Avatar: Braving the ElementsWe're joined by Lauren Tom, the multi-talented actor and voice artist who brought to life Joo Dee, the smiling guide of Ba Sing Se and so many other memorable characters. Listen as Janet and Dante chat with Lauren about her prolific career in voiceover and on-screen acting, her success as a writer, mother, and being such a prominent figure in the Asian artistic community. In this captivating rebroadcast, Lauren shares her journey and insights into the entertainment industry, showcasing the qualities that make her a superstar.
Hello, friends, benders and non benders alike. Welcome to Braving the Elements, Nickelodeon's podcast about all things Avatar Verse. I'm Janet Varney and.
I'm Dante Bosco.
Now. One of the biggest gets we got this season on Braving the Elements was this absolute legend of a voice actress.
Yes, who I've known since my days on The American Dragon, Jake Long.
Oh really got your slid your other credits in there? Huh?
She played my mom twice.
That's history. Absolutely, it absolutely is. Friends. We are so excited to reservice one of the most iconic voices of the Avatar Verse. She played Judy, who was the ever so polite frontwoman of Bossingsay's conspiracies. The wonderful Lauren Tom Hello, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Oh, it's my pleasure you got.
Nickelodeon was so smart to choose you guys to host this podcast.
You're both so adorable. Thank you so much. I want to adopt you. You want to adopt us?
I do.
Oh, Lauren, you're too busy for that. You have a whole other family and you're like the workingest woman in show business. You have so many things going on.
And some people out there know that you are my mom.
That's true. Yes, I got to play Dante's mom twice twice.
Yes, and American Dragon Jake Long and a pilot we did together that didn't get picked up, but it was such a good pilot. It was called The Chang Family World produced by John Ridley and.
Yes, Yes, and this was on camera. This was an eighties on camera. Somehow Lauren was supposed to pass as your mom.
If we were like the Fantastic Four, we were like this family that found out that we had magical I guess the parents knew they had magic powers, but the kids, we found out that we had magical powers and we had.
To save that. Yeah, our family kicked, but we were awesome.
We were awesome for sure. The Change Family saves the world. We'll see if we can someone can find that out.
I was gonna say, we got to get our hands on that. Oh beautiful beauty. That's gonna be so okay. So we just talked about two things, Lauren. I'm gonna throw out some fandom. I'm gonna throw out some projects just in the animated world. And I want everyone to know I'm not even scratching the surface. But you may know her from Dragons and Nine Realms, Disenchantment, Young Justice, King of the Hill, anyone too many more to count. Of course, be on Futurama. And this is very near and dear to my heart because up at as of sketch Fest, the comedy festival I produce, the Futurama Gang has come up year after year after year, and they are sold out every year. We've had to add shows every They're like the highlight of the festival. So that's the highlight of my year.
Oh, going there and seeing my family and doing It's so much fun at Sketchback.
Love that and you and Phil Lamar have been in like so many things together. Also, it's like between you and Dante and then Phil Lamar, I feel like you've got all projects ever covered, Like.
Oh yeah, I mean I cannot even tell you how grateful I am and excited that Futurama got picked up again and I can't wait for everyone to see the new episodes. They are really funny, and yeah, I've got these two giant tuitions to pay for my kids.
I'm like, thank you, Universe, I could do this, you know.
On top of the legendary Joy Luck Club, which is just a legendary animated stuff.
Dante named some on screen stuff, because there's like a good jillion of those two everything.
I mean friends, I mean the thing. Those are the things that should jump out of my mind that I see your face like instantly.
It's so funny that I've like I've studied as a trying to be a serious actress, you know, and doing all these classics in theater, but the thing that most people know me from as friends, and they just want to know if David Swimmer is a good kisser.
And I'm like, it's all come to.
This, that's it, that's from all my years of hard work.
It's all come right you.
