Epic TMNT Live-Action Reunion: Cast Shares Behind-the-Scenes Stories at Undiscovered Realm Comic Con

Moderator Mike Lopez kicked off an epic reunion panel at Undiscovered Realm, welcoming TMNT collector Dave from Canada to co-moderate. The panel featured a star-studded lineup from the 1990s TMNT movies: Judith Hoag (April O’Neil), Paige Turco (April O’Neil in sequels), Ernie Reyes Jr. (Donatello, Keno), Brian Tochi (Leonardo), Kenn Scott (Raphael), Kevin Clash (Splinter), James Saito (Shredder), Francois Chau (Shredder in TMNT II), and Robbie Rist (Michelangelo).

TMNT Early Days and Unexpected Success

Brian Tochi opened the discussion, recounting the initial rejections by major studios until New Line Cinema, known for Nightmare on Elm Street, took a chance on the project. The film’s first weekend grossed the highest for an independent film, setting the stage for its success.

Kevin Clash shared a vivid memory from the film’s opening weekend. While working on Muppets Go to Disney World, Jim Henson received news of the movie’s success. Witnessing long lines of kids and parents at theaters, they realized the film’s monumental impact.

Judith Hoag remembered being skeptical of the title but ultimately found the script endearing. While shooting Cadillac Man with Robin Williams, she disclosed her involvement in TMNT, leading Williams to become a champion of the film. His enthusiasm reassured her of the film’s potential.

On-Set Experiences and Character Immersion

Paige Turco humorously shared her transition from ballet to action scenes, highlighting the absurdity of interacting with Turtle suits. Despite initial clumsiness, she embraced the role, even learning nunchucks.

Ernie Reyes Jr. discussed the grueling conditions of wearing the heavy, sweat-soaked suits during long shoot days, but found joy in working with martial arts choreography, appreciating the talent and effort behind the scenes.

The actors reminisced about the challenges of the animatronic suits. Kenn Scott highlighted the difficulty of executing fight scenes with limited visibility and heavy suits, relying on sound cues and repetitive drilling to perfect their choreography.

The Magic of Jim Henson

Kevin Clash elaborated on how Jim Henson’s influence elevated the film, combining his mastery in puppetry with the dynamic TMNT characters. Henson’s team helped bring the Turtles to life, adding a layer of authenticity that resonated with audiences.

Judith Hoag shared a memorable encounter with Jim Henson on set, describing the surreal experience of performing with him in her eyeline. Henson’s legacy and the emotional impact of his passing were deeply felt by the cast, highlighting his integral role in the film’s success.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Questions and Reflections

During the Q&A, the cast addressed various fan questions. When asked about their dream locations for the Turtles to live, Brian Tochi humorously suggested a beach in Thailand. Another fan inquired about celebrating the movie’s success. Kevin Clash and Kenn Scott recalled a major premiere event for the second film in London, attended by numerous celebrities and their children.

The panel also delved into the technical aspects of the suits and the challenges they posed. Robbie Rist and Kenn Scott explained the intricacies of performing complex fight scenes under restrictive conditions, emphasizing the teamwork required to bring those sequences to life.

The reunion concluded with a heartfelt moment as the audience sang Happy Birthday to Judith Hoag, adding a personal touch to the event. The panel celebrated the enduring legacy of the TMNT franchise, the impact of the original films, and the collaborative efforts that made them iconic.

Special thanks to Ms. Aisling’s ASMR and Consistency for their video coverage of the panel. Thanks to Ms. Aisling’s ASMR for helping out with editing the TMNT Live-Action Reunion Panel transcript. For more info on Undiscovered Realm Comic Con, visit the official website.

Next: Discuss the TMNT Live-Action Reunion on the Film forum

Full Transcript of the TMNT Live-Action Reunion Panel

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Editors Note: Light edits have been made for clarity.

Moderator – Mike Lopez: We have an epic event for you, so let’s do it. How are we doing today? Are you guys ready for a real treat? I think this is probably one of the biggest reunions that has ever been put together for this film franchise. But for you, I want to welcome my friend – all the way – from Canada. We got the TMNT collector Dave, and he and I will be moderating this amazing reunion panel. So, let’s get things started. Dave, take it from here.

