 (10:03) thing. Speaker 2 (10:03) Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1 (10:04) Yeah. So two days later or whatever, you get the call from my manager. He's like, oh, you have a callback. Steven Spielberg wants to meet you. I was like, wow, what? We're so hyped. I'm excited. My mom brings me to the back lot of Universal. And you go, people have gone to Universal Studios and it's all. It's Speaker 2 (10:26) a Speaker 1 (10:26) beautiful song, but it's like gray, big sound stages and everything. In the back, there's like a little Spanish villa house security there. That's Steven. That's Amblin. That's Steven Spielberg's office. I later find out when I had to do some rehearsal at his house that it matches his house. Like it's kind of like his house in the back of the Universal lot, which is pretty cool. Wow. We go there and I'm a kid, you know, I'm 15. There's probably maybe half dozen of us, maybe. eight of us there talking for different roles different lost boy roles and the rumor at that time was um Steven Spielberg had an arcade in his office. Like all the kid actors knew this or heard about this. And we roll in there. And this is like the 90s, right? Early 80s, 90s. And like, it's not what kids think about. Like, it's not like PlayStations and, you know. It's Speaker 2 (11:15) like stand up. Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:16) It's like stand up in the mall. Speaker 2 (11:18) Like Knight Rider Pinball. Speaker 1 (11:20) Yeah, exactly. Knight Rider Pinball, Spy Hunter, Pole Position, whatever, right? Uh, cabinet, cabinet friggin' things. Um, we roll in, the assistant comes out, ushers us in, takes us, you know, apart from our parents, and she opens the door, and there's a full arcade, bro. She's like, go, you guys, go play, basically. It's like Neverland. We go in there, all the video games are free, we're playing friggin' all kinds of games. I remember, which, I don't know, time just flies by, I don't know what's going on. I think I'm playing Joust with some other kid. You know? And then the assistant tasked me in the show. I was like, Mr. Spielberg, we'll see you now. I'm like, oh, yeah. I'm here for an audition. Right? Oh, man. So I get back there and we're and then Stephen's just back there and we're just we're just talking. And he's he's basically doing the interview part, just kind of asking about what I'm who I am, where I'm from, what I'm doing. He looks at my resume. He sees a movie I did for Paramount called The Perfect Weapon. And he's like, what's this? And it's, you know, it's just, it's essentially this martial arts film I did with this guy named Jeff Speakman, who was supposed to be like the new Jean-Claude Van Damme. And I was like his sidekick, but I play this like street kid, right? And I said, well, I play street kid in this movie and it's like a street urchin. Like I said, you know, it's like, and I told him, it's like Ratso Rizzo from Midnight Cowboy. I said, you know, Midnight Cowboy. And Steven Spielberg looked at me like, do I know Midnight Cowboy? He's like, do you know Midnight Cowboy? I'm like, yeah. And we start talking about Midnight Cowboy for like 20 minutes, bro, about Rats-O-Rizzo and Jon Voight, about I'm walking, I'm walking here, all this kind of stuff. And, of course, Dustin Hoffman is playing Captain Hook. And I'm Speaker 2 (13:10) a Speaker 1 (13:10) big fan of him as a character actor. He's one of the greatest 70s, you know, Mount Rushmore of actors, character actors. De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson, Hoffman, these character actors from the 70s that became leading men in Hollywood, right? And we get so heavy into the conversation about Razzle Rizzle and everything. I'm like, I finally go, I look at him and I say, hey, I have the script in my hand the whole time, my sides, right? And I'm like, hey, do you want me to do the scene now? And he's like, he looks at me and he goes. Speaker 1 (13:43) no, no, you don't have to do the scene. I said, what? He goes, you don't have to do the scene. I just wanted to meet you. I said, oh, okay. I'm like dumbfounded. I walk out of the Speaker 2 (13:54) audition. And that's either one or two things. Like you've just said something with this guy. This is like, this guy's a liability. We got to get a bad hurt. Yeah, exactly. Or he just knew that you were the guy. Speaker 1 (14:04) I, but you know, you're a kid. You don't know. I mean, the audition, it was just so weird. I had nothing like that has happened to me. I walk out. Jump in my mom's van, we're like rolling out of Universal, heading to In-N-Out or something like after dinner, after auditioning In-N-Out. And she's like, how'd it go? And I'm like, mom, I didn't get it. She's like, what? I was like, I didn't, I don't think I got it. Like, I didn't even, I didn't even do the scene. She said, what? I was like, I didn't even read the, I didn't even do the scene. She said, you were like up all last night, like rehearsing. I'm like, I know I was rehearsing, but then I was playing video games. And I was like, I don't know what happened. I was talking about a movie. And then it was just like, Speaker 2 (14:41) then Speaker 1 (14:42) it was like, bye. And I didn't even do the scene. I was like, whoa. And then like a day later, they offered me the part, which was crazy. Speaker 2 (14:50) Dude, he just knew. Speaker 1 (14:51) He just knew. I mean, months later on the set, I remember just on a quiet time on the set, I asked him about it because I was like, hey. you know steven like that's never happened to me like what was that process and he said i watched your tape and um he said