Seth Green

Everything a Kid Could Want

[ Seth Green: Man of Action Figures ] When your dad is Dr. Evil, your stepmother is an alien and your sidekicks include a talking dog that drinks martinis and a bunny puppet with low self-esteem, it’s easy to see why actor Seth Green has a soft spot for a saga featuring unusual creatures, sassy droids and a short, green Jedi Master.

Anyone who’s watched movies and TV shows in the last 24 years will know Green from the memorable characters he’s played since the acting bug bit him at age six with a summer camp production of Hello Dolly. At eight, Green landed his first film assignment; a co-starring role in Hotel New Hampshire with Jodie Foster. And at 12, Green landed a leading role in Woody Allen’s Radio Days. His acting credits steadily grew with roles in such films as Can’t Buy Me Love, My Stepmother is an Alien, Pump Up the Volume, It, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, Can’t Hardly Wait, Josie and the Pussycats, America’s Sweethearts, Rat Race, Knockaround Guys, Party Monster, The Italian Job, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and Without a Paddle. Most notably, Green impressed fans with his ongoing role as Dr. Evil’s son Scott in the Austin Powers movies.

"Robot Chicken" Season One DVD will be released on March 28.

Season 2 premieres April 2 on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim at 11:30 PM. When he wasn’t on the big screen, Green made a steady stream of guest appearances on such TV shows as "The Wonder Years," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Mad About You," "The Drew Carey Show," "The X-Files," "That ’70s Show," and "Will & Grace." Green soon became a fan favorite starring in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as Daniel "Oz" Osborne — an indie rocker high school student by day and a teenage werewolf by night. Green also starred as one of the few human characters in the puppet comedy "Greg the Bunny." Most recently Green can be seen starring in NBC’s "Four Kings." Green also lent his voice to such shows as "Batman: The Animated Series," "Crank Yankers," and currently as Chris Griffin in the animated show that refuses to be cancelled — "Family Guy." Green and Matthew Senreich are also co-exec producing/directing/writing (with Green doing 35-60 voices each week) the hysterically funny stop-motion animated show, "Robot Chicken" on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (Season One DVD available on March 28).

And if that wasn’t enough, Green, with his childhood friend Hugh Sterbakov, created the comic book Freshmen for Top Cow Productions, which debuted, and sold out the first day of, the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con International, as well as selling out across the country the week of its debut. The complete collection of Freshmen debuts this April.

Green’s first memory of being whisked to a galaxy far, far away happened not to long before he became a child actor. "I remember vividly being a four-year-old kid and being taken to the movie theater in 1978 and seeing all the desert scenes for Tatooine, and then I saw C-3PO and Artoo and thinking they were the most amazing things I’d ever seen," Green says. "I was so excited that there were toys of them so I could carry them in my pocket wherever I went. A New Hope was the first one I’d seen and of course I had never seen anything like that before. And when I saw The Empire Strikes Back, I was in for good."

"It was amazing storytelling, and it’s a great movie that still holds up today," Green continues. "And it made me love everything about it. I just didn’t connect with other kinds of movies like I did with Star Wars. Here was this fantastic adventure with all these aliens — and not to mention the spaceships, and fighting with electric swords — which are all the things a boy loves. Plus the film has good guys having to do crazy stuff to resist an ultimate evil. It’s all really fun and appealing especially when you’re a kid."

The films alone weren’t the only muse for Green’s young imagination. "I was totally the kind of kid who played with Star Wars toys. In fact, the way I learned all the names of the different characters happened by playing with the toys. That’s why I know the characters that aren’t even mentioned in the movies. The first toys that I got were R2-D2 and C-3PO, but I was super excited when I got my Boba Fett in the mail; then being really confused and furious when I got that letter that his rocket pack didn’t fire because some kid shot himself in the face, though it wasn’t exactly worded that way. I was so mad. At first, I thought it I was the only one who got that letter, so I called all my friends to complain about it."