No, there's no way people don't want to talk to you about Supernatural because that is another Yeah, that's huge fandom, the biggest fandom. Oh my gosh. They and they really appreciate it, whether you do one episode or a huge long arc. They are like very present to each person who appears on that show, which is so lovely. Man.
I did only three episodes of Supernatural, and it's been years of loyalty and support and love from that fandom. I have to say Supernatural and Futurama are a really rabid fan base, and they support my fundraising like nobody's business.
And it just it means a world to me.
Like when I say I care about this and then they're like, okay, here's some money. I care about what you care about it, It's very touching. Yeah, oh, that's so wonderful.
It is wild to go to comic cons and when supernatural folks show up, You're like, what's going on over there?
Oh?
Supernatural? Like huh okay, that's what all those long lines are for natural. Excuse us.
We're going to start our own comic con, just a supernatural convention all of its own, Like we'll take those lines away and bring them over there. Oh yeah, it's insane.
Yeah, but anyway, I'm happy to be part of that universe. And yesterday it was Star Trek Day and I did one episode of Lower Decks And now I'm part of that family, which is really really fun.
It's amazing.
The Avatar family is amazing, like all the memes that have come from Judy, Like who knew that?
I mean, it.
Makes me feel like it keeps me current, you know, with the young fuck with the kids.
Well, well, before we go into Avatar versus, where did it all start? Where are you from?
Originally I'm from Chicago, Chicago.
Oh wow, did you act out there? Second, I was a dancer.
I was super shy, so dancing was perfect for me because I didn't have to talk. And then so I did a course line when I was really young on Broadway. I was eighteen years old and everyone was much older. So they said, you know, you really should study acting, otherwise you'll be done by the time you're thirty.
Because you did a course line on Broadway. Can you believe that? That's just crazy, that's fossy. Well, no, it's Michael Bennett's Michael Bennett so close.
Yeah, one of the great choreographers right right. I can't believe you the course line in the eighties, that.
Is so crazy. Ye, shocking, And it's such a powerful show.
I mean, I've never seen it live, I've only seen the film, but I love that show.
It was like just such a gift for me.
I was seventeen and I just turned They had to wait for me to turn eighteen so that I didn't need like my parents with me. So it was really great because the cast was much older, than me, and they gave me the advice of, you know, you're going to be done by the time you're thirty, because being a dancer is like being an athlete, so you really should study acting. So yeah, so that was just like a gift that dropped down from no where.
And they really were like, you're gonna have to have a plan B and your plan be Yeah, it can be acting, you know, So sorry, this dance thing might not last. Well, it's like being an area together some jobs. Yeah, so acting, little did we.
Know you're like Jlo. You're a dancer, became an actor.
You like Jlo?
Do you know that I actually auditioned against j Loo back in the day in La and we were both, you know, started as dancers and then she got I can't even remember the name of the movie, but we were both up for the same part and it got down to the two of us, and uh.
Wow, Yeah, I cannot believe. I'm so glad that he randomly brought up Ja Loo. That's amazing. It is random. Clearly they wanted someone of color. So so that was good.
But anyway, she got it.
You've had this career. Good for her. Good She's fine. Yeah, but You've had this career that is really like, it's my ideal, and I would guess it's Dante's as well, because you do cross over so seamlessly from like the Joy Luck Club and like I watched Goliath and you had a whole arc on that, and you watched Gliath. Thank you, Jane. I love that show. It's so wild, like that show, and I never know what they're going to do from season to season, and the tone is always so different and strange, and so I'm always so interested to see what they're going to do. And it's very exciting to see you. But and then you're going to comedy and then you're going to animation and both sides of that, and like, and you're writing. You write, you know, you' had a one woman show, and you also write pieces that end up in publications, and so you sound like my mom. Well, actually we have for here. Could you come in here for a second. This is a big surprise. No, I just you have that kind of career where sometimes Dante and I talk about sort of diversifying and feeling like we have maybe too many plates up in the air, and then I look at someone like you and I'm like, oh, but yet I want all those plates up in the air. Oh you're so sweet.
