With FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention right around the corner, it's time for that time-honored tradition of scrambling to transcribe a ton of audio clips from last year's convention. But, thankfully, with the recent realization that technology is amazing and we no longer have to manually re-listen to these clips, try to determine what the celebrity is saying over the audience noise, and type it out word-by-word, this process just got significantly easier and faster!
So hey. Zachary Levi has been an awesome guest for several FanX conventions. His panels are always must-see, and he gives some truly thought-provoking and uplifting responses to the fans' questions - and he's coming back in a couple weeks! Can't wait! Looking forward to it.
With no further ado, here are some highlights from his panel in 2025, in which he discussed his greatest hits, hinted at potential projects in the future, and shared some very insightful thoughts about human emotions. Enjoy!
On what he would do if he had a magic purple crayon (like his movie “Harold and the Purple Crayon”) in real life:
I know this is a little lofty for the kids, although drawing a cool jet ski wouldn’t be bad. But I think that we are overtaken with consumption, we are overtaken with materialism, we all are overtaken with consumerism. We all are being programmed to, like, “Oh, I need this thing, I need that thing, and I need the new phone and I need the new bag, and I need whatever all that stuff is.” And the reality is, guys, we don’t need almost any of that stuff. What we need is community - that’s a huge thing. By the way, that’s one of the things I love about conventions: so much wonderful community at conventions, right? So many people that are really passionate about so many things, and you get to come together about that - you get to come together with your love for that. So, genuinely, I would be drawing peace on Earth. I would be drawing good will toward men. Whatever that looks like, that’s what I would be drawing.
On whether the “Chuck” movie could ever reasonably happen:
That’s a great question. And it’s a question that I would love to answer with a “Chuck” movie one day. (The audience cheers loudly.) Listen, listen. So at some point, I might - I might - need everybody in this room, or… Actually, that’s a good question. Who here is a “Chuck” fan? (The audience cheers loudly.) That’s a good answer. So, I am actively - and have actively - been trying to get Warner Bros., who own the rights to “Chuck,” to be open to, at least, allowing me [to make] a “Chuck” movie. I believe that the show - of all the shows that keep getting rebooted or movies that are made from shows - I feel like “Chuck” is so deserving of that, and you, the fans, are so deserving of that, because we did kind of end the show on a little bit of a cliffhanger. If you haven’t seen the show, I won’t spoil it for you, but you should go see the show. And I think we need to resolve that. At the very least, we need to resolve that. So, in order to do that, there might be a moment in the near-ish future - I don’t know - where I might, on [social media], I might post to the world, and I might say, “Hey, go to this website and say - raise your hand - and say, ‘I want this.’” Not only will I need you to sign that petition… I know there’s some petitions that have floated around but none of them have been really official, so none of them have really been […] respected by the [movie studio]. So, to do an official petition or an official website, where I can send all of you people to it and say, “If you want this, let me know”… and it can’t stop at you; you’ve got to spread that all over the world. It becomes your mission, beyond that, right? And if I could get enough of those signatures and even, like, commitments of, like, “I would spend $10” or “I would spend $20,” or “I would go, I would spend money on this thing,” I think we could make that thing happen. And it would be cool, going back to your question, “What would Chuck and Sarah and Casey and Ellie and Awesome and Morgan… What would their lives look like, 15 years down the road?” - because we’re almost there. I know this because of this. (He gestures to his hair.) Look at all this gray!
On his favorite episode of “Chuck”:
I would say, if I had to pick one, um, the first episode that I got to direct, which was in season three - I think it was episode - it ended up airing as episode 13 or something. It was called “Chuck Versus the Beard.” And it was the episode where Morgan finally found out about everything that was going on. (The audience cheers.) And that was special for myriad reasons. One, it was the first one I got to direct, and I was really grateful for that. But one of the most frustrating things about playing that role was I hated that I had to constantly lie to everyone in my life all the time. And it felt a little repetitive eventually. You know, a helicopter is dropping me off in the courtyard, and I’m like, “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know what that was.” And I was like - you know. So, so - and Morgan was kind of like the first of, of, like, kind of, you know, broke the yoke a little bit to, like, start - then other people started finding the secret. Um, so that was my favorite, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
On his least favorite character in “Tangled”:
I don’t know that I have a… Like, I think all the characters in “Tangled” are fantastic. Like, they’re so fantastically done. They’re so fantastically made. You know, it’d be easy to say, “Well, my least favorite is the evil, you know, Mother Gothel.” But she’s a fantastic character. You know what I mean? Like, she’s - she’s so good. “Mother Knows Best” is such a fantastic song. (The audience cheers.) Um, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh, it would be easy for me to say Maximus, because he was a little bit of a pain in the - (The audience laughs.) Yeah. Touché. Also, some of you have heard me rant about this before: How is it that Maximus got a Pop before Flynn got a Pop?! (The audience cheers and laughs.) That made me angry, bro. Angry. (An audience member shouts, “You don’t need a Pop - you’re gorgeous!”) I - I don’t need a Pop because I’m gorgeous? All right. (The audience laughs.) I love all the compliments. This is good. This is very nice. (Another audience member shouts something.) Okay, enough already. (The audience laughs.) They did. They got my nose right. The Pop got my nose right.
On his favorite part of playing Shazam:
The Wizard chose Billy because of his heart. It wasn’t because he was, you know, hyper-intelligent, or wise, or experienced. He was a child, right? But when you give that level of power to someone, it’s their heart that ultimately dictates how that power affects the world. And Billy had a heart that cared and was sacrificial, and really wanted - literally laid his life on the line in order to save his family and to save the world. And so, I think that’s my favorite part of playing Shazam, for sure.
On identifying with Anxiety in “Inside Out 2” and the importance of crying:
This is why we’ve got to love ourselves. This is why we’ve got to love each other. Because it’s hard. Life is hard. (The audience applauds and cheers.) I watched “Inside Out 2,” and they introduce - if you haven’t seen it - they introduce Anxiety into the story. I could not stop crying. Like, I - my girlfriend was sitting next to me - (He imitates exaggerated sobbing; the audience laughs.) My girlfriend - I don’t know why I - Also, listen, I’m not embarrassed about this. We should all cry. It’s important. Especially guys. (The audience cheers.) Especially us guys. But I’m watching this movie, and I’m watching Anxiety portrayed in this funny, wacky, animated form in this young girl’s head, and I silently weep. Like, I didn’t want to audibly weep, because everyone in the theater would have been like, “This guy is out of his mind. Like, something is - did he stab himself? How bad is the popcorn?” (The audience laughs.) I could - I just - I saw myself in that, in that Anxiety represented in this form, and it wrecked me. It wrecked me. But that’s beautiful. So, that’s up there. That’s up there as well. But also all the other ones I was talking about. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment