Awesome Con 2018 brought Marvel cast favorites to their convention in Washington, D.C. on March 30 through April 1. Sean Gunn (Kraglin/ Motion-capture Rocket Raccoon), Michael Rooker (Yondu) and Dave Bautista (Drax) of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise were all spotlighted on panels.
Sean Gunn
Sean Gunn, who plays Kraglin and does the motion capture acting for Rocket Raccoon, joined the convention Saturday morning to discuss his career.
In addition to his hilarious Guardians of the Galaxy role, Gunn is well known for playing oddball Kirk Gleason on Gilmore Girls. However, the actor thinks the trademark silliness has more to do with himself than the characters.
“I don’t really think of them as goofballs,” said Gunn about his characters. “I just am one…My worst nightmare is having to play a normal person.”
For his role as Rocket he explained he literally crouches down like a raccoon to play the scene. While this might seem odd, he says it helps the other actors to have someone on set to react to.
However, it’s not all CGI. Unlike a lot of movies, Gunn said many of the sets for Guardians of the Galaxy were fully built out including the ship interiors.
In response to a fan question asking who his Gilmore Girls character would get along with best out of the Guardians, he isn’t optimistic.
“Kirk would instantly be killed by Kraglin and probably eaten.”
While he couldn’t offer any spoilers for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, he did mention that he got to work with a whole new set of actors while filming as Rocket. And he’s excited for the movie to come out.
“Believe the hype, it’s going to be like nothing else.”
Michael Rooker
Michael Rooker’s panel was much more unconventional because it skipped the moderator. Instead, Rooker took to the audience directly to get their questions. As he was walking through the crowd, he got up close and personal with fans.
As a result, some of the questions were much more comical in nature.
One fan asked if Yondu would join the Blue Man Group.
“I think Yondu has some pretty good rhythm,” joked Rooker.
Naturally, a fan also asked about the now infamous Mary Poppins line, but Rooker said it was all scripted, no improvisation.
“Did you adlib the Mary Freakin’ Poppins line” “…No James Gunn wrote that line I just made it better” #AwesomeCon pic.twitter.com/ikSQg2ud6h
— The Marvel Report (@TheMarvelReport) March 31, 2018
During the panel, Rooker discussed having to audition for the role of Yondu to convince the studio execs even though James Gunn wrote the role with him in mind.
But when asked which character he related to most he surprisingly chose another Guardian.
“I dug Rocket.” said Rooker. “We’re kind of cut from the same cloth.”
Continue to the next page to read about the Dave Bautista panel and reflections on the con.