Let’s kick off with when you first read the Power Rangers script because, you know everyone I’ve spoken to remembers you from Power Rangers so I wanted to know your initial thoughts when you first read the script. Did you think it would be something that’s just so iconic?
Oh, of course not. It was…When I read the initial script for Power Rangers, it was for the pilot and so, the pilot was considerably different. It was going a different direction and it was perfected as time went by. When we got to the series, we had…well, it had a different cast, and there were some changes made from the original pilot, but the original pilot was very hokey.
I thought it was like, “Oh, this is kinda weird. I don’t know. It’s kinda strange,” you know? It didn’t read that great to me. It read as very…I don’t know. I can’t think of a better word than hokey. But fortunately for us, the combination of our crew and our cast and our writers, you know, as we progressed into the series, it changed and then, you know, our chemistry as a cast, it, like, it made us all work…it made everything work out.
It is an amazing show. I still do remember it. There were a few injuries of kids in the playground here being injured mimicking Power Rangers. I think we all got a little bit bruised and battered trying to emulate you guys.
Uh-oh. You know, when that happened, I always…Well, when that one became an issue for parents, I always spoke to parents and said, “Make sure you put your kids in martial arts classes because they’re interested in martial arts. This is what it is and if you take a martial arts class, you learn not to strike.
You actually learn that you do not strike first and that you defend yourself and then you have permission to, you know, actually cause bodily damage, but the other thing about martial arts, what it teaches you is that it teaches you control.
So, you learn to be able to throw a punch or a kick and only go 6 inches close to the target or to even just tap very soft,” you know? So, it’s something that I found out if I told parents to do that and they followed through, then their kids actually…it made it better for them because then they didn’t kick each other and they didn’t punch each other because they respected the danger of what they were capable of.
Yeah, that’s really cool. I didn’t think of that, but I will keep that in mind as something to keep in mind. So, you actually would have learned martial arts because I know Jason Frank who plays Tommy he did. I know he did and Austin St. John and I do know that you all learned martial arts and all performed your own stunts. Is that right?
Yes, it’s true. Yeah, we are all martial artists. Jason had his own form of martial arts, White Dragon Karate, that he had been teaching and continues to teach, and then Austin St. John was, like…He knew a few different styles of martial arts. Aikido being among them and I studied Isshin-ryu as a child, so, you know, they were all skill sets that we had and then when we were working on the show, we were working with this amazing stunt crew and our stunt coordinators and they were teaching us other forms of martial arts. So, we were kind of a great blend of different styles.
I am really interested in martial arts now. I wonder if I could actually do it. I don’t know. I’m not very coordinated. Let’s put it that way…
Well, you know what? It teaches coordination. It’s like…It’s the same thing as dancing. Dancing is just a series of a combination of moves that you become familiar with and then you can put them in sequences, and martial arts is very much the same.
That’s true. I was just wondering, out of all of the Power Rangers characters, who would you have dinner with and why?
Okay. Oh, wow. Who would I have dinner with and why? Well, I would say…and it’s more sentimental than anything else probably. I would say the yellow ranger from the original cast, Thuy Trang, because she’s no longer here and I would love to see her again and I would love to have dinner with her and see her and tell her all the things that maybe I didn’t get a chance to say. Although, she knows that she was loved, you know?
So definitely, I would choose to have dinner with her and kick it. The other guys from the original I probably have had dinner with recently. So, you know, we see each other often at different Comic-Cons and although we have not all been together in 23 years or so. I’ve been with everyone at some point, so.
We sat down and have dinner or we kick it or row paddles together or we take pictures together. So, I’m able to revisit them for the majority of the time and in regard to the other cast members, the other cast members from the other cast, I can think of quite a few pretty girls that I would have loved to have dinner with, sometime.
You were in Buffy‘s “Fear, Itself”, which we talked about in our 2015 interview, and you’re now in the movie Red to Black, which is a vampire film. So, I thought this was really interesting and probably not a direct connection to Buffy and I know that, but I know you mentioned you wanted to be involved in something vampire series. So, can you tell me about Red to Black?
It was a short film that we did and they were working on getting, like, all the financing for it, and so forth and so on. I was, like, the lead vampire in it and it had to do with, like, tension between, you know, relationship tension between vampires and kind of a fighting power. It has not been released as of yet. So, I don’t know what the holdup is exactly, but I’m looking forward to it coming out.
Cool. I’m looking forward to seeing it. Anything to do with vampires, I’m there.
Yeah. I’ve played, actually, a vampire a couple of times at this point. Well actually, I played a vampire hunter in another film that has yet to be released and then a vampire. So, it’s always kind of fun. Like, that supernatural aspect of it, yeah.
Vampires are kinda sexy.
You were only in Buffy for very short time because you’re in part of the fraternity of that episode and that is one of my favorite episodes. Would you have liked to have played a vampire in Buffy?
Yeah. I would have loved it. I would have loved it. I mean, it was sort of at the height of the show, so it was amazing to be on the show anyway, and I had a number of friends that were working as stunt guys on the show, as well as other people that I worked with on previous shows that were working on the show, like Charisma Carpenter and various other people. So, it would have been exciting to be recurring or to be a series regular on that show because it, again, has so much history, so.
Going head to head with Buffy herself would have been amazing.
That would have been awesome. I would’ve loved that. Would have been like, “Let’s go.” Me and Buffy going at it.