"I think the original Boba Fett that I got as a kid is still my favorite," Green smiles. "I mean there were like six different versions of him that came out on different cards, but the very first one from the mail away was special. I still have one of those and I love it. I have a whole shelf of stuff that people can play with — it’s not all mint in the box like a museum or anything. I feel like toys are meant to be played with. I scope out other people’s toy shelves too. You’re supposed to do that in strangers’ houses, right?"

Even though the bounty hunter is Green’s pride and joy item, he does admit that other comic book and film characters caught his eye when he was a kid. "Star Wars was the bulk of my collection and then I got into the G.I. Joe line which was awesome to have something of compatible scale with my other action figures, so they all interacted," Green says. "My friends and I had really vivid imaginations and we would let a character be something other than it was, and make your own adventure."

Creating elaborate, and hilarious, storylines for his action figure adventures didn’t end with Green’s childhood. In his Cartoon Network show on Adult Swim, "Robot Chicken" (Season One available on March 28), Green and his fellow collaborator Matthew Senreich use stop-motion animation of various action figures in comedy skits that spoof movies, TV, music, and celebrities.

"All the stuff I grew up watching like Star Wars led to making my show ’Robot Chicken’ which is essentially our take on pop culture," Green explains. "Just the jokes we make at its expense — kind of the ironies and inconsistencies and compatibilities of properties is what our show is all about. We like to poke fun at the same things we take so seriously."

[ Seth Green: Man of Action Figures ] "Robot Chicken" isn’t the only show Green has been a part of that likes to pay hilarious tributes to the Force. "Star Wars is so iconic regardless if you’ve seen it or like it, you recognize these images — they’re ubiquitous," Green explains. "There’s nothing quite like Star Wars so it’s easy to see why it’s referenced so much in pop culture. ’Family Guy’ did a great bit with Luke performing laser eye surgery [in the episode ’When You Wish Upon a Weinstein’]. But my favorite reference — just because it was so faithful — was when we ended an episode of ’Family Guy’ with the medal ceremony from A New Hope [in the episode ’Blind Ambition’]. And then had the credit sequence over the music, so I got to see my name with the Star Wars music, which was awesome! I think it’s fairly obvious that ’Family Guy’ has a writers room full of big Star Wars fans."

When filmmaker George Lucas began preparation to film the Star Wars prequels, Green jumped at any chance to drop off his resume. "I’ll admit, when the prequels were casting I put calls in like crazy," Green says. "But the simple fact of the matter is they were filming in Australia and you have to hire a certain amount of Australian cast and crew to get the tax discounts. So there were only like six roles available. And I’m not Ewan McGregor or Hayden Christensen. I would have loved to do it, but it just wasn’t in the cards for me then. But if I were cast in a sci-fi film, I’d do ya proud."

Though he never got to pick up a lightsaber, Green says that he was just as thrilled to attend all three of the special MTV celebrity screenings of the prequels at Skywalker Ranch, with Lucas in attendance. It was at these events that Green found himself in awe with the influential filmmaker.

"One of these days I’d like to sit down and have a real long chat with George Lucas," Green says. "When I first met him I couldn’t help but think over and over about how iconic he is. It took a couple of times meeting him before I realized that he’s just a guy who likes to make movies the same way that Steven Spielberg, or any of these other super-famous directors. He comes up with a cool idea, sits down and writes it, and makes a movie. But because Star Wars has taken on such a life on its own, it’s become a culture in itself. People have Star Wars-themed weddings, and the fantasy of it becomes a part of their lives. That’s got to be crazy for him to acknowledge as a guy who just likes to make fun movies. I’ve seen real fanatics approach him with tattoos of the characters on them, and I wonder how does one even respond to that kind of intense love for the films? He wasn’t even consciously trying to be a pop culture phenomenon."

