The Last Kids on Earth Season 3 Nick Wolfhard Interview

October 16, 2020 at 2:26pm
By Jason Stettner

Interview with Nick Wolfhard, Actor for (Jack Sullivan) on The Last Kids on Earth Season 3

A staple I do in all interviews in order to start things off is to ask that you elaborate a bit about your work, and this particular series for those not familiar with it?

Nick: So Last Kids on Earth is about a bunch of kids trying to survive in a trans-dimensional monster/ zombie apocalypse. I play Jack Sullivan who before all this happened was very much a loner and was bullied a lot in middle school (sorta like me in real life haha) so gathering all of these friends together has helped him through it by basically making a family, as well as becoming friends with other monsters like Skaelka (played by Catherine O Hara of Schitt's Creek) and Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Joker)

In The Last Kids on Earth you provide the voice for Jack Sullivan, could you tell us a bit about the character and where he’s at as of the start of season 3?

Nick: At the start of season 3 everything is really going Jack's way, they have an awesome new tree house location next to Joe's Pizza where all the good monsters hang out, and are just having fun being a family. The issue for him is that the villain teased in the last season, Rezzoch (played by Rosario Dawson) is trying to possess Jack, or at the very least be a way for her to be a fly on the wall for her.

On top of that, his friends have discovered a radio that sends a transmission telling them that they are looking for survivors, so Jack definitely has a lot on his plate this season. Being betrayed so badly last season, being worried about being left along again, and not being able to tell anyone about his issue with Rezzoch, its a lot for a kid to say the least, it's a lot for anyone.

When preparing for this character, was there any reference material you were given or any general direction for inspiration of what this individual would be like?

Nick: Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China was a big inspiration for my way of performing as Jack, it was actually on the audition sheet and I watched it as "homework", fantastic movie. Besides that, maybe some of my young school self in there, don't know which though, all I know is that I was very hyperactive.

What’s it like to see your voice attached to an animated character? I imagine it’s somewhat of a different experience in comparison to seeing one’s self in say a live action sort of way.

Nick: As a little kid I wanted to be a cartoon character so the next best thing is actually voicing one, I completely forgot about that until around middle school when I started taking Voice Over classes and watched an animal called Gurren Lagann, which is all about achieving your goals and throwing logic to the side and just going for it. So to answer your question, it’s a dream come true to my childhood self.

This show has a seriously stacked cast behind it, have you met any of the other talent personally and do you perhaps have any fun stories to share about doing so?

Nick: I unfortunately don't have any stories about meeting the cast as I haven't met them, which is funny because I've been in more than one project with Mark Hamill and Catherine O Hara is Canadian.

Since this is the third season, there have been a number of wild moments. Do you have a particularly favourite scene that you worked on?

Nick: Pretty much the entirety of the first book was surreal to record and super fun, and having to keep coming back to improv the "June Del Toro is alive" song was fun too.

Looking at your character’s perspective in this third season, what would you say are his biggest challenges this time around?

Nick: I think by far Jack's biggest worries this season are internal stress and anxiety, I mean who wouldn't be worried about a trans-dimensional being possibly possessing you? On top of that, all of your friends leaving you after your foster family left, and your father figure betraying you. I don't necessarily relate to the reasons of Jack's stress and worries, but I definitely have felt like that before.

What’s it like in general to do voice acting? Are there any challenges you have to deal with and do you have any special ritual to get into the mindset of the character you’re voicing?

Nick: Voice acting is extremely fun because you are in a booth, can where what you want (to an extent of course) and can just go and play with your other cast members, even then its still super fun to record solo. The only challenge I'd say I have occasionly is doing a four hour scream session, but that's a challenge for most voice actors (just ask co-star Brian Drummond who plays Rover, he was also the original English voice of Vegeta in DragonBall Z).

Any time I go in before a voice over session I do 3 different vocal warm up beforehand. One going "hmmm" another is "bubububu" and the last is "zzzzzz" I do each for as long as possible before running out of breath, and that always helps warm my voice up (it can even help recover my voice a bit surprisingly enough)

For a more fun question, what’s a type of monster you’d like to see pop up in the show that we haven’t seen before?

Nick: I'd love to see a Sun Wukong type monster that helps the gang out, I think that would be really cool.

Lastly I would like to leave a spot for you to say something or go over anything I might have missed during the interview?

Nick: I'm currently set to work on a new animated series called New Gen with my brother Finn and Anya Charlotra, its based on the Marvel comic, if you wanna know more about it, please go out and buy it!

Other than that, I recently contributed my voice to an animated pilot called Smiling Friends, which is available on Adult Swim's website. Last Kids on Earth Book 3 releases October 16th, and we also have a few other things coming out relating to the series, but that will have to wait for another time.

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