I you know, whenever people ask me, young folks coming into the business and they ask for advice, I always say, you know, try to do as many things as you possibly can to give yourself more of a chance of working. And so I just have nothing but gratitude that I can even still do this that at my age and being like a five foot tall, you know, person of color and a woman on top of it, like how am I even working?
I just have like a ton of gratitude.
And the voiceover World has really saved me through all those you know, the writer's strike and the thin years that we all had as actors in COVID, and you know, because.
You guys know, we never stopped recording.
I was in this little closet that I'm in right now, in my husband's closet, and I built a little recording studio. So you know, I just feel very fortunate. And I love being able to jump between dramatic roles because it makes me dig deep. And then even this game I did called Ghosts of Sushima, it was like the first game I ever.
Did and that I had to dig so deep.
For that because my character Lady Masako, like her whole family gets killed and then I'm trying to avenge them. And wow, that was really challenging. And who knew, like you guys ever done a game. It's yeah, it's really hard.
Like a new thing that came out while I've been working. It's like, all of a sudden, the new way to tell stories video games, and here we are like like the generation before us did no video games, and now that's something we do. It's kind of strange.
Yeah, And I had all this equipment I had to wear like on my head and on my body and.
Try to keep it from you were doing motion captures, so this motion cap Oh my gosh, that's so hard.
Then to dig deep and be like sobbing and rageful and then trying to keep this thing from falling off my head.
It was just like it was so challenging as you're like, this is the future. I guess, I'm I'm living.
In a bandits act. We're all doing Blue Man Group.
What's going on here? I know?
And then and then also you guys know too that during COVID when we were recording everything from home, you had to be your own engineer too, So that was like a learning curve and I was like, hey, an old Doug can learn new tricks. But I felt like, you know, we had to slate before each of our lines, which really kind of takes you out of the moment.
It's like take one, p. Seventeen. I mean, you know, it just it was a lot to learn.
I really have to take my hat off to everyone, you know, like just everyone for getting through this time. We've all had to just adapt and learn and grow and stay patient and stay loving to ourselves and other people because everything goes wrong. I mean not everything, but like little things go wrong still, like every day, just from people being.
A little bit foggy and a little bit off center. You know. Yeah, that's very true.
So just to put in chronological order the context of when you did Avatar with us, I guess you were doing teen Titans and which right.
Oh, you've done your research. I don't know these things.
Are you aware of Avatar at the time when you're working on the show and when you got.
Cast as Judy?
And do people ever bring it up to you at cons or other places about that character.
All the time? And I'm always shocked because again, I only did two episodes, but it just shows you how huge the fandom is for this show. And I actually feel like I should make an eight but ten print of Judy because people ask for it and I'm just not prepared in my mind. And it's really been such a gift. And also just being able to work with Andrea or Romano on anything is just right, you guys, like I she's the best voice over director out there. I just feel always like I'm in such good hands. I feel confident because she's so trusting in our talent that it's kind of like, yeah, of course, you know, like whatever I do, I feel like is the right choice. But that's the best thing a director can give you, I think, is that freedom and the trust.
I was so lucky. I just started.
I mean, I'll still early in voiceover, and I got through the show when Andrea and it was so good and it's amazing. She's such a legend. And what's funny is we did in Avatar Reunion recently with a lot of the series regulars, and we had Andrea on and she's retired, you know, so she hasn't been working for years, right, But as soon as she got on it was like she was directing us again in the panel.
Oh my gosh, we're directing the course of where the panel was going.
We were just like, whatever, okay, that's where we're going.
Aw.
It was hilarious.
Man, that must have been fun for you. Dante, just and you were there too, Janet, Right.
Well, I was watching because I was in Cora but not Avatar Last Airbender. So I just I just came in as a fan and was watching, and you know, happened to know a lot of the people, but was like just fangrolling out with everybody else. But I absolutely can't agree with Dante. Yeah. Andrea was like, now we should talk about Da Da Da And I was like, Okay, she's totally new. What did you feel about And we're like, okay, oh that's great. Oh man, that must have been so much fun for you. No, it's great.