"Now I think he is having fun with it all," Green continues. "I watched him during the premiere screenings at Skywalker for all of the prequels and it was neat to see him come out of his shell. During the premiere of Episode I you could tell there was a lot of pressure with him taking all this on again, but between Episode II and III, his demeanor changed so much. He was really relaxed the last time I talked to him and we had a great, casual interaction. I remember asking him how crazy his press junket was, and we bonded over that as film professionals. I imagine it takes people a while to get past what he represents and just chat with him like a real person."

During the MTV TRL screening for Revenge of the Sith, Green had a chance to live out a fan’s dream by getting rare look inside the prop archives at Skywalker Ranch, with Lucas at his side. "When I came up for the MTV TRL event for the Episode III screening at Skywalker, I got to go on a tour of the archives with George and some other celebrities," Green recalls. "I was asked if I wanted to ask George some questions on the tour, and it was great because I got to wander around with him and we tried to have fun with it, and not make it super geeky but really focus on the filmmaking process. I was just excited to have a chat with him in this room of all this stuff he helped create."

"He did try to mess with me when we first started the tour though," Green laughs. "When we started there was a giant statue of Chewbacca and there are a couple of props like Darth Vader’s helmet. He brought me over to the helmet which was enormous, and put it on my head. Then he told me to stand on the platform with Chewbacca so that the Wookiee’s arms are around my chest. I jokingly suggested that Chewie and I should take a prom picture because that’s exactly what it looked like. And as he was adjusting this huge helmet on my head, I said, ’You’re making me look like Rick Moranis in Spaceballs.’"

[ Seth Green: Man of Action Figures ] In addition to the tour, Green was excited to finally see the final film of the saga, with Lucas in the audience. "You really can’t have a more perfect place to see Revenge of the Sith than at Skywalker Ranch," Green says. "Episode III was amazing! I really loved it the way George tied everything together; it was one of his best-directed films. I love that he did not make the film soft, because after all it is a super-dark, violent, heartbreaking story. And he didn’t waver in presenting it in that way. He made it hard and scary and it was believable."

As a fan of the saga, Green says he understands why Lucas wanted to not only be faithful to the adults who grew up with images of Darth Vader, but also to appeal to the next generation of young kids who still crave sense of wonderment and adventure in films and books. "I think it’s so important for fantasy films like Star Wars to exist because it just makes you think in a direction that you don’t typically get to," Green explains. "It’s the same reason I encourage kids to read. I read so much when I was a little kid especially big, outrageous, lofty fantasy novels. It made me more imaginative and less limited. And movies like that are inspiring. They give kids a sense of wonder which is really important."

[ Seth Green: Man of Action Figures ] Some of that imagination and inspiration could have helped as a child, when he was saddled one memorable Halloween with a poorly-attempted Star Wars costume. "I still have pictures somewhere of me dressed up as Yoda for Halloween," Green laughs. "My mom made a horrible Yoda costume. I was painted green and she folded paper plates together and stuffed them with cotton and painted them green as well. I even asked for treats in Yoda’s voice. Apparently, I got beat up a little bit. Those kids just didn’t appreciate Jedi Masters."

As a kid, Green’s appreciation fell more to the characters who inhabited the gray side between good and evil. "I always had a fascination with Boba Fett because he’s such an intriguing character. One of these days I want to have a chat with Jeremy Bulloch and ask him about how his small five-line role as been turned into a lifestyle," says Green. "But to tell you the truth, I feel like I can relate more to Lando the most because he’s always under a lot of pressure to do the right thing and sometimes he makes mistakes. Plus he’s good with the ladies which is hard to pull off with that cape."

Cape or no cape, Green is proud to admit he’s a diehard Star Wars fan. "It’s easy to call myself a fan because it’s great stuff to watch," Green says. "You can’t debate quality. Everybody who’s into it just knows that it’s good and there’s no shame in calling yourself a fan. It would take a lot for Star Wars to stop being cool to me."

To get more information about the DVD release of "Robot Chicken," visit the official site here. Look for new episodes with the premiere of Season 2 starting April 2 on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim at 11:30 PM. Be sure to catch Green in the upcoming indie film The Best Man.

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