The latest film in the My Hero Academia franchise is now in theaters. My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission features a familiar cast dealing with a new crisis and going up against the evil Flect Turn.
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First off, David, Shoto kind of plays a bigger role in this movie than he has in the last two. Was there anything about this experience, in particular, that was different from the last two in your performance?
David Matranga: I said this before, but the thing that sticks out for me the most is that there’s an underlying confidence there in working with the others. There seems to be less doubt in himself and more belief in his power, in his strategic ability as well. But also an openness to work with everyone else. I was struck by a couple of the scenes where they’re strategizing, trying to figure out what to do next, and you know everybody has something to say, and they all really listen to each other. Even if it’s done within the realm of their personalities, and the way they operate in the world. I thought there was freedom there that you don’t always see, or that we haven’t seen yet. It’s exciting.
Going to Patrick, one of the big arcs of Season 5, of course, was the Todoroki family, and the emotion wrapped up there. With that in mind, going into this movie, was there anything about that, in particular, that affected your performance?
Patrick Seitz: I mean even when it’s not germane to what’s going on specifically in the scene, I feel like when you’ve already hit those moments and done that work it’s always going to be in the background informing what they’re doing. I feel like even though the scope of this movie’s plot being global enough that they’re not in the same place a bunch, it’s like life.
You’re going through doing what you’re doing, and even if you’re not around the people that are important to you, the experiences you’ve had are in the back of your mind percolating. It’s in the background being worked on, being shaped, being refined, sometimes being degraded when you take a step back. I’m sure it feels very artsy-fartsy to word it like this, but even though there’s not a lot of face-to-face with them I think all of the stuff they’ve been doing and a lot of those notes they’ve been hitting in season 5, are stuff that they’ve just got in their pocket as they’re going on.
Over the years Endeavor has been one of the more contentious characters in the series in terms of his morality and how people are supposed to feel about him. Is there anything in this movie that you think pushes his personality forward, or how fans are supposed to feel about him?
Seitz: I think the moments you see with him they’re cool moments, they’re fun moments, they’re spectacle in the best sense of the word. But if you have watched the show and taken that journey with him, I think that they also hit different. I think that he’s definitely a character where looking at what motivates the things he does is also very important, it’s not just results-based. Now you look at the things he’s doing and you’re like “He really is trying to be that simple, he’s trying to be bigger than himself.” It’s not about the rankings or the tally, it’s about what is going to be best for people, and not what’s going to be best for Endeavor’s ego. That’s a fun and gratifying voice to bring to the Endeavor chorus, as it were.
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Going back to David, Shoto is a lot “cooler” than he used to be in the past. He’s developed into a cooler kind of character, but he still has that dense, deadpan kind of humor. How have you gone about maturing the character, while still trying to keep that humor intact?
Matranga: That’s a great question. I think we see him mature mostly from the fact that he’s willing to be more open with his communication. If you look at Season 1 and 2 he was really close to the vest. He didn’t really give much of his opinion, and he was really at times cocky in terms of his ability. The best way that works as far as the deadpan and the humor, is that I don’t ever think of it as humor. I can’t play to it that way. I think of it as really a true earnestness, and an innocence. You know, when you go through trauma of any kind you tend to go inside yourself, and you have a different relationship with yourself than if you hadn’t gone through something like that. He really does have a true earnestness to him, he doesn’t always get the nuance or the social cues in that way. So I have to play that completely innocent and earnest, and that’s how I find it. I have to remember to stay in that, I have to remember that he’s not commenting on it, he’s not winking at it, he’s not lifting it up for anybody, it’s just a true honest earnestness. And it ends up being pretty funny.
In this new movie, are there any moments that stand out, as one of Shoto’s big moments?
Matranga: Without giving anything away, some of the fight stuff I really enjoyed doing. I think that you see him really grab hold of his power. But I also was really shocked by how he takes a support role, he really was a team player in bolstering Midoriya and Bakugo, but he also takes a leadership role too. Some of the fights and some of the strategy scenes I thought were pretty exciting.
