Electronic Press Kit

Transcript
Diedrich Bader



"Zeta was an android built by the government to be an assassin and then he finds out that he killed a person that was innocent and he wonders if he’s killed other people who were innocent, so he tries to find out exactly what he was programmed to do. He kinda questions himself.

"The thing with Zeta is that he is an android, but he has an alter-ego called ‘Zee,’ which was basically created by this girl Ro, because before he met Ro, who’s kinda this hip young chick, he played a very animatronic kinda guy, very very straight. So to kinda blend in in this hip future world he becomes kinda this young, hip dude with a black jacket and everything like that.

"One of the central elements of the show is that Zeta and Ro are teaching each other a lot of things, and that one of the things that we try to do in the action of the show is that Zeta really helps people. This is part of his creating a conscious for himself, and one of the things that Ro learns about it is that at the beginning of the show she is essentially a very selfish person. And it’s odd, I think, for her to be getting lessons on how to give of yourself essentially, by Zeta, by this supposed machine. And it’s one of the things that I think ties the show together and gives it its heart, that Zeta is trying to be good in search of creating a conscious, which I think the show is really about.

"I think that the characters are young and they’re fresh and they’re new and people haven’t seen anything like this before. The idea that Zeta can change and Ro, his sidekick, is also somebody who I think a lot of kids can associate with because she’s got it going on and she questions a lot. And it’s got a lot of action, I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun. And there’s some comedy in it too.

"I think the relatable issues on the show is basically creating a conscious and the fact that everything that you do has repercussions to it. In order for you to grow into a full human being as Zeta is trying to do, you have to realize that your actions have repercussions.

"For all the fans of ‘Batman Beyond,’ we have the Terry McGinnes character on the show. Well actually, the actor who plays Terry came on the show, and there’s a number of episodes that we do together where there’s a lot of action that takes place, and that’s a fantastic character. We were very lucky to have Will on the show.

"One of the best things about animation is that you can play a whole bunch of different characters. When I had the opportunity to play someone that was trying to kill me, I seized it. I really wanted to do it. I play the other computer that’s trying to track down Zeta. Basically it was like The Terminator and the T-2000, and I’m playing both."

Julie Nathanson

"Basically, there’s this killer robot named ‘Zeta’ and he’s going on the lamb ‘cause no one really believes that he doesn’t want to kill anymore. He’s actually a good guy. He meets up with me: I’m "Ro," Rosalie Rowen. I’m a 15-year-old street kid and basically I have no place else to go.

"My character is 15, she’s been living on the streets, she’s very street smart, very street savvy, and tough. A lot of attitude goin’ on. But she’s got a vulnerable interior, lot of layers on her.

"At least for my character, I can speak for the sensibility that kids will relate to feeling like you don’t know where you belong, not knowing where you come from, not understanding how you fit into a bigger picture, knowing who to trust, figuring out who your family is and what they mean to you. I think kids will be able to relate to that.

"Because Zeta’s a robot, he can come up with any way of getting out of situations, which is really awesome. Like, at any moment, he will have some other laser or saw or something that he can escape using, coming out of whatever limb it is that he’s using at that moment.

"They call it ‘glitching’: he can change his shape through a hologram. So he can assimilate to whatever visual structure is near him. So if he’s standing next to a huge pregnant woman, he can suddenly look at her, take a hologram, and change into her. And if he’s touching me, my character, I can change into her too. So our disguises are not wigs; they’re actual holograms, which is pretty cool.

"I would watch the show because you have no idea where it’s going to go next. Without using magic, it’s using the innovation of a person’s mind and a robot’s mind to get out of really impossible situations. So, it’s not only fun to figure out how they’re going to get out of where they are, but it’s also such a fascinating relationship: a human young girl kid and a robot. It’s a strange match, but they have fun together and it’s a good relationship and there’s a lot of action. It’s a lot of fun."

Kurtwood Smith

"Bennett is the character that I play on this show and he’s chasing a renegade robot who has hooked up with some street urchin, that’s fleeing justice. Now that’s from Bennett’s point of view.

"This robot was originally designed as an assassin and all of a sudden, starts feeling, starts having feelings towards the people that it’s supposed to be assassinating. So he, in the process of trying to find out about himself, has left the project and so the then government can only assume that it’s gone renegade and has become dangerous, which is why I’m chasing him.

"I don’t think you could describe Agent Bennett as a bad guy because he’s someone who’s doing his job, and his job is to bring in this robot. As far as I, as far as he’s concerned, this robot is a danger to society as a whole. I mean, he was a robot who was trained to assassinate people and to cause havoc, so from his viewpoint, he’s not only doing his job, but he’s doing a service to society."