Calling all Jedi, Sith, Clones, and younglings! Today I’m sharing an interview with Dee Bradley Baker where he talks all things “Young Jedi Adventures!”
(L-R): Nubs (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), Kai Brightstar (voiced by JeCobi Swain), Lys Solay (voiced by Juliet Donenfeld), and Wes Vinik (voiced by Gunnar Sizemore) from “STAR WARS: YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES (Season 2)”, exclusively on Disney+ and Disney Junior. © 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Interview Dee Bradley Baker Talks “Young Jedi Adventures”
I had the chance to interview Dee Bradley Baker and my podcast cohost Ashley. Dee talked about Nubs teaming up with the Bad Batch, creatures, snacks, sabers, and more!
Nubs (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) from “STAR WARS: YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES (Season 2)”, exclusively on Disney+ and Disney Junior. © 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
How has being a father helped your characterization of Nubs?
Dee Bradley Baker: “Being a father basically helps me be a better actor in many, many ways. But in particular with young Jedi, you’re very aware, as a parent of what a kid needs and what you want the world to be like for a kid. You know you want it to make sense. You want the kid to understand good from bad, and to be able to problem solve on their own.”
“And these are all things that are at work within the Star Wars universe, in “Young Jedi” here, it’s a nice little playpen too, that’s safe, but it’s, got some peril and some fun, and it’s got, of course, all of the kind of inventiveness that you find in The Star Wars universe that that captivated me when I was a kid. So all of that comes together in a show like this, which is very specifically made for the preschool set.”
“It feels like Star Wars and it’s got all the elements that you love as Star Wars, but it’s also from an angle of teaching kids and engaging, particularly the younger kids. And that’s a wonderful thing. It’s a wonderful thing that sort of a thing has a has a space in the Star Wars universe.
(L-R): Padawan Celesta Kami, Kai Brightstar (voiced by Jamaal Avery Jr.), Jedi Master Carver Drow, Nubs (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), and Lys Solay (voiced by Juliet Donenfeld) from “STAR WARS: YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES”, exclusively on Disney+ and Disney Junior. © 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
In a “What If?” Star Wars kind of world, which “Bad Batch” member would Nubs be best friends with? And why is it Wrecker and Omega?
Dee Bradley Baker: Well, I think, I myself would like to see Nubs and Crosshair. Oh my god. I think there’s a lot, I think you get a lot of interesting comedy out of that. But I mean, who I mean nubs is going to get along with anybody? I think nubs, nubs is very positive. He’s very energetic, but he’s also vulnerable and very sweet and he’s a team player. I mean, he would get along great, it would be great to have him in the “Bad Batch.”
(L-R): Lys Solay (voiced by Juliet Donenfeld), Kai Brightstar (JeCobi Swain), and Nubs (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) from “STAR WARS: YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES (Season 2)”, exclusively on Disney+ and Disney Junior. © 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
How do you prepare for speaking role like this, where you’re not using words? You’re not using typical English language, but your sounds and gutteral kinds of things. What kind of vocal preparation do you do when you’re speaking Poobian versus words?
Dee Bradley Baker: “The preparation that I’ve done is really from my lifetime of watching shows that have monsters and aliens, and nature documentaries, and things like that, and then having this kind of an orchestra of sounds that I can draw upon within my voice, you know, ignited by my imagination.”
“And so to have all of that ready, sort of have the orchestra ready. That’s how I arrive. It’s all guided by the script and by any kind of visuals that the directors and producers already have laid out. So they’re specific on what they want and how it plays out, in terms of the choreography of the scene. And then, with that in mind, they kind of let me know or fill in those specifics so that my vocal performance can fit right in with what they’re going to block out and animate. So to some degree, that’s already set roughly any case, but to some degree, what I provide gives them sort of a smorgasbord of options that they can animate to further flesh that out, so that it feels real and connected and not generic.”
