When Dante Basco appeared as Rufio, the charismatic leader of the Lost Boys, opposite Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman in 1991’s “Hook,” the 15-year old Filipino-American was already a Hollywood veteran. Basco and his three brothers had moved to Los Angeles five years earlier after a successful career as break-dancers in San Francisco.
He was 10 when they arrived in L.A. He got the first role he auditioned for and has worked steadily ever since as an actor, writer, producer and slam poet. Basco, 41, is also active in creating more opportunities for Asian-Americans in all parts of the film industry.
Basco was in Honolulu earlier this month to preside over a slam poetry event at Ward Village.
JOHN BERGER: How did you get involved in presenting slam poetry events?
DANTE BASCO: I started doing it over 20 years ago in my living room and it’s grown into Da Poetry Lounge in Los Angeles every Tuesday night. It’s something I didn’t start thinking it was going to last this long or have this much impact — especially in L.A. — and now it’s about new generations of writers and poets coming in.
JB: What stands out when you look back at working with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, and with Steven Spielberg directing?
DB: I was just old enough at 15 — as an actor who’d studied acting seriously since I was 10 — to know that I was in the presence of greatness. I would come to the set the days I wasn’t working just to sit there and to be a sponge and absorb what was going on.
JB: What was it like doing a scene with Robin Williams?
DB: When you do a scene with Robin, he’ll do the scene as scripted and then he’ll look at Steven to say, like, “One more.” So we’re going to do one off-script, and everyone’s like, “Buckle your seat belts.” So this is an improv take — on his side.
On my side, as a 15-year-old, young actor who’s trying to keep it together, well, you can try to improv with him, but his mind and his mouth go 100 miles an hour and you’re probably going to get bulldozed. What I’d do was let him act and then jump to the next line.
JB: Where are you with the Rufio origin movie?
DB: “Bangarang: The Hook Prequel” is on my YouTube channel. We Kickstarted it. We had 30 days to raise 30 grand; we raised 30 grand in 50 hours. J.V. Hart, the original creator of “Hook,” came on as a consultant, we let a kid from USC have all the toys he wanted (to direct it), and when you watch it, it has the essence of “Hook.”
We’re really tickled that a new generation of artists are so inspired by stuff that we did 25 years ago.
JB: What else interests you these days?
DB: I’m still pursuing the craft (of acting) but I’ve moved into writing poetry, moved into filmmaking, writing screenplays, producing, digital content, film content. I haven’t directed yet, but that’s kind of around the corner.
I’ve also written a play, “Midnight Makeout Session,” about my generation of guys in L.A., friends who are kind of disenchanted with the whole club scene and trying to get back to the romance of the first kiss through hip-hop and slow jams.
JB: What do you want to do long-term?
DB: Cultivate the next generation of artists, especially Asian-American dancers and actors. What we need to do as Asian-American creatives — actors, writers, filmmakers, singers — is create more product and take back the narrative of what it is to be Asian in America.
We need to tell our stories, our truth, our authenticity of what it meant for our parents to come here, for us to live here, for us to fall in love, for us to get our heart broken.
JB: When did you become aware of your importance as an Asian-American actor and filmmaker?
DB: When I started doing Q&A sessions at colleges, when you’re talking to students who did a report on you for their Asian studies class or you’re talking to kids at Comic-Con, or to adults my age going, “You’re the first pure Asian person we ever saw on film or television” — that changes your perspective on everything.
“On the Scene” appears weekly in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Sunday Magazine. Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.