Dave: All right. First, we are going to bring out April O’Neil, Paige Turco, and second, we are going to bring out Ernie Reyes, Jr, who is Donatello and Kino. Next, we are going to bring out Brian Tochi, who is Leonardo. And Kenn Scott, who is Raphael. Kevin Clash, who is Splinter. James Saito, Shredder. Francois Chau, Shredder. For Michelangelo. We’ve got Robbie Rist out here and, let’s not forget, April O’Neil again, the beautiful Judith Hoag. The 1991 TMNT movie cast, yeah!

Moderator – Mike Lopez: A truly epic reunion here today, truly an epic reunion. So I got to get this thing started. So, we are approaching this film franchise, this original film franchise of the Ninja Turtles movies. The first three are nearing their 30th anniversary, for the first flick, and then the other two that followed it, 35th. So, I need to ask each of you guys here on the panel if you guys want to quickly talk about how these films kind of took the nation by storm. When did you guys realize you got into something bigger than what you thought?

Brian Tochi: You know, it’s interesting. I’ll just, can you hear me? Hello? Hi, everybody! You know. What’s kind of interesting is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies. It was a project that was turned down by every single major studio. They went to Universal. Then to to 20th Century Fox. They went to Warner Brothers. Then they went to Disney, they went to all the studios. And they said, “Nah, not interested. “

So there’s a small, little company called New Line Cinema, and all they were known for was the Nightmare on Elm Street Freddie movies. And they said, now take a chance with this little, you know, it’s a comic book. And they had just started here prior to this cartoon about these Ninja Turtles, and so that will take on. Well, they took it on. 

They filmed the movie, and everybody was going to talk about it, but lo and behold, on the first weekend, it was the largest-grossing independent film weekend in the history of movies. Whoa, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the highest-grossing, most popular independent film in the history of film independent film. So, yeah, I don’t know, like you guys, but I decided to share that to start.

Kevin Clash: Well, actually, um, we were, um, Jim Henson and all of us. Can you guys hear me? Yeah, we were, we were actually working Muppets Go to Disney World, and we were shooting that at the time, and I was standing by Jim, and he got a little card saying that the movie was going to be the number one movie that weekend. And. He was very excited. Then he took us individually out to talk about the future of what we were going to be doing with him and stopped at a red light.

There was a line of kids and parents outside of the movie theater, and we saw it firsthand. The usher had to go down the line and tell the parents that there were no seats. And so the kids were losing their minds at that point. So we saw it firsthand as far as how enormous and amazing the movie was going that weekend. So that’s where we were at when it all happened.

Judith Hoag: Oh gosh, I think for me, it was just a, you know when, when I was first handed this script, my agent said, don’t pay attention to the title. It’s actually a really sweet script. Till the day he died, he called it Teenage Mutant Ninjin Turtles. And I sort of got a preview that we might be on to something good, even before I started the film.

 I told this story one more time, so I’ll tell the sort of abbreviated version. I was shooting a movie with Robin Williams in New York called Cadillac Man, and I had to keep flying, like on Fridays. I’d rush out of there, hop on a plane, go to North Carolina, do a little pre-production, do a little bit of shooting, and come back to New York.

And Robin, one day, just went, where are you going? Do we want to be in this movie? And he was the sweetest, kindest man. I said, Well, actually, I’m doing another film. And he was like, Well, what are you doing? And I thought, Oh God, I gotta say it out loud. Because I didn’t know Ninja Turtles at all. I didn’t know there were cartoons. I didn’t know there were comic books I didn’t. And I said, “I’m doing a movie. It’s called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” And he said, “What?” And I said, “It’s, it’s, actually, it’s very sweet. It’s called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

And he just stopped and went, “They’re making a movie about them?” And I said, “Yeah.” He made the very first comment, “Are you playing April?” I said, “Yeah.” From that day forward, he would work extra hard to get me out on Friday so I could get on a plane and go to North Carolina. Then, when the film premiered at Universal, he flew down from San Francisco with his entire family and was a huge champion.

