what do all the characters look like?
I don’t know! What do they look like to you? …and I honestly mean that.
I know what they all look like to me…and from the incredible and diverse fanart we receive on the regular (never stop my amazing friends), I know what they all look like to a lot of you…and that’s one of my favorite parts of this medium; everyone has a different and equally valid headcanon for these characters…because…we said so…and we’re inviting you to play in the sandbox! Come play!
Take Caleb for instance…We know he’s probably a big guy just from the fact that he’s a football player…but aside from that…Caleb, a character that is voiced by a white male (me), is seen by a lot of our listeners as Latino, African American or Asian American….and I’ll tell you that every headcanon of Caleb is 100% correct because you guys “get” who he truly is…underneath the surface of ethnicity, hair color, body type…all that. You all get WHO. HE. IS. and that’s a testament to Lauren’s brilliant writing.
My pal Alex Gallner is a white male and the voice of Adam…and I see an incredibly diverse and beautiful range of how people see that character. …Now remember, Adam was a character that was created and cast way before Wadsworth was even remotely put together, cast and added to the show…and she’s now voiced by powerhouse actress and all-around awesome human being, Alex Marshall-Brown…who is African American. So…Does that make her character automatically a Person of Color? And by extension, make Adam a Person of Color as well? …Does that rule apply to Caleb? And so, Caleb has to be Caucasian because I myself am Caucasian?
Dr. Bright is portrayed by Julia Morizawa (the secret sauce of the whole show), and she is an Asian American actress. But…Andrew Nowak, who plays her brother, Mark, is a white male…and I see a wide variety of headcanons for him; all monumentally and irrefutably accurate and valid….because…you as the listener live with that character…you know who he is…and whatever color you attribute to him…whatever you decide his or any other TBS character’s outsides look like, you still “get” and capture in your imaginations and art, the important inside parts that make them who they are.
I guess what I’m saying is…I know we all like to know what is OFFICIAL and CANON (it’s easier right? Just tell us!!)…but what we’re here to do is to tell a human story that we think resonates with a lot of people, and invite them…and challenge them even…to participate and decide who these people are to them.
Long answer long…because I know these characters…and I know these actors…To me, The Bright Sessions has become this sort of Brandy/Whitney Houston ‘Cinderella’ where we’ve got a lot of different colors mixed in there in a lot of different ways….and that’s awesome…and makes total sense…and Paolo Montalbán is still the finest.
I love that you asked this question!
- Briggon