And I love seeing her. I get to see her at cons sometimes we get a cross past at cons, and it's always good to just catch up with her and just see how she's doing, how's retirement treating her.
Yeah. I just saw her at a Batman Beyond convention and that was super fun.
I mean, you must have worked with her so many times throughout the years.
Well, I'm so grateful that she thought of me because it was I think it was right when I was on Friends too.
Oh wow. And so she brought me in to be Batman's girlfriend Dana Tan.
She brought me on a Batman thing too, and then she couldn't make the record, so I have to record with someone else. And you know, it's one of the things you don't audition for, and you're just end there. You're like, why did Rondre I think I could do this? I need with me right now?
I have to say that's such a double edged sword, because it's like, there's nothing I love better than getting a straight offer because I hate auditioning so much. But the other side of that is just that you're not sure why they chose you and you're not right, and then.
If they're not there, they can't tell you why they chose you someone else, like Andrea said, I could do this work. What kind of powers do I have? What's going on? I don't know what's going on?
Yeah, isn't it amazing that we managed to like wherever our insecurity confind to weasel in. It's like I will find a way to be worried about this, whether it's the compliment of getting the offer, I will find a way to be stressed out about that, just as much as like having audition, Will I get fired? Like lasts are so good at going to that place? Yeah? Yeah, wait, I just want to ask really quick, Laurence. Sorry, did you take voiceover classes or was that one of those things where you had been acting and then the voiceover world like opened itself to you in a specific way through an agent or something. I never took voiceover acting classes.
I think they're out there, and you know, when people ask me how do I get into it, I always refer them to my friend Dee Bradley Baker's website called I Want to Be a Voice Actor.
It's like the easiest thing in the world because at that.
And he's so thorough about it and keep up updating it.
Also, Yeah, you just spent so much time and energy putting that together. And I always say that I feel like the key to voice acting is being a good actor, so I don't really think it's very different from that. So take acting lessons, and that's what happened with me. King of the Hill was my first voice ever. Audition, oh wow. And I just I went in in person and they recorded me right there at the table with a little mic, and I just felt like my talent as just sent me in as an audition like any other audition, and then from there. I don't know if you guys will agree, but I think it's very insular, like once you break in, you tend to get passed around.
It's like a small world. It's a small world.
And then for your type, because I do feel like producers like to cast as close to the role as they can, like, so especially if they're looking for.
You know, an Asian woman, then that's sort.
Of like Lauren Tom. Can we get Lauren Tom in here?
Yeah.
I went to Kevin Michael Richardson's, who's another alumni from the show. His birthday was one of the big years of his like a big boat and it took all the boys actors out on this boat for the evening and it was.
Stacked with the whole everybody.
Everybody was one, and I was like, first of all, I was like, how did I get here?
One? Mark Hamill's there, Oh my gosh, he's so great.
DiMaggio, I mean, all the big voice actors there, and then I thought, if this boat sinks, what are we gonna do? What's going to happen if the boat?
Oh my gosh, you know what.
I have a similar story that we did a course line for Reagan.
This is how old I am.
Oh. They flew our cast to the White House, right, and he was giving a little speech before our performance, and he said, there are so many governors and heads of state in this audience right now, it would be an awful thing if a bomb dropped here right now.
Its moments.
The show everyone, I mean, it was like dead silent, like how do you recover from that?
Little blurbs? Anyway, it was funny.
But you've done a lot of theater.
I've done a lot of theater. Yeah, I've done a lot of You.
Did a one man show. I did it one person show, Yeah, my apologies, a one woman show.
Yeah.
HBO was having like a festival in Aspen and they were they're doing this diversity program where they chose people of color to write about their stories, and so I was one of those people. And then I did my show and Aspen and then they filmed excerpts of it because there were lots of performers and then I ended up traveling around the country doing the show at colleges, and that's the closest I'll ever get.