And if you ever sit in a panel with Kevin Eastman, ask him his Robin Williams stories because he was a huge, huge fan, but it was, I mean, we just thought we were making this silly movie that, who knew, and it exploded very quickly, and the fact that you’re all here is just an incredible honor, and we’re, I only want to speak for myself, but…

Robbie Rist: I’ll just make it fast. The same. That is not true, minus Robin Williams.

Judith Hoag: Okay. That is the shortest answer you will ever get out of Robbie. 

Robbie Rist: Well, there’s nine of us.

Kenn Scott: That’s a Robbie Record.

James Saito: My story of when I first saw the movie, I didn’t know that it was going to be this big. I just had heard a lot. There I was in LA, and so I thought, well, I’ll go to the theater and see it. I remember there was, there were lines. Then, I was sitting in the movie theater. I guess when I realized that it was bigger than I thought was, I was sitting in this theater.

And there was this kid there when Shredder comes walking out, you know, and there’s that long shot in the cape and the whole thing. There was like a little kid who was maybe about six, seven, and he was in the row down from me, and he just stood up, and he said. “Shredder…” and he was standing there, and I thought, Wow. I guess people know about this thing.

Paige Turco: Yeah, I had no idea. Am I screaming? Um, I had no idea. I was a ballet dancer. A total klutz. And my funny story actually is, I’m talking and Jim Henson’s the puppeteers, brilliant, but I was such a klutz. This is a silly story. Our marks as actors. I kept tripping over them, and then I thought, I am talking to green turtles. There are actors in there. My first action job, really. And I’m thinking, “Oh, my God, are they thinking I’m a klutz?” You know? And then they would have to close the little eyeballs. I’m like, okay, they can’t see me, right? Then I’m talking to four green turtles.

However, I had no idea because I had not seen the first film. I had no idea what I was in for. It was a lot of fun, but really silly because I’m a bit of a goofball. And then they wanted to teach me nunchucks. I’m like, Oh, my God, I’m a ballet dancer, really? Oh, you can look goofy. Oh, good. We’re all good. 

And Splinter was the most fun because I was talking to a rat on a subway, with your beautiful smile. {points to Kevin Clash} I’m like this, okay, there’s something wrong about this. I don’t know what planet I’ve landed on, but it was a lot of fun the second movie was so much lighter because I’m a goofball. The first one was quite dark, right? Judith?

Judith Hoag: Yes.

Paige Turco: It was a bit dark. Then, in walks, goofball. I had no idea what I was walking into, but it was fun, and it was cute. And then this one…

Ernie Reyes, Jr.: Not me, I didn’t do it.

Paige Turco: Oh, my God, we had so much fun, didn’t we?

Ernie Reyes, Jr.: We sure did.

Paige Turco: It’s so much fun to make in a beautiful way. He had to watch me do the nunchucks. And he’s a super-talented martial artist. And I’m like, Oh yeah, but I didn’t know about it, and I don’t think any of us knew how the movie or how good it was gonna be I really don’t, and I don’t even know when that happened, because I was too busy sitting in King Kong‘s hand in North Carolina. Sorry, I did, actually.

One more cute story, and then I’m done. Ah, so there was an April O’Neill doll from the third movie. So, my kid’s father gives it to my son. He goes to kindergarten. I get a phone call. Oh, something’s wrong because your kid held up this action figure and said, “This is my mom.” Really what? Oh, and it was like a big joke, but they didn’t even know me from the movie. So my poor child, all these kids in these kindergarten classes are like, there’s something wrong with him.

These are just cute stories, but I don’t believe in my heart that any of us knew didn’t that it was going to be this iconic, and the brilliance of each Turtle is how that was created. I don’t know that’s what made it iconic. You know, you teach children’s artistry through each of the names of the turtles. Kind of brilliant, right? But I don’t think we knew. I especially didn’t. I had no idea. And I was like, okay, yeah, here we go.

Ernie Reyes, Jr.: Yeah.

Paige Turco: You know what I mean? I had no idea.

Ernie Reyes, Jr.: Well, everything I do is iconic, right? Just kidding.

Dave: I don’t think we heard from Kenn.

