Pre Comic Con Interview: Chandler Poling

In preparation for San Diego Comic Con which starts in exactly one week, I interviewed Lucky Legendary Executive Producer and Actor, Chandler Poling.

Photo Credit: Tom Zeleny

What are you looking forward to most at this year’s San Diego Comic Con?
Apart from going with Lucky Legendary and meeting all of the fans, I am excited for Peter Jackson’s District 9 panel.

Are you going to have time to dress up as a character outside of your Lucky Legendary character?
I am so busy with my Lucky Legendary character that I won’t have time. In past years I have dressed up as Green Arrow and Midnighter but this year our schedule is so busy, I won’t have time.

What was it like at Wonder Con earlier in the year?
Wonder Con is a much smaller version of Comic Con. I was actually surprised that Marvel Comics had no presence there. We have a lot of fans in San Francisco so it was great.

Of the Lucky Legendary YouTube videos, which is your favorite?
I actually didn’t like it at first but now I like our Hulk video.

Can you compare/contrast you with your Lucky Legendary character, Tauren?
I created a character very opposite of me. My character is more anti social and a gadget genius. Me, I am very sociable and approachable and not smart with gadgets.

Lucky Legendary has been a huge hit at red carpet events like LGBT Youth In Television Awards hosted by Kathy Griffin, so what was that event like?
That was very fun! It was pretty much our first red carpet event. They asked us to come in our costumes and mingle with everyone and it was fun. The press was very interested in us and we had a very colorful presence at the event. It was very successful.

How did you start working on Heroes in the Set Department?
When they were just starting out, they had a very small art department and a friend of mine was PA in the art department. She called me in because they needed someone right away. I was working a desk job and I quit and went right to work on Heroes. The show had not aired or anything but I was in, I thought, “I like superheroes.” It was supposed to be temporary but they kept me and I became the set decoration coordinator. Then the show became huge! It was nice to be part of a tight knit family and then watch everybody grow.

What was the most challenging set to coordinate on Heroes?
The comic book shop was very hard in season 3. We had 3 different comic books shops set in Tokyo, Kansas, and California. To pay an artist to draw a bunch of comic books would be very expensive so we went on the hunt for people that were selling their collections. We found some good deals, I worked on all of the clearance rights, and I worked with a lot of independent comic book writers who were very happy to have their work appear on national television. When I went to Comic Con last summer, it was my job to go to the small press vendors and ask them if they would like to appear on Heroes. It was challenging but fun.

IMDB has this project in development called The H Man Cometh so what can you tell me about that?
The H Man Cometh is from Universal Pictures and directed by David O. Russell. I worked on the pre-production side of it. This was years ago that I worked on this. It has been pushed back many times so I am unsure about the status of the film. It stars Vince Vaughn and his character is like a radio DJ and his conscious would get sucked into his listeners and he had to live through the life of his listeners. It’s something else!

Meet Chandler and the Lucky Legendary at San Diego Comic Con:
Prism Comics Booth – Saturday 2pm
Prism Comics Booth – Sunday 12pm