WalkerScobellIsReadyfortheNextChapter

From filming Percy Jackson at 13 to working as a lifeguard this summer, Walker Scobell opens up about growing up on screen, finding normality away from Hollywood and the roles he hopes will challenge him next.

 

WORDS Melvin Boateng

 

Few actors have led a multimillion-dollar franchise, and even fewer have done it at the age of 13. Walker Scobell, now 17, has done exactly that as the titular role in Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and he’s only at the start.

 

Walker is humble and ambitious when we speak over Zoom. Despite an already successful career before adulthood, he still wants to grow and improve. “I just want to be challenged all the time,” Walker says. The young actor talks with IMAGINE about the upcoming third season, balancing school with his acting career and his hopes for the future. Still, he values keeping a sense of normality, saying his family and friends come first. Hollywood hasn’t fazed him yet.

 

Melvin Boateng: You were 13 when you were cast as Percy and you’re 17 now. How has growing up alongside a similarly aged character changed the way you understand him?

 

Walker Scobell: I think it gave me a good starting point for when I graduate and officially become an adult, because I’ve had years of working whilst at school. It’s also made me a lot more confident, because when you’re at school it starts to feel like that’s everything – it becomes your whole life. So you start to live and act the way you want to be perceived by your classmates. However, I feel like getting to do this job and film in all these different places with all these amazing people, some closer to my age and some a lot older than me, that’s real life. So it’s really nice getting to live that life then come back to school and realise Oh, this isn’t everything.

 

MB: How do you stay grounded and balance being a normal teenager while living this crazy life in the public eye?

 

WS: It’s really helpful that I’m actually going to school. It makes a big difference to talk to people your own age. My dad always uses the scene from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are fighting Darth Maul and the laser shields go up. Maul paces back and forth, waiting for the opening, and Qui-Gon realises they can’t do anything, so he meditates. The point is he just focuses on what he can do. That’s really important, because it’s easy to start thinking about all the things you could be doing. I think you need that base of going to school and finishing it, because I would totally regret it if I didn’t. It shows in your performance, too. You get better as an actor the more you grow as a person, and the way you grow most is by doing real things.

 

“It’s really helpful that I’m actually going to school. It makes a big difference to talk to people your own age… You get better as an actor the more you grow as a person, and the way you grow most is by doing real things.”

 

MB: What are some of the things you do on your time off, away from acting?

 

WS: This summer, I had the chance to work as a lifeguard with my siblings at the pool we grew up going to, which was really cool. It got really tiring at times, but that’s good for me, and I’d like to keep taking jobs like that. I ended up swimming a lot, and I helped teach the kids some lessons too. However, I never had to save anyone, which is probably a good thing! Just lot’s of, “Stop running by the pool!”

 

It’s good to have a normal job like that, and it was the perfect quality time with my siblings. My sister just went to college, and this is my last year of studying, which means it’s the last year I can drive my little brother to school, so it was nice to work with them.

 

MB: You’re still very young but looking forward ten years, what kind of actor do you hope to be?

 

WS: I don’t think I ever want to do a project that doesn’t challenge me. Tom Cruise inspires me a lot, because looking back at his career, I love the choices he has made. He’s just amazing in Magnolia. Then you have Days of Thunder, with its awesome race car driving, and Mission Impossible, with its massive stunts, plus Edge of Tomorrow and Oblivion, or Jerry Maguire, which I love. I just love the choices he makes as an actor, to continually push himself in different genres and abilities.

 

MB: Do you see yourself taking on completely different roles like in a horror film or a sitcom?

 

WS: It’s hard to pin down the exact type of project but I would love to do action films. But more than anything, I want to pace myself. Let’s say Percy Jackson ends after season three, four, or five. I don’t want to be the guy who thinks, “I’m 18 now, let’s do as many projects as I can.” I don’t want to be the guy who’s been everywhere, I don’t want to oversaturate myself. I saw an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio where they asked why he hasn’t starred in more movies, and he said he could have, but “You have to make people want to see you”. I think that’s really interesting because you can’t force it – it just has to be right.

 

MB: How do you feel about season three coming out this Autumn?

 

WS: The Titan’s Curse is such a pivotal moment in the series. The first two seasons build momentum, with Annabeth and Percy finding their footing, but now the prophecy is really coming into fruition. There’s a lot more mythology going on, and it’s deeper-cut than some of the early stuff. I really like the direction the show is heading in. The first two seasons are similar to the first two books, more of a fun adventure. In the third, things change and people die, and that’s a big deal. It becomes more serious. Before, there were stakes, but you always knew it would work out. From The Titan’s Curse on, it gets real, it’s not a game anymore. I’m really excited for people to see this season, especially the book fans, because I feel like we really captured the vibe of the book and they will appreciate that.

 

MB: Which of the original five Percy Jackson books has been your favourite?

 

WS: I always say the last book, The Last Olympian, is my favourite because of the big battles and it’s also where the series ends. But the most interesting one is by far book four, The Battle of the Labyrinth. I thought it was perfect, and it built so much anticipation for the final book. There were a lot of conversations between the kids, and it felt real, like a true quest and a real adventure.

 

MB: Battle of the Labyrinth really is the best book, it’s essentially an epic adventure. How do you think it would translate from book to series?

 

WS: If we get to do it, I think we’ve set up the Titan’s Curse in a slightly different way that will let us do Battle of the Labyrinth. I still don’t know how we’re going to put it together, because it’s truly a juggernaut of a storyline – it could be its own movie. Even reading it, I thought it could be a standalone book.

 

“On set you have so many hilarious stories about messing up, but in the voice recording room it’s silent. You mess up, listen to a playback of the mistake, and then just redo the line.”

 

MB: You’re playing Glider in The Angry Birds Movie 3, What surprised you most about voice acting?

 

WS: I really thought you’d meet everyone involved. I pictured everyone getting together in LA, sitting around a table with a microphone and reading your lines – which couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve never properly met anyone I worked with on that movie. I met Josh Gad the other day at D23, but that was because we both had Disney projects, not because of Angry Birds, and I’ve talked to Emma Myers a couple of times, but that’s it. It’s really funny because I recently did an interview for the movie where they kept asking for cool stories from filming, and I didn’t know how to answer. On set you have so many hilarious stories about messing up, but in the voice recording room it’s silent. You mess up, listen to a playback of the mistake, and then just redo the line.

 

Voice recording is really fun, though. I love listening to the playback, which is more for ADR, hearing your voice again and changing your posture or how much energy you put into it. I don’t think about my voice much when I’m acting on camera, and it’s a really difficult skill to master. Now when I’m watching anime and movies, I think, “That’s really impressive voice acting.” But it’s also very tiring. I’m more tired after a four-hour voice recording session than a 10 hour day on set. At work there are moments when they change the cameras or something, but in the recording session you’re in the zone, trying as hard as you can for the whole four hours.

 

MB: You’ve spent a lot of your formative years on set, which I can imagine is quite hectic. What does a normal day look like for you?

 

WS: It really depends. Right now my days are pretty much the same: I go to school, finish up, and maybe do an interview afterward. But there are really three places I could be in my life. Either I’m going to school full time in person, or I’m away on press or some kind of work for a week to a month and doing my in-person schoolwork from there, or I’m filming something like Percy and can’t go in person, so I switch to online. Occasionally there’s a random trip for something, but I try to keep my life pretty chill.