I can count on one hand the number of shows my daughter likes that I enjoy as well. One such show is Cartoon Network's Level Up, a tale of a group of gamers who accidentally open a portal and, along with the help of the game's creator, must send all the bosses and villains and monsters that escape from the game back home. Level Up's cast was nice enough to sit down and chat with us and we're going to feature a different actor each week.We're kicking things off by spending Seven Questions In Heaven with Gaelan Connell, who plays Wyatt on Level Up.
Tell us about the character you play on Level Up.
On Level Up I play Wyatt AKA Black Death. Although Dante and Lyle consider Wyatt to be the nerd of the group, what they really mean is that he's the extremely smart one. When the Neverfail clan goes on quests, Wyatt's the one who comes up with the comprehensive, sophisticated, and mostly-genius super-plans.
Do you share any common traits with your character? Any noticeable differences?
Besides being super smart and terrible with the ladies? Kidding, kidding. The most similar I get with my character is probably the way I yell at the TV I'm playing video games. That and I stole my motorcycle pajamas that I wear onscreen so I could wear them at home too. Yep.
Which has been your favorite episode so far and why?
The best episodes are always the ones where it's the clan versus the world. The action scene at the end of "Hampire Weeknight" was really fun to film because the director (Jonathan Judge) shot it in super slow motion, making everything that happens in the scene that much cooler/funny. I'm also pretty partial to "Wyatt Presents: Avatar In 3D." In that episode, my video game avatar Black Death leaks out and I get to control him IRL. I mean who wouldn't want to do that?
When did you first realize you wanted to be an actor? Was there a particular event that triggered it?Probably around eight or nine when I really started honing my lying skills. I was pretty sneaky at the time and then when I turned ten I got to skip most of 5th grade to film Chocolat with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche in France. After that, I didn't think too much about acting; it was just something that I was fortunate to land some roles here and there.
What actors and actresses do you admire or look up to?
Connor del Rio, Jessie Usher, Aimee Carrero, Lonny Ross. I heard they are all pretty decent. ;)
Before you began work on Level Up, were you much of a gamer? Has Level Up changed that?
One of my older brothers was a '90s Computer Science wiz and so he introduced me to all of the hot PC titles that now we look back and marvel how we fell for paying $19.95 for that. I remember how exciting Windows 95 was because it finally let me play all the games I wanted to load, which at the time was the King's Quest series. Then when Windows 2000 came around I could play finally play FIFA. Now, the last couple of years in LA it seems pretty standard to play late night HALO with all of your current castmates, so when we kicked off the Level Up series, I added Connor and Jessie to my crew of Red vs. Blue.
What are your five all-time favorite video games?
- NHL '08
- Mario Party
- King's Quest 6 (just the sheer number of hours I spent of my childhood makes this a qualifying number 3)
- HALO
- Portal 2