out of all the kids we auditioned for that role you're the only kid that scared me oh wow that's what he said to me do you Speaker 2 (15:15) think do you think like being that having the presence of like your break dance and all that stuff and performing in front of a crowd and all that that character and that little bit of edge that you you carry and stuff like that naturally just kind of came came through in in that sense Speaker 1 (15:30) for sure i think yeah i think i was living in the neighborhood i grew up the way we grew up blue collar like i wouldn't say we're like We were from the hood, but we weren't Speaker 2 (15:40) gangsters. But I was around Speaker 1 (15:41) it and things were happening around me like that. You're a child. You're a Speaker 2 (15:45) sponge. Yeah, it was right on my sleeve. Speaker 1 (15:48) And then I don't know. I guess I just wore that for that part. And I don't, you know, I guess I was the right actor. You know, like a lot of things, the right actor and the right role come together at the right time. Speaker 2 (16:01) Did you have any idea what you were holding? I mean, you did three colors in the Mohawk, Bangarang, like all that. When you were on set and you're going through that, did it click for you yet or no? Speaker 1 (16:13) I knew I was a part of a big movie, obviously. You've got these massive stars, one of the greatest directors of all time. I would show up on my days off just to be around gods, gods in our industry, essentially, to watch Robin Williams improv, Dustin Hoffman do character work. I mean, to see... spielberg direct was like having the chance to see picasso work or mozart work you know i i knew that as a young actor um but did i know no i didn't even know dude when they when they first were putting me together i was like because it's a new character in peter pan this is the guy's never been before and there's all these different sketches of what's going on and i'm 15 like i'm very excited i want to do well but also I want to be cool. You know what I'm saying? Speaker 2 (17:03) Like Speaker 1 (17:03) you want to just show up on Monday when the movie comes out that Friday. Like I want people to think it's cool. And then they start putting the outfit together for the first time. Dude, this is the nine, this is the nineties, right? I'm coming to set in like double XL baggy hip hop kid. And then they put me in some red tights and holey jeans, skinny jeans. I'm like, what? Then they put that shirt on me, the skin tight like spandex shirt, which has already got like strings and stuff coming off it. And then I'm like, okay. And then they start, the wardrobe designer grabs a scissor and starts cutting out the midriff. I'm like, what? She's like, my belly button showing. I'm like, okay, okay. Speaker 2 (17:50) They Speaker 1 (17:50) put on a Michael Jackson, like leather, red, black and red jacket, which Michael was not cool at that time. He was cool after and he was cool before, but like in 91, he was like, not that cool. And I was like, yeah. Oh no. And then they put the, um, they started doing my hair and they're like, what's Rufio have? And they're like, what do you think? What do you think about a Mohawk? And I'm like, okay. And then what Speaker 2 (18:14) do you think about three Mohawks? What? I'm like, what's going on? You Speaker 1 (18:21) know, when you're, when you Speaker 2 (18:22) think Speaker 1 (18:22) about it, when you're doing a movie, you know, you're an actor and you're an artist, but every department, they're artists, they're artists that are doing the sets and doing the props and doing the hair and doing the wardrobe and all these, and these are Oscar winning, amazing artists that are working with Spielberg. So everyone's doing their art and you're the, you're the like, Person they're doing it on. Yeah, and it's kind of nerve-racking because it had not been done yet And I was like I'm coming out there to bring me out to meet Spielberg And I'm like got three mohawks in my hair my belly button showing got skin tight jeans on what it Speaker 2 (18:56) was and was Spielberg Did he ask how you felt about it or no? Speaker 1 (19:00) No, I came out He was directing a scene with the other Lost Boys Jimmy was down there with all them doing stuff And they had me yeah, they have you hidden behind the trailer and they said we can come out Okay, they're like, Stephen, Stephen, we have something to show you. And he's like, stops between the scenes, and they're like, Dante, come out. And they're like, this is Rufio. And I walk out, and I'm like, tentatively like, huh? Yeah? And I remember Stephen's like, sitting there with his arm crossed. He turns around, and he looks at me, and he goes. Speaker 2 (19:32) yes, Speaker 1 (19:33) yes. And I'm like, yeah, Speaker 2 (19:35) this is it. Yeah. And so the vision. Speaker 1 (19:41) Yeah. But you know how it is. You got to trust the vision. You got to like assume the position to assume the role and make it the best. Now it's like iconic. People are dressing up as it at comic cons and Halloween. Speaker 2 (19:52) I sent you my buddy, Craig Conover from sewing down South. Yeah. It was where, remember you may send him that video. Yeah. Huh? Yeah, and he was, I was like, I texted him. I said he was doing some, like, I think they were filming a, like, a costume party. And I saw him post. I was like, I texted him, like, are you doing Rufio? Are Speaker 1 (20:11) you Speaker 2 (20:11) playing Rufio? He's like, yeah, I gave him my, I was like, oh, my bear. That's when I texted Junior. I got you. He was so pumped up about that. Yeah. Speaker 1 (20:19) You guys definitely have