“And so my job basically is to show up ready to deliver that with my orchestra, with my vocal orchestra at hand, but not really, not really pre-selected in terms of what I’m going to do, because that I find in the moment that’s being directed in the session. So it’s a very in-the-moment, kind of improvisational, kind of collaborative performing. It’s very unusual, because acting starts on the stage with a script, and you mostly honor the script, and then you’re working that out with your cast, and you’re doing a self-contained story with a beginning, middle, and end. That doesn’t stop, but here in animation, we’re doing it piecemeal, from my perspective, anyway, and we do our own little element separately, but with the good guidance of the script and the good guidance of the people in the booth so that, so that they can edit it together into something that is a beautiful story and that makes sense and feels like a coherent, single entity. So that’s how it feels to me.”
“That’s my job, bro. I gotta bring the orchestra. Some people, they just have, like, a cello, or they just bring their trumpet or whatever. That’s it, which is fine if you’re really good at that. But as a voice actor, I gotta bring the orchestra, especially with the animals and the creature stuff.”
Nubs (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) from “STAR WARS: YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES (Season 2)”, exclusively on Disney+ and Disney Junior. © 2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
So Nubs seems to be kind of a creature guy like you, even if some of them try to eat him at first or he runs away. Which Star Wars creature would you love Nubs to meet?
Dee Bradley Baker: “I want nubs to meet at Tauntaun. Tauntaun is my favorite creature in Star Wars. I think it might be my favorite character in all of Star Wars, because you meet the Tauntaun at the very beginning of the The Empire Strikes Back, which was my favorite Star Wars movie and my favorite Star Wars I think it was my favorite Star Wars experience when I was young. You know, almost as young as you guys. That first Star Wars just completely knocked me out of my seat, and it was like nothing that I had ever seen.”
“It was truly something, that you can’t describe it to somebody now, because there it’s been around for so long, but to see that for the first time, it was a magnificent shock to my system, but, in a way, was kind of topped by the The Empire Strikes Back the second movie that I saw of Star Wars, and that opened with the writing of the Tauntaun. That’s the first thing you see. Is Luke riding a Tauntaun in that and it was that moment that I realized that this movie is going to be even better than the last one I just saw. And that was very, very exciting to me. So at that moment, I think the the Tauntaun became my favorite Star Wars creature of all, because of all that it heralded, all that it indicated was coming my way over the next, you know, couple hours of that, of that brilliant movie. So, I’m gonna select the Tauntaun. That’s gonna be my critter.
What do you think is the most important lesson that Nubs learns, that he can then pass on to the newest younglings on the show and then to those watching at home?
Dee Bradley Baker: “Well, I think the biggest lesson for me, that Nubs, or that any young person, can learn, is to trust yourself, is to realize that you have superpowers, but you’re going to have difficulties and bumps in the road, but that you can rely on yourself and your family and your friends around you to move your life and to move your situation forward, that there’s good reason to be optimistic and that there’s someone there that can help you if you need help, and all you’ve got to do is ask for it. So I would say that, okay.”
Nubs love snacks and again, don’t blame him. He loves all the good food. If you’re inside the Star Wars world, or even just visiting an outpost like the two in the parks, what would be your go-to snack?
Dee Bradley Baker: “My go-to snack could probably be some blue milk with some protein powder blended in there. I’m supposed to have a lot of protein, apparently. So I’m going to go with that, because blue milk was like the the original Star Wars snack, if you can call it that. So I’ll go with that.”
(L-R): Master Yoda, Nash Durango (voiced by Emma Berman), RJ-83, Kai Brightstar (voiced by Jamaal Avery Jr.), Lys Solay, and Nubs from “STAR WARS: YOUNG JEDI ADVENTURES”, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
About “Young Jedi Adventures”
“Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures” Season 2 follows the younglings as they continue their training and embark on even bigger missions across the galaxy. Helping to lead the younglings on these missions is Master Zia’s new Padawan, Wes Vinik, and his astromech RO-M1. As they continue their training and grow in the ways of the Force, the young Jedi will travel to new planets with new and old friends and encounter adversaries like The Ganguls, who are growing in their pirate ranks.
Young Jedi Adventures Season 2 debuts on Disney Plus and Disney Junior August 14, 2024.
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