GeekDad Interviews Scott Adsit at DragonCon

Scott Adsit, best known for 30 Rock and being the voice of Baymax in Big Hero 6, was kind enough to set aside some time for an interview during DragonCon 2015.

GeekDad:: How are you doing?
Adsit:: I’m good. I’m swampy and nobody knows how to direct anyone to get to anywhere. It took me 15 minutes to get here because they sent me 5 different places. But here I am!
GeekDad:: Is this your first DragonCon?
Adsit:: I was here 5 years ago. I like it.
GeekDad:: Is it a lot crazier now? This is my first time, and it’s pretty crazy for me.
Adsit:: No, this is par for the course as far as I know. It gets really crazy at night. Have you been here overnight yet?
GeekDad:: Yeah, I was here until about 1 last night, and it got pretty crazy.
Adsit:: Yeah, I think it’s fun.
GeekDad:: How much do you get to walk around?
Adsit:: Less and less. I go to conventions on my own anyway, but now I have some celebrity and it makes it a lot slower.
GeekDad:: Do you ever think about doing a mask or anything?
Adsit:: That would make it much worse. I feel swampy now and that would make it… I don’t like sweat dripping down my eyes.
GeekDad:: Did you know that you wanted to get involved in animation? I know you did the Adult Swim stuff but was that something you’d always wanted to do?
Adsit:: I had done stop motion with my dad’s Super 8 camera when I was a kid. I did big LEGO Star Wars battles and things like that when there were no Star Wars kits. A friend and I, he was a real film maker back in junior high. He had built a star field. He built an optical printer for Super 8 in his basement. So we had a little cottage industry of film making going on and a lot of it was animation. I didn’t get to work, for money, on animation until Dino (Stamatopoulos) invited me into Moral Orel.
GeekDad:: So it sounds like you’ve been a geek for a long time. What would you say is the thing you’re the most geeky about?
Adsit:: Doctor Who. Pretty far and away but also comics. I’m not as well versed as I used to be though. I think you reach a certain age and you just go, “It’s not my comic anymore. This is not my Superman.” I’ve got a breadth of knowledge of Marvel Comics before a certain date which would be like end of the ’90s or something. I’m still very much a geek about that. I still love really well-written comics and well-drawn comics. I have a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sketchbook, I have four of them actually, and the top artists in the industry are in there, and it’s exciting for me still. I’m upset now because I don’t have those books with me because they are all out with artists who have had them for almost a year. Make me a priority. I still geek out about comics and art and Doctor Who a lot.
GeekDad:: Are there any comics you read sort of regularly right now?
Adsit:: Deadpool. It’s not the only reason, but I’m a character in it. There’s a character named Agent Scott Adsit, so while I feel obligated to read it, it’s also a real pleasure to read it. I like Hawkeye right now. I like Mark Waid’s work right now. I’m trying to stay interested in Battleworld but it’s too big. I can’t get a grasp of it, and I didn’t follow the Ultimate universe, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on there. It’s beautiful to look at, but I’m not sure what’s going on.
GeekDad:: I think it’s one of those things like you were saying, as you get older. When I was younger, I would follow all the “big things,” and now I just don’t have the energy. It’s just too much.
Adsit:: And there’s a big thing every two months. Hickman is a great writer, there’s no doubt, but I think his editor expects us to have some knowledge about everything that came before. Are you reading that?
GeekDad:: No, it’s just too much.
Adsit:: I’ve read every core book and I don’t understand. I heard that the Peter Parker thing where he’s got a kid is really good, and I read that and it is really good, but I don’t understand how it fits into Battleworld. Is this getting too geeky?
GeekDad:: No! Not at all!
Adsit:: How does it fit into Battleworld? Are they aware that they’re now part of a different Earth? Because they’re just living in New York. But there’s no England anymore. There’s no Mexico. There’s just Manhattan which is an island landlocked in the middle of like an Africa continent. Do they know that?
GeekDad:: (laughs) I don’t know.
Adsit:: They’re just living their care-free lives worried about the rent. And the universe is gone.
GeekDad:: I have a Marvel Unlimited subscription so I don’t get to read anything until six months later.
Adsit:: Ah, I see.
GeekDad:: It’s nice because you pay for a year and it’s all you can read, but you just have to wait six months.
Adsit:: And then you can binge read.
GeekDad:: Speaking of Deadpool, are you excited about the movie?
Adsit:: Yeah, I think it’s Ryan Reynolds’ big chance to redeem himself. And I’m sure he will. My friend TJ from Big Hero 6 is in it, so I’m excited to see it.
GeekDad:: It looks pretty awesome. Since Disney keeps making live-action versions of everything, if they did a live-action Big Hero 6 would you want to play Baymax?
Adsit:: If I don’t want to put on a mask walking around here…
GeekDad:: Maybe they’ll do motion capture.
Adsit:: That would be fun! I can do that. I did a panel yesterday, it was just me, for Big Hero 6 and somebody came in a Baymax costume. It was inflatable and had a fan inside. She waddled up to the mic and said in a little tiny voice, “My question is would you like to get into the suit?” And I said, “Hell, yeah, I want to get into the suit.” So I did the rest of the panel in that suit, in character and out. It was really great.