To Harvard, I know.
But it was really fun for me to just interact with young people and to tell my stories kind of like the story is about my grandmother's journey, how she came from China to the United States, and how it's woven in with my It was about my search for inner peace and enlightenment. So it was called twenty five Psychics, and it's about all the insane wacko like twelve five psychics, yeah that I met trying to find like enlightenment.
But want to see this sh.
Hang out with?
Oh I love Gray, She's awesome. Yeah. Grades has sent a lot of people to psychics, and unfortunately I'm one of them.
I went to party at Grey's house and there were psychic readings and of course there were yeah bingo and psychic readings.
Birthday party, we were both there. I just realized they hit anything right.
I think I went beingo.
I hit that right.
I don't remember.
I was so when I was doing Joylight Club.
My the producer who's like a good friend of mine, Janet Yang, she said, Lauren, don't tell so many people that you believe in that it's.
Like outing yourself. And I was like, what, because it just makes you seem like it DIDs.
She goes, I'm just trying to watch out for you, honey.
You're like, what I'm gonna go ahead and do is put it into a successful show that's going to tour the country. So I'm go ahead and do the exact opposite, and it's going to work out great, And.
It's so fascinating.
Just I just think there's too much in the world that we don't have the capacity to understand. So I just leave my mind open that there's a lot of mystery, like which is a good segue into Avatar too, you like you never know, like what's going on?
Right, And absolutely you're so right. Then that is one of the big appeals about it because it's not pulling its punches. It's not living in a fantasy world where conflicts don't arise and where you know, serious things aren't happening. That's not the case at all. But it is giving a voice to some of our own internal spirituality, and of course paying tremendous homage to various Eastern cultures, and you know, we have some Native American influence in there, and it's just such a beautiful rendering. But there is a lot of mystery inside of that universe as well. And you know, here we have with your character the gang coming into this city of we'll call it our City of Walls and Secrets, since that's actually an episode title about bossing, say, and it's almost the polar opposite of what you would expect, hope from a city inside the Avatar verse, which is like everybody's in denial, and everybody's conditioned to be in denial about any conflict happening, and that that's the way you keep yourself sane, right, is like no, no, don't ask questions, don't explore, don't explore your thoughts, don't explore what's happening outside of these walls. As long as you just ignore all of that, that's what makes you safe. And how are obviously you're a seeker, you know, but here you play this character who's sort of been like condition almost yeah, brainwashed exactly into you know, no no no please, huh, let's not no no no, And how appropriate for our times now, like there is no such thing as COVID in Bosses.
There is no war in Bossing. Say it's so wild, how this show years, all these years later, so poignant for today and these times. And we talked about Yeah, I talked about it where we told the story where a kid came up to me and he was at New York City Comic on. He was saying he was raving about the show and growing up with the show and then and I was like, yea, yeah, I'm glad that you know, we all grew up together. And he goes, no, no, you don't understand. You programmed our generation. I said what He goes, you guys, this show programmed our generation. I was like looking at him and like the hair on the back of my neck stood up. And he goes, we are the generation that brought protests back, black Lives Matter, Me Too movement. We're trying to get the world back in balance. And I was like, oh my gosh.
So I mean.
I know, I me too. I was looking at this kid.
Like, uh, did you want to hug him?
You know, we're actors and we do stuff, and we do work, and the show like this becomes so impactful worldwide. I mean, we have no clue what we're doing, it's going to have that kind of ripple in the future decades later. Yes, I was almost in awe of the situation, you know, standing outside it, like, yes, not me.
It's like this.
Whole thing and that I'm a part of is Yeah. I probably was dumbfounded in the moment.
