WonderCon 2016 | Bex Taylor-Klaus on ‘Voltron’ and the Future of ‘Scream’

Bex Taylor-Klaus was too young to remember the original Voltron from the 1980s, but that doesn’t stop her from kicking ass in the new series from Dreamworks Animation for Netflix, Voltron: Legendary Defenders. She was probably too young to see the original Scream in movie theaters, but that doesn’t stop her from being a survivor in Scream: The Television Series. At WonderCon 2016, I got a chance to sit down with Bex and talk to her about the new Voltron series and what we can expect from season two of Scream: The Television Series.

Also: WonderCon 2016 | Illuminating the Horror Thriller ‘Lights Out’

Crave: Tell me about your role in Voltron.

Bex Taylor-Klaus: I play Pidge. Pidge is a geeky little… you would want him to be the geeky little brother, but he’s so focused on his actual family, his brother and father, that he almost has a hard time connecting at first. Once he does, that’s when everything takes off – for Pidge, if no one else. Very, very sweet; very, very smart. Can build any equipment he needs and is fascinated by everything he finds as they start going on journeys. I love the childlike quality of Pidge. He is a child – he’s the youngest of the group. He has disguised his age in order to do what needs to be done.

Were you familiar with the original cartoons from the 1980s?

I was familiar in the sense that there were friends of mine who had the toys, or my dad loved it, or older uncles and cousins who remember it. It was a little before my time, but I wish it had been time, to be honest! I would have loved it.

What kind of research did you do? Did you catch up on the show, or did you go into it deciding to do your own thing?

I went into it blind to the old Voltron. They gave me Pidge and they gave me a breakdown. I went in with the type of Pidge I wanted to give. Fortunately they liked it!

Is doing voice-over work more challenging than live-action roles, or is it more freeing?

Showing up in my pajamas is my favorite thing, I’m not going to lie. But pajamas don’t make it easy. Just because you get to roll into the studio doesn’t mean it will be easier than anything else.

One of the things I love about Voltron is that, when we first started out, we were doing as many sessions as we could together, as a cast. Doing read-throughs then recording the sessions. We have the most amazing director, Andrea Romano. I adore her. She is a queen, she is hands-down the best. I think that helped from the beginning. If we have to record on our own, you can hear everybody else in your head the way they would do it. This whole process can be difficult because you don’t have someone to play off of immediately, but it is easier because you have someone in your head that you know you can play off of.

MTV

Switching gears a little bit, let’s talk Scream season two. [SPOILER ALERT.] We discovered last season that Audrey is “the bad guy.”

Audrey definitely has some explaining to do.

What can we look forward to in season two?

One of the things I am very excited about in season two is that the tables have turned on Audrey. We don’t know exactly what she did last season; what part she played, but we do know she played a part and somebody knows. She is the one getting the phone calls and the texts and getting terrorized. 

There is a lot more bloodshed this year. There is a lot of blood.

It sounds like it is going to have a little I Know What You Did Last Summer vibe.

A little bit, yeah! I like that comparison a lot better than Pretty Little Liars. We are Scream, through and through. We follow the rules – or the lack of rules – that Scream put in place. But that doesn’t mean we can’t throw in homages to other horror movies.

Who else from the cast is coming back for next season?

Whoever is still alive might or might not show up. I do believe that it has been revealed that there will be a death in the very first episode, and it’s a doozy. I mean, of course there is a death in the first episode – but it is a doozy. I’m slightly obsessed with this death. It’s a good one!

So you are a horror fan?

I am. And it’s a dark one, this one. It’s shocking.

MTV

This death or this season?

Everything! We’ve got [writers] Michael Gans and Richard Register behind us this year. They live and breathe Scream. They did Scream: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, so they know how to bring in the Scream and the comedy. They’ve got this wonderful way of giving all our characters a voice and giving all of our characters equal depth and equal time to explore what is going on. I really appreciate that.

Does that mean maybe we will see a musical episode?

I’m trying for that! We’ve got John Karna, we’ve got Sean Grandillo, we’ve got Kiana Lede… we’ve got the people who have got the chops to make it! I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen, but I’m trying to get the cast together to at least do a parody musical episode. Hopefully Michael and Richard will let us do it. I doubt there is going to be a musical episode, but that would be fun.

Has the tone of season two changed at all with the passing of Wes Craven?

Wes was what gave us life. When he passed, it didn’t kill us. He had given us the gift of Scream, of taking his legacy, his work, and giving it more life, in a new direction. When he died, it didn’t end that; it will never end that. We’ve been given the opportunity after his passing to continue his legacy in a way that hopefully is the tribute he would love.

 


Voltron: Legendary Defenders debuts all episodes on Netflix on June 10th. Season two of Scream: The Television Series premieres on MTV on May 31st.

WonderCon Cosplay Gallery 2016 – Day Two!

Photo: Alberto E Rodriguez/Getty Images Entertainment

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