Dante Basco says he wanted to audition for Hook after his younger brother Darion tried out for a Lost Boy role. Basco auditioned for Rufio, met Steven Spielberg afterward, and remembers being offered the part a few days later. In a 2018 interview with Germain Lussier for Gizmodo/io9, he recalled how the character’s look took shape, why the food fight felt like a turning point for Rufio, and how fans—especially some Asian American viewers—later told him the role mattered to them.
How did Dante Basco get the role of Rufio?
Basco told Germain Lussier that his younger brother Darion had tried out for a Lost Boy role, which made Basco want to audition too. The brothers both auditioned for Rufio. Afterward, Basco met Spielberg and remembers talking with him about films, including Midnight Cowboy. Basco asked whether he should read the scene; he recalls Spielberg saying he only wanted to meet him. A few days later, Basco said, the role was offered to him.
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Basco also recounted Spielberg telling him: “You know Dante, we searched all over the country for this role and out of the thousands of kids we read, you were the only kid that scared me.” That is Basco’s recollection of Spielberg’s comment, not an independently verified count of the children considered.
What did Basco bring to Rufio?
Basco connected Rufio’s forceful leadership to his own experience growing up in Paramount, California, and to his seriousness about acting as a young performer. He said he studied actors such as Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino. Those influences and memories help explain how he approached Rufio’s authority, but Basco’s account is personal rather than a claim about the community as a whole.
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- Superstars Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts star in award-winning director Steve Spielberg's updating of PETER PAN.
How did Rufio’s costume and hair develop?
Rufio was created for the film rather than taken from J. M. Barrie’s books. Basco remembered that the production team explored sketches and different ideas, including dreadlocks, before settling on the character’s distinctive three-mohawk look. “He was a new character created for this film and there was a lot of sketching going on,” Basco said.
Basco recalled feeling uncomfortable at first in the tight, exposed costume and during the lengthy hair-and-makeup process. He said Spielberg approved when the finished look was shown to him. Basco described an evolving production design process; he did not claim to have designed Rufio’s look himself.
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Why did the food fight matter to Rufio?
“We actually shot that food fight twice, which is crazy,” Basco told Lussier. He remembered the crew preparing colored frosting and the performers doing smaller takes before a take where the cast could go wild. Cleanup was difficult, particularly for the costumes, so the scene was filmed over two days.
For the actors, Basco remembered, the food fight was fun. For Rufio, it was a “bad day”: the scene marked the end of his reign. That contrast is what made the sequence more than a comic set piece in Basco’s memory.
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What does Rufio’s legacy mean to Basco and fans?
Basco said social media gave him a way to celebrate the character with fans. He has encountered fans with Rufio tattoos and heard how they connect with the character and the word “Bangarang.” He described the role as a source of pride: “Clearly, it means a lot to so many people and it’s something I’m proud of too, work-wise.”
He said some Asian American viewers told him Rufio was the first cool Asian American character they had seen. Basco recalled that the significance of this representation became clearer to him over time, including in a conversation with filmmaker Jon M. Chu. These are the experiences and conversations Basco described, not a claim that every viewer responded in the same way.
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- Superstars Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts star in award-winning director Steve Spielberg's updating of PETER PAN.
How did Hook hold up when Basco watched it again?
During a 25th-anniversary tour with Alamo Drafthouse, Basco watched Hook in a theater with actor Jimmy Madio and executive producer Jim V. Hart. He recalled Hart sharing stories about the adult side of production and said the film held up for him. “The further away from a project you get you can start appreciating it as a fan and not as being attached to it,” Basco said.
Basco also remembered the full-size pirate ship set standing in water on a soundstage. His account of the ship and production comes from his own recollection as a cast member. The 2018 interview linked to a physical Hook 4K UHD/Blu-ray edition, but it does not establish current availability, price, or edition contents.
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Source
Basco’s recollections and quotations in this article come from Germain Lussier’s interview, “Dante Basco on Becoming Rufio for Hook, the Character’s Legacy, and So Much More,” published by Gizmodo/io9 on October 12, 2018, in connection with the film’s 4K release: Gizmodo/io9 interview.
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