Return to the Robert Rodriguez universe of kid action films with We Can Be Heroes.
An Alien invasion kidnaps the world’s superheroes leaving it’s fate in the hands of their children. In order to save everyone they love and their galaxy, these kids rise to the occasion to the team of heroes the world needs in We Can Be Heroes..
This winter watch the battle unfold on Netflix in this family feature starring a mega star studded cast. YaYa Gosselin and Pedro Pascal lead the film with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Christian Slater, Boyd Holbrook, Christopher McDonald and Adriana Barraza.
With an ensemble that includes: Vivien Lyra Blair, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Akira Akbar, Lyon Daniels, Nathan Blair, Lotus Blossom, Hala Finley, Andy Walken, Dylan Henry Lau, Andrew Diaz, Taylor Dooley, Sung Kang, Haley Reinhart, J. Quinton Johnson, Brittany Perry-Russell, Brently Heilbron and JJ Dashnaw.
And of course, written and directed by Spy Kids and Shark Boy and Lava Girl’s Robert Rodriguez jumping back into his family-friendly fare.
That’s It LA recently chatted via Zoom in a roundtable with two of the film’s younger heroines. YaYa Gosselin plays Missy Moreno (the daughter of Pedro Pascal’s superhero leader Marcus Moreno) and Vivien Lyra Blair who plays Guppy (Shark Boy and Lava Girl’s daughter). The duo talked about their excitement for the film’s release, how they hope the film will inspire, and working with the cast.
Question: Yaya can you talk about establishing the father-daughter relationshipwith Pedro Pascal? That’s basically being almost related to Baby Yoda!
YaYa Gosselin: All my gosh, yes. It was honestly so cool, I mean, to have Mando as your dad is honestly so incredibly cool, and I had not known that he was The Mandalorian yet because Mandalorian had not been out, and then when I was like,
“Wait that’s Pedro oh my gosh!”
And then I cannot wait to work with him again so that I can tell him how amazing he is in the Mandalorian and he is so fun to be around and he so funny, and there was this time where it was just us filming all of our scenes for like three days in a row just me, Pedro and Robert and that was probably some of my favorite moments from set just working with them.
Q: Your characters are so confident. What advice do you have for other young girls, and this is for both of you.
Vivien Lyra Blair: I think being confident, the key to being confident is imagination because to be confident, you have to be able to imagine the good things in life. So you have to imagine what could go right, not what could go wrong, so if you are scared to do something like act it’s a really scary thing then I think you just imagine what the rewards could be, don’t imagine the risks, the rewards.
YaYa Gosselin: And I think that especially for girls my age I think that the most important thing is that you know Missy plays a character who doesn’t have those big cool superpowers, and you know when I first got the role I was like man, I don’t have any superpowers, but then I realized that I have one of the most important superpowers of them all and that is leadership and teamwork, and you know that’s a really, really hard power to have and I think it’s really great that it’s not just some you know make-believe power, but it’s a power that you can actually have in real life. And I really want to show young girls my age that you can be the hero of your own story and it doesn’t take that much to have a superpower.
Q: Can you talk about maybe an experience or activity you did together to build that teamwork?
YaYa Gosselin: Yes, so many experiences. You know what we would do with Stranger Things season three came out that summer and so we had a watch party downstairs at the hotel that we were staying at and so I had never watched Stranger Things because as I said before, I am a huge chicken and so Andy who plays Wheels and Nathan who plays Wildcard forced me to watch Stranger Things one and two in two weeks which was pretty terrifying. And so what they would do is they would hide theblankets and pillows in my hotel room so that I couldn’t cover my eyes. I just remember so many funny moments of us watching that together and them like being Yaya get it together this is important to the plot, and so I feel like that’s really how we bonded and became best friends.
Vivien Lyra Blair: I can remember being around the same thing like no, this is too scary. I don’t like it. I don’t like exploding rats, no.
Q: What were your favorite part of your costumes for both of you?
Vivien Lyra Blair: Mine was probably the rainbow necklace that Guppy wears. That was like really awesome. I got to wear it every day, and it was really pretty. I liked it.
YaYa Gosselin: My favorite part of my costume was probably my Missy bracelet. That bracelet was just honestly the coolest, and I begged props to let me keep it, but they wouldn’t let me keep it; but I will say the most annoying part of my costume was the other little bracelets on my hand because they would always break and I would be like hey I broke another one of like it’s okay we have 100 of these and the next day I’d be like I broke another one. So that the bracelet was my favorite part of the costume, but the other bracelets were not my favorite part of the costume.
Q: What are your similarities to your superhero?
YaYa Gosselin: I think my similarities are I think Missy is, you know, an incredible leader, but I don’t think she knows that yet so I think it’s very special that she really finds her place throughout the movie and I think while I was filming it was tough because it was 11 kids and I tried to like you know to be the leader and have an example, and it was kind of hard, so I felt like I really did step into those leadership kind of shoes and I think that is what was kind of similar for me and my character.
Vivien Lyra Blair: I think that my tae kwon do and stuff my strength and also just Guppy is the tiniest, and so she always feels like all of these kids are so much older than her, and I feel like being able to see that she might as well be the strongest one in the group even though she’s the littlest really makes me feel good that power comes in all sizes as Yaya said earlier.
We Can Be Heroes drops on Netflix Christmas Day December 25th!
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