QQ: What are some of the recent projects you’ve been busy working on?
A: Well, we just got finished with “Kickin’ It” season two. It’s been going on for a little while now, and yesterday was our last episode that we were filming for it. So “Kickin’ It” mainly. Upcoming I’m mainly going to be auditioning, I don’t have much going on. I’m just trying to meet some of the casting directors around, hang out, chill out a little bit, go surfing. But in August I’m going to Boston to meet with some fans and I think that’s a nice little meet-and-greet that we’re going to do. We’re going to go up there, see some people, get to meet them and sign autographs and take pictures. It’s going to be fun.
Q: What’s new this season on “Kickin’ It”?
A: On this season of “Kickin’ It” we have a bunch of bigger, new episodes. We have an episode coming up that’s going to play at some point, we have a one hour episode. It’s “Kickin’ It” first, and it’s more intense than the other storylines because they were trying to write for this one-hour episode thinking what can we do to make this one-hour show stand out from the others. So you add more intensity, more drama, but it just makes a really great show. It’s divided into two parts, but they’re always going to be viewed together. I think it’s going to be a good one. We also have this one episode, it’s a thirty minute, but it’s where we go visit a Shaolin temple. It’s a nice little culture bringing, you get to see how the Shaolin monks live and train. Some of it is a little whacky, but that was a great episode.
Q: What’s new this season with your character?
A: This season with my character I may have been gone up a belt, so that’s good. We were gaining character growth and my character is always in situations. Then there’s an episode coming up where me and Rudy enter a train display contest. That’s a really great episode, that’s called “Kim of Kong." It’s kind of like a video game episode, but Milton, he’s a whacky, smart character and this season just showed that even more. He’s growing, he’s becoming more of a fighting asset to the guys and he’s becoming better friends with everybody. Right at the beginning of the season we had a football episode where Milton kind of opened up a little bit and he became the popular guy. That was nice to see, Milton was getting attention, and it was really cool how he was able to go to the top of the popularity board. But it’s nice to be back with the gang.
Q: Is there anything about your role as Milton that continues to challenge you?
A: I think the most challenging part about Milton, besides the voice which mine is getting lower and his is kind of staying up there, higher, I think the most challenging part would be finding the best mix between the classic comedic nerd off of a sitcom, and the dramatic character that I’m trying to portray. I’m not trying to make him be a super-energetic, happy, geeky character. I’m trying to make him what would be the Milton's of the world. I think Milton’s kind of like a representation of other kids. So that’s the challenging part of this character, not making him too big and still keeping him down to earth enough so that kids can watch the show and say wow, that kid’s just like me, you know? Then they see Milton get a win, and then feel like they can do anything. That’s what I’m trying to do with Milton.
Q: Are there any guest stars that you may be able to share that fans will get to see this season?
A: Well, upcoming we have Kyrie Irving, who was the rookie of the year for basketball, so he’s on our show. He’s going to be making a cool little appearance. We also have Booboo Stewart on the show. That’s going to be a really good episode. I’m not sure if I can say anything about the episode right now, at this point, but he plays Leo’s match, we’ll say that.
Q: What have been some of your favorite moments from filming the show this season?
A: Some of my favorite moments that we’ve seen this season are, just in the episode we filmed the other day Milton was trying to break a world record using yo-yo’s and they needed me to yo-yo, so I took some yo-yo’s home and I was trying to teach myself. I’ve always been a yo-yo’er but I had to teach myself how to do the moves they wanted, and so I got to spend a week yo-yo’ing just for the part. It was pretty fun. Oh, and this season we’ve been trying to get Milton on a unicycle and so I’ve been trying to learn how to unicycle. It’s a very hard thing, it’s a challenge. Otherwise, this season I think one of my favorite parts was the one where me and Rudy enter the train display. It’s just a great episode, it was a classic Rockwell moment, just laid out like that. That was probably my favorite moment. I got to work with Jason who’s a genius and it was just a fun moment. You’ll have to wait until you see it come out before you’ll know really what I’m talking about, but that one was probably my favorite moment of the season.
Q: Has comedy always come naturally to you, or is it something that you’ve had to study?
A: For the most part it’s come naturally. I was never really good at comedy earlier. For one thing, I can’t tell a joke for my life. Knock-knock jokes, I’m terrible with. I just can’t do them. But as I grew older, because I was always doing dramatic stuff, I never really did the comedic plays as I was in theater before anything else. As I grew up I just kind of developed a sense of sarcasm and wittiness. It just helped like when I went into the audition, I knew how to get the jokes across. So I’ve always been able to, well not always, but I’ve recently at least been able to do comedy. I enjoy it, though. If I had to choose between drama and comedy, I guess the meatier one would be drama just because it’s more intense. It’s not all hackneyed jokes and everything, but comedy is so fun and so different that I wouldn’t want to give it up now.
Q: What do you think it is about “Kickin’ It” that continues to draw in so many viewers?
A: I think that “Kickin’ It” is, I really do think it’s original. We’re a karate show. It’s called “Kickin’ It”, it’s about karate. But the cool thing about our show is not every episode contains some big karate moment. We usually do have karate fights but the storylines are all so different that it’s not just about karate, it’s about the friendships that we have and the adventures that we go on by ourselves and I think that is kind of what captivating viewers, is that we don’t have to stick to karate to give out storylines that people want to see.
Q: What’s your latest guilty pleasure? Is there a book, a sport, a music group, some activity you’re super into at the moment.
A: My latest guilty pleasure is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. Great book. It’s kind of the prequel to The Lord of the Rings and I love that book, it’s so good. Just Tolkein’s entire works are amazing. He’s a very good writer, I like his style, so I’ve been reading it for a little while. I’ve gotten through it but now I’m just going back and looking for little details. It’s such a great book.
Q: You’re part of the social networking site Twitter. Why is that important for you to connect to your fans that way?
A: I think it’s important to connect with the fans because usually they’re a younger audience, and I feel that tweeting them back, or just them seeing that I do in fact acknowledge them, is nice, it’s happy. When I was in New York doing theater I would walk out the stage door and see a bunch of people waiting for autographs. I loved going to each one and signing their playbills, talking with them, taking photos with them and that was my thing, I always did it because it makes me feel good. I love doing that. I always did that because I knew that when I went to watch a show and I went out there, it made me feel good when they went by and they talked to me and took photos with me and enjoyed the fact that I liked their show. So I’ve always respected the audience, the fans.
Q: Is there anything else about “Kickin’ It” you would like to tease and share with the fans?
A: Last season we did a Halloween episode and this season we’ve done a Christmas episode so we can be looking forward to seeing “Kickin’ It” on Christmas. I think this one is a really great episode that teaches kids about the Christmas spirit in a very nice way. It shows them you don’t need, all you need is your friends and family.
