Quotes from Dante Basco

The actor's life isn't for everyone, but it has been extremely rewarding to me.

I grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood, Paramount, California, outside of L.A., like near Compton, that's where I'm from.

I didn't have the regular high school experience. My experiences were on sets.

Back In 1982, I started in show business with my brothers. We started a break dancing group.

The first time I walked onto the set of Neverland, it was like walking into another world. They built the sets extra strong, so we were allowed to play on them when we weren't filming. It was cool!

A lot of times as an actor you watch a film it's like thumbing through a photo book from your past. It's people you haven't seen in a while, there are people that have passed away, and there are people you owe phone calls to.

I'm a poet, first and foremost as a writer. That's who I am. That's what I'm most comfortable writing.

It's not always enjoyable to go back and look at things in your life. Things that you're not proud of, you definitely don't want to confront; dark times that you've already gotten over.

My grandfather was a survivor of the Death March and his war buddies were among our neighbors. Where we lived in San Francisco, there was a cultural center where the Filipinos congregate to have parties and to celebrate Bataan Day.

Depictions of race have changed so much since, like, the '50s, where white people just played every race. But the pendulum swings both ways: I'm Filipino-American. If I had to wait for a Filipino role to come out to get work, I couldn't eat. There are barely any roles out there.

It's weird because I grew up in this town, so the things I really dug, I was constantly around them. Like Alyssa Milano - I had the biggest crush on her from TV, but I also saw her around town at parties. It's just funny.

When preparing for auditions, I have no rituals. I just try to be as prepared as possible.

I was 15 when I did Rufio and now I've been Rufio for more of my life than I haven't been. Wrestling with that is always interesting because you don't want to be fully defined by it, but at the same time it's you, and you don't want to be ashamed of you either.

The most fascinating thing for me is that 'Peter Pan' is a fairy tale, but now, this Filipino kid is a part of the folklore. Can you imagine telling the story of 'Sleeping Beauty' or 'Cinderella,' and all of a sudden there's a Filipino kid in there after all these years?

I had a different agent after 'Hook,' and they were, like, 'We don't know where to go with you. It's like you've already gone to the top of what's out there for a young Asian actor.' No one had done anything higher profile than that. And I'm, like, 'OK, but I'm only 15.'

I came up in the '80s and '90s - there was no engagement with the fan base.

The crazy thing about 'Hook' was it was one of the movies in town that everybody knew about. It was the biggest film shooting in Hollywood at the time and the idea of Robin Williams playing Peter Pan really captured everybody's imagination.

You have to understand, when you're 15 and you're doing this Steven Spielberg movie with megastars - Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts - you know you want to be cool. I don't know how cool I'm going to look with my belly button out!

I got to see this big crazy wild man Robin Williams on the set, and got to act with him in that sense. And then I got to just have really quiet time with him in the trailer, where he's way more soft-spoken, way more introspective.

Everything you want Robin Williams to be, he delivered in spades.

My brothers and I came to L.A. as break-dancers when I was about 10, and by the time I was 15, I was working on this really big movie, with Steven Spielberg and Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams.

But being Asian American, a lot of Asian American guys come up to me who are in interracial relationships and they tell me, 'Growing up my partner had a big crush on you and so you're probably one of the reasons why she married me, so thank you.'

As far as geek culture, I didn't grow up in the comic con geek culture lane, then I started doing Comic Cons seeing the impact of it. The character, Rufio living on.

My first professional acting role was a small part in a television series called 'The Wizard.' I later had the opportunity to work on Michael Jackson's Moon-walker music video.