Kenn Scott: That’s all. I mean, that’s all the same crew. None of us knew the movie was gonna be as big as it was, right?

Dave: Some audience questions? What do you guys think? Yeah, you guys have some questions. All right, who’s first you go, I’ll go. All right. Who’s first? Who wants to go first? Don’t be scared.

Kenn Scott: Kelson

Paige Turco: King Kelson.

Audience Member A: Hey. So my question is if you guys could rewrite how the colors are coded for the turtles. What colors would you want your Turtle to be instead?

Brian Tochi: Oh, instead!

Robbie Rist: Repeat the question, please.

Brian Tochi: Magenta.

Audience Member A: If you could change the color of your Turtle, what color would you want it to be instead?

Robbie Rist: Oh, black like my soul.

Brian Tochi: Oh, Robbie.

Robbie Rist: Hey, he wanted an answer.

Paige Turco: Pink Glitter

Brian Tochi: I like Leonardo blue. I love blue.

Audience Member A: Maybe a different shade of blue?

Brian Tochi: maybe a different shade of blue, maybe a little sparkling.

Kenn Scott: I was gonna say black too, but I don’t want a black soul,

Robbie Rist: I do.

Kenn Scott: I’m gonna say that I would definitely keep Raphael’s red because originally, all the turtles were red, but Raphael was the only one that stayed true to the whole origin and everything. So I’m gonna stick with red. Stay there.

Brian Tochi: I mean, you guys know initially, maybe some of you don’t, that when the turtles were drawn in the comic books, they had all red bandanas. Basically, the way to determine who was who was by their was by their weaponry. So for the movies, that was kind of a brilliant way to define them immediately, by changing them, you know, to orange and red, purple, and blue. I thought it was kind of a brilliant thing.

Paige Turco: That’s one of my favorite stories, by the way. We were getting the apartment. It’s in the second movie. And the swords, oh my goodness, he got stuck in the window.

It was so cute, though. But it wasn’t cute for him;  it was like he actually looked like a turtle who was in distress, but he was two swords, yes, Leonardo. Poor baby.  I was so new at acting. It was like, how do I not go through the window? It was really cute.

Robbie Rist: Yeah, but today you would be acting like a tennis ball. You wouldn’t be acting too like a real thing in the room with you.

Kenn Scott: Judith, didn’t you have paper plates or something that you had to act to use?

Judith Hoag: Yeah.

Paige Turco: Or pieces of tape are the best on the camera box. It’s like, how do I not look cross-eyed.

Kevin Clash: The technology, technology for the first movie and the second one… The second one was a little easier because we got all the kinks out in the first one and sorted out the technology with the radio control, the characters, and stuff, but they were crashing. And you know that the turtles, all four of them, always worked together, so if one went down as far as the radio control, all of them couldn’t shoot. So, they always say, well, let’s shoot the rat. Let’s shoot the rat. He was hardwired, so he was easy to perform.

But I feel for Paige here. I remember the second one, all the guys in the suits and everything, they were just, they teased her so much. And so, of course, I was playing Splinter. So, I became this 75-year-old man, telling them to stop teasing Paige while we were shooting. So it really came out that we all turned into the characters. It was a lot of fun, but the first one was very challenging, as far as going through the technology and because it worked. So it finally worked. That’s how we got to do dinosaurs for ABC because that’s the same technology.

Paige Turco: Can I be a dinosaur.

Kevin Clash: No, no.

Robbie Rist: Kevin. So, you know, on The Abyss. They had T-shirts because it was so such a hard shoot. They had T-shirts that said things like, “Life is abyss, and then you dive.” I think for the turtle moves, we should make up shoot the rat t-shirts.

Kevin Clash: Yeah. That would be great.

Robbie Rist: TMNT. Shoot the rat.

Audience Member B: My question is, do you guys ever have dreams where you’re the characters you play in like media?

Kenn Scott: One more time?

Brian Tochi: I think she said, “Did you ever dream that you’re one of your characters in your dream?”

Dave: that you played, that you’re dreaming that you’re a character in real life?

Paige Turco: Oh, yeah, I wanted to be a turtle.

Kevin Clash: I never wanted to be a four-foot rat.