Yeah, I'm sure you were right. Yeah, And it's like it's our responsibility to or that and be grateful for it. And gosh, so many of the people that we have on the show share that gratitude. So I think you're more right than that wonderful young man was willing to or even new when you said we all grow up together, and he was like no, no, no. But it's like, I don't know, because if you get to work on amazing projects with amazing people and you don't lose sight of that gratitude, then you are growing up together. Like you are growing up in the environment that can either turn you into the best or worst version of yourself. If you lean on things that are really hard about what we do, you know, you can sort of be molded into a version of yourself you wouldn't necessarily like, or you can, you know, take the lessons from shows like this, and from meeting fans who've had those experiences and build off of that and realize that you're inspiring people. You're inspiring people to create their own stuff, but also inspiring people on the front lines, like somebody. You know, we have like EMTs and doctors and teachers and people coming in who are like I understand that you weren't on the front lines, but you have to know, I wouldn't have been able to do it if I didn't have avatar, you know, to watch. That's true so many things that you have been a part of, Like I know people feel that way about Futronto, which is a slightly lighter and funnier show, but that's also the thing that gets somebody through because they needed to have that laugh and they needed to feel that connection with the people who are showing up to make that show so special, you know. Yeah, that's so true.
I mean, it really had such a profound effect on me to hear feedback like that, because I don't know about you guys, but just growing up, I just felt like I didn't have any other aptitude other than like the creative side. Yeah, I never felt like I was actually a contributing member of society until I started getting feedback like that, and also just being a person of color like that. One of the most memorable experiences I had was when a young Asian woman came up to me after friends came out and said it was the first time she'd ever seen herself on screen and how much that meant to her. Yeah, So that kind of thing really resonates with us as actors, I think because it makes you feel like you Yeah, my son asked me like the other day, like, what do you want your legacy to be? And I was like, oh, oh my gosh, that's a that's a deep question. And I just you know, it makes me think of that because it's sort of like that I left the world a better place, that I in some way like gave something rather than just took a lot of things, right, you know.
Yeah, you're such a pioneering part of the Asian American arts community, and you know, we're in this golden era, you know Crazeyich, Asians, post charchy, all that kind of stuff going on there. Like it's this golden era of Asians and pop culture and the arts worldwide, and you're part of the pioneering era, that kind of like we're ushering that in and it's still a part of it now, of course, but you know it's part of your legacy.
It's really sweet of you to say, yeah, so for your reward, in addition to just getting to hang out with us, which I know is rewarded and of itself. Let's pretend like, in this alternate universe that we're building for you, we can give you a hybrid animal, since Avatar is very much known for its various hybrid animals.
Well, you know, I just think Momo is the cutest, cutest ever. But I have to say who I resonate with the most is the lion turtle, because.
Because I'm a Leo, right, so the lion, I.
Mean just the image of that animal is so beautiful to me. And so I've got the lion and I've got the ancient because I'm so old, but.
I feel like yours scare you.
But all the qualities that those two animals have, I would love to think that I have some of those in me, just about like the fierceness and the protectiveness of a lion, like protecting their children, right, since I'm a mom in real life, and then the turtle like just having that patience and that ability to wait, you know, just being really wise. That's why I would trying to go for But I actually feel like I'm kind of far from that. I feel like I'm more like, omoh, you know, like just this cute little thing.
But anyway, it's almost come in real handy plenty of times. He has definitely saved the day once or twice. Yeah, I love that because we haven't fully gotten to Lion Turtle world yet. We haven't really taken that apart. But I don't even know if we would have thought to take it apart the way you just did. And I love it. Like I have a deeper respect now for the Lion Turtle than I even did before, which I didn't know it could. But like breaking down those qualities, like that's really great, you know, because I could talk about otter penguins forever. But what am I saying? I'm like, oh, cause you know they're cute exactly. They like to have fun, animals are big, heads are the best. It's great. Meanwhile, Lauren's like, I'd love to have the patience of the turtle. I'm like, oh no, I'd like to slide on my belly. Oh no, this is like I gotta dig a little deeper. No, I'm pretty shallow too, because I just like the way they look. Well, you managed to give that a lot of cred. If that's all it was, I'm very impressed.