I think Sarah Michelle Gellar still does Cons. She’s the only one I don’t think…I think we’ve had all the Buffy cast apart from her now…
You know, I’ve not met her at a Con yet. I’m sure I will see her at some point. I’ve seen various other members of the cast, but I’ve not met her at a convention as of yet, so that’d be good to catch up to her at some point.
So, I was looking at your Facebook page, and you were asked to the “Morphin’ Time” stance at a Con recently. Is that the most common request of fans to do the, “It’s Morphin’ Time”, movement?
Well, you know what it is is I often will do that at Comic-Con for the fans because it’s one of those fantasies that most fans have is to say, “It’s Morphin’ Time,” and to morph. Like, everybody wanted to do that and I usually carry a couple morphers with me.
So it’s a photo opportunity and so, we’ll say, you know, I’ll count down to three and we’ll say, “It’s Morphin’ Time,” and we do it together and I swear, after we’d say it, everybody that is holding the morpher starts to giggle and it’s like that kid’s giggle, like, “I can’t believe I just did that,” you know, and I love that moment. It’s my favorite moment. I always tell the photographer, you know, “Don’t take the picture while we’re saying it. Take it right after because that’s that moment when they go, “I can’t believe this has happened,” you know? And I love that.
People would send you the photos that they have with you afterwards, right? Like on Facebook or on Twitter and Instagram, everywhere?
Yep, yep, they sure do, and it’s always amazing to me to hear the comments that other people make on their photos because they’re like, “Dude, that’s the black ranger,” or, “Oh, my God. They’re so epic,” or, you know, like something where they’re like, “Oh, you are so lucky,” you know, and I’m like that’s so cool that we feel so loved by our fans.
They’re very, very vocal and they’re very ardent fans, which is wonderful to see. Even after so many years, it’s amazing because it’s like 25 years, isn’t it?
Yep. Yes, 25 years. Can you believe that? I don’t know how that happened and I’m only 27. That’s so weird.
It’s crazy because most of my fans have outgrown me and I look at them like I’m talking to a little kid. Like, “Hey, little man. Hey, little girl. How you doing?” And now I’m looking up at them going, “Wow, dude, you’re huge,” you know? It’s amazing.
Yep, because they would be probably late 20’s to early 30’s now. They were little kids back then.
And the fans often have kids of their own, so they walk up to our table to meet us and, you know, automatically, we look at the kids. We’re like, “Hey, how you doing?” We’ll talk to the kids, but then I look up, and the parents are actually standing behind them fidgeting like, “Oh, my God. I can’t believe he’s talking to my kid,” you know, and I go, “Hey, you watch this show, huh?” And they’re like, “Yeah,” because they were the true fans. They were the ones that really grew up with it at the height of its popularity and, you know, mostly responsible for it to continue the way it has.
What has been your most fond memory of Power Rangers or of your career so far? Can you pick a couple or one incident that really stands out for you?
Well, there have been many. In regard to Power Rangers, we had some pretty amazing moments and I continue to have them on a regular basis when I meet my fans. But, I think one that stands out as a big memory was we did a show at Universal Studios, a live show. And we… The Universal Amphitheater is a huge site where Michael Jackson would perform if he was doing a concert.
And we chose to do it in a small theater at Universal Studios, but they called the day before and said, “Hey, listen, we’ve got so many requests to come see the show, we’re gonna move you to the amphitheater. ” We were excited about that, “Wow. We’re gonna be in the amphitheater. This is where Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson perform. This is awesome.” Well, not only did we do our show in the amphitheater, but we sold it out six times in that day. It became a historical record for, like, the most amount of people that they had had in that venue.
And we blocked traffic from Universal Studios all the way through downtown. It was, like, it was on the news. Not just, like, the regular news, it was, like, the “Nightly News,” the biggest news show, you know, on TV. And it was just this amazing thing.
The experience was, for us, to be on that stage and have all those people there and, you know, they had them to go, “Deep down into the power of the Mastodon, he is Zack, the original. He is Zack, the ‘Black Ranger.'” And I jump off the stage, do some flips, do some martial arts, and I stand still, and I take off my helmet and the crowd goes crazy. It was like “Aah.” And lights, it was like all those cameras that were flicking [SP], it was like being on the ship for “Star Wars,” like when you’re going through hyperdrive. It was like…it was this amazing crazy experience not like I’ve ever experienced before and it’s never been surpassed.
So, that was definitely an amazing memory because that was, like, the height of what we were. I mean, for us to see it, to see it firsthand, you know. The producers of the show saw it in their way because financially, you know, the show did really well. They made $1 billion in the first year.
So, that was their proof. Of course, we didn’t make any of that money. So, we didn’t feel it in that way. But to see it live on stage in that arena and have people go so crazy was amazing. And then there were tons of stars in that audience who wanted to come backstage and meet us. And so we were meeting all these different celebrities, as well, Steve Harvey, and Arsenio Hall, and all these different people. So, it was pretty cool.
Walter E Jones joins Supanova Comic-Con & Gaming in Melbourne, April 20-22; and Gold Coast on April 27-29.
For more information on Supanova guests, tickets and venues, head to the Supanova website.
You can follow Walter E Jones on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Angela Allan
Angela Allan is founder and editor of Soot Magazine. She is an award-winning journalist, conversion copywriter and digital marketer . Angela loves her three dogs, blues music, and she believes Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac is her spirit sister. Follow her on Instagram here.
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