Now another question we asked all our guests within the Avatar verse. But you know, you're actually in so many universes you can ship anybody anywhere. We talked about ships, which is relationships things that did happen that are cannon or a lot of fans out there like to do things out of cannon they wish would have happened.
Is there any characters that you ship?
So I like to keep things super wholesome. So I'm gonna say hug and Tough because I.
Actually shipped them too. You know. Yeah, I like that that that pairing.
You know, I'm a mom. I like things that are wholesome. What can I say? Oh, poor Judy, Poor Judy, she was in a tough.
Hopefully she wakes up, you know, she's like in the zombie land. Sometimes I was like, all these big things, I wonder what the figurative thing is Like, I was like, what is the figurative thing of like vampires, what zombies. I was like, Oh, that's what the zombie thing is is like us walking around not really.
Questioning the world, terrible aimlessly walking through life. That's yeah, guys, I'm so sorry to have to bring the room down. But the thing I just found when I went to Avatar the Avatar wiki. It was part of a ship of the week and it's called Jew squared. Jew squared is the ship between one Judy and another. Okay, there you go. Wow, asking you shall receive that is amazing. Well, we do know that our original Judy gets replaced with another Judy, who I suspect is also Lauren Tom's voice just slightly. You know, it's different, You're doing a different voice. We do have more than one Judy, so I get it. I wasn't expecting it, but I get it. Yeah, that's actually quite it's amazing. Well, each would understand what the other had been through. I'll tell you that that's a pretty cool. Ye are very very stressful, Okay, and also if you've had a chance to think about it at all, But there are a lot of really amazing kind of adversarial relationships in Avatar, and they change and morph with time, so the people who are enemies become allies and vice versa. And is there someone that you really like character and avatar that is kind of a big bad whether they stay that way or not, that you're attracted to in some way.
So I think for me, like the two characters that come to mine are Azula, you know, and Long Feng and and you know, z It does come around, but it's kind of like, I'm not a big fan of Kous, you know.
And they they.
Were so plotting and manipulative, and then you know, Long Feng was my immediate boss, and so I just kind of feel like I have a more personal like the against him.
So yeah, Clancy. Clancy has one of those voices where the second you hear his voice cannected with the character, you're like, uh oh, like there's something going on here. It doesn't mean that he's a villain but there, but he is someone I feel gets pulled in for complicated, really interesting, very smart characters who you're like, there's something here I need to pay attention to when you know ends.
The irony is is that Clancy Brown is a friend of mine and you could not like find another like right, he is an amazing person with so much integrity and intelligence and humor, and I just adore him and his family and uh, you know our kids. My little one just started in college and his daughter went to the same college, so you know, they they got connected and she was helping him through and in the transition.
Just he's just a great person.
And it is funny how many villains and bad guys' though.
I've worked with Clancy a few times, and every time he's in the booth, that's always.
Like he is intimidating. He's very physically he knows how to turn that on.
Physically tall, and his voice is physically intimidating.
Yeah, but then he's mister Crabs too, and you know really also lex les genius casting, such genius casting to be like and then mister Crabs. Yes, yes, I.
Mean you have so many friends within the Voice of a World and Avatar alumni like Clancy or Phil And I'm sure you guys are working on multiple shows at the same time. Do you keep it like when you're in different boots on different shows, where you like kind of keep it in ordering your brain.
I think we're all just as what's a relationship today.
We're just like try to live in the present, right, that's like the goal of being an actor to just kind of be in the moment where you are. But it takes us forever because those guys are always goofing around those.
The best days.
And yeah, it takes for because everyone's cracking up the whole time inside jokes and people being wild.
No, I can't remember because it's been so long ago. Did we record avatar like a radio play or one at a time.
As much as we can? Of course, you know, they trying to get in as much as I can, start working, everyone starts moving around a little bit. Yeah, yeah, okay, it's so much better when you can be together. But totally agree. Well, that's one of the things that's so great about Andrea Ramana. Was like, if you don't have the pleasure of getting to do that, you feel at least like Andrea is going to take me as close to that place as possible cast can't be there. She's really good at creating that same safe space, even if it's just a one on one you know, true, I agree. All right, we got to ask you the big question, the biggest bigs. Do you have a sense And I feel that you do, because you had such a great answer for why you love a lion turtle? Do you think you know what kind of elemental bender you would be? Every time I say bender to you, I feel like you're thinking about so it's like a whole different level of bender. Is bender? Bender is a metal bender? I guess, so he's probably an earth beender. Lauren, what kind of would you be?
So? I think again, because of me being a Leo, I would be a firebender.
However, having said that, nation why I took the.
Bus, However, you did the most people and it came out as an airbender soused me, So I'm not really sure.
Is that what it is?
Yeah? I just tried to answer the questions truthfully and that's what they spit out, so I could see that.
I don't know, maybe I could be both. When we talk about that too, we're always like, why does it have to be the avatar who can do all of them? Or just a type of bending where it's just one, Like, what about it? Exactly? If you are like right, right, I'd say perfectly articulated, we're going to say that you are both an airbender and a firebender. This is Laurence. This has been so lovely and wonderful. We adore you. We would love for you to tell people if there's something that should be checking out. I know we've talked about a lot of different projects. If there's anything current that you are really excited for people to check out, and you know where to follow you on social media if you're into that stuff.
Please, Oh, that would be wonderful. So you already mentioned a couple of them so well. Disenchantment is done now, but I loved being on that, and the Futurama episode should be airing I think early next year. And then Dragons and Nine Realms. I play the mother again.
Yeah.
My character's name is May Wong and that's really a ton of fun. And then I actually have an on screen movie coming out. I'm not sure what the date is, but maybe to just put it on people's radar that it's called One True Loves with an S at the end, Love by Taylor Jenkins Red. Yeah, she wrote Daisy and the Sixth She's a novelist and so this film it was based on her novel of the same title, and Dante You'll love this that it was written for white family in New England, right, and they cast the whole cast is Asian. Oh nice, and I never mention it.
I can't wait to see this, right, So.
It stars, it stars seem Live from Seang Chi, and then Philip Asu from Hamilton and she plays my daughter and Mikayla Conlin plays my other daughter. And then I'm married to a white guy, a Michael o'keith, who, yeah, he's a great actor. So uh, that was just such a joy to work on and it made me feel good in so many ways just about the diversity and the open thinking.
For them to even.
Consider that, for everyone to be open to that idea, it's kind of really cool.
We're in a new era filmmaking, which is great. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, Yeah, so that's that's it. Got it? Are you on social media? Can people follow you so they'll actually like find out exactly when one true Loves comes out?
So I'm the same address on both. I'm Lauren Tom nine thousand on Instagram and Twitter, and I don't really do Facebook or anything.
Lauren Tom nine thousand, Lauren Tom nine thousand.
And the reason it's nine thousand is because I put in Lauren Tom.
There was already one.
Then I put Lauren Tom one, Lauren Tom two, Lauren Tom three, and then when I got to four, like, oh my gosh, all of those addresses are taken already.
I'm just skipping to nine thousand.
Lauren goes from zero to nine thousand that quick, that's right, I.
Go from zero to nine thousand. That's fantastic. Well, thank you again so much for being with us. We'll let you see you resume your millions of projects. Super fun way, you're the best. Okay, Oh, thank you so much, guys, stay well, Thanks everybody, all right, everybody, thank you so much for listening to Avatar Raving the Elements, and hey, make sure to subscribe, follow, leave us a review. All of that really helps the podcast so much, and we love you guys.
Next week, we're recapping one of my favorite episodes of season two with one of my favorite people. We're talking the Tales About Say with Danielle Radford.
You can follow me on social media at the JV Club on Instagram and at Janet Varney.
On Twitter, and I'm at Dante Bosco on both of those.
We'll see you next Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,