Brian Tochi: Yeah, some people were born in the Year of the Rat, right?

Audience Member C: My question for the panel is, who got the most into their character kind of who lost themselves as playing the character or their role?

Paige Turco: Me.

Robbie Rist: Well, I didn’t really have to act. Basically, I was doing an impression of a dude I went to high school with. I’m from Southern California and grew to be a teenager at the height of Val speak. So, like that Frank Zappa song, Valley Girl, that’s 10th grade for me. I knew all of those people. So Michelangelo was really just like putting on kind of a familiar jacket, and then I went home, and I was still the same dude.

Kenn Scott: I think, from an acting point of view. I can’t speak for Judith, but she certainly immersed herself in the role and delivered amazingly, and as April, did her thing. But when I see Elias Koteas playing Casey Jones, just knowing him and working with him like we did on the set, he came to set so prepared and in such phenomenal shape.

He had such a strong desire to perform at a high level in the action sequences that he was working with Pat Johnson and the stunt team, Ernie, and everybody to try to get there. And I don’t know Elias that well, and I know some people here know him better than I do, but he was almost like kind of a Daniel Day-Lewis kind of approach in doing what he was doing. And so, for me, my vote is that guy. He really immersed himself in what he was doing. He was creating that character.

Audience Member D: If you guys could eat any pizza that the ninja turtles eat, what would, what would it be? What would you do? What would you eat in real life, in terms of any Ninja Turtle pizza that they eat?

Kenn Scott: All right, let’s go ahead. Francois.

Francois Chau: Pizza, Okay, this might be kind of sacrilegious, but I’d have to go with the Hawaiian.

Kevin Clash: Well, you know, as far as, you know, Brian Henson asked me to, he asked me about, did I want to do Splinter,  because I was already doing Elmo. And he said, you know, let’s, let’s give you something to sink your teeth into that’s a little older. And so he gave that. What I came up with was that I took James Olmos from Miami and Vice, and then I pulled Pat Morita from Karate Kid, and I put those two together to make the character Splinter for me. And it was amazing to work, you know because normally I do it for younger people.

This was more, you know, I had to do more of an actor. And working with the actors was amazing because they really got me to figure out who Splinter was because he was a 75-year-old man. Yeah, we saw him as a rat. But he acquired these, these, these teenagers. And, you know, he never thought he would have to do that. And so it came with a play that I had to really hone into that whole dynamic of those teenagers and how he would relate to them. So those two characters, really, those two actors, really helped me.

Judith Hoag: I don’t know why I haven’t told you this, but for me, it was incredibly easy to pretend that the turtles were real because the actors in the suits were amazing. And I remember the first time that I worked with you, you were, you know, just next-level embodiment of the character, and then you had something to do with your feet. It felt like there were a couple of people like you. But I remember one time it was in between shots, and it was always a joy when you actually had the actual Turtle or Splinter there.

And, you know, it’s sometimes filmmaking can be very long and boring because you there’s a lot of weight, and we had a conversation, and you stayed in character the whole time, and you answered all my questions, and it was it helped me so much, because it was just so easy to fall in and to, to make it real and to have it feel real. And it was at your center, your center for my heart forever.

Audience Member E: Okay, so I am a huge Ninja Turtles fan. I actually memorized the first movie from beginning to end, and I actually admired all the work you guys have done. I know I have multiple questions, but I’ll just stick to a couple. If possible. One of them is when you actually heard of Jim Henson’s passing, I just wanted to know exactly how you guys felt about his passing and how much more you wished for an opportunity to work.

And then two, I noticed that Kenn was mentioned, mentioned about Koteas and, I mean, he was Casey Jones, he got something amazing, and then I believe he skipped the second one, but he went, he’s actually in the third one. He played Casey Jones, and he also played as, I believe he was like, one of the one of the one-point guys that captured, I believe, I don’t know, but how he actually acted in that he completely changed characters. Oh, he’s really great. So I just wanted to know how you guys felt about, you know, these two questions.

Brian Tochi: I think the world mourned. The whole world mourned when they found out that Jim Henson passed on. So I think that it was just a universal kind of feeling of loss for so much that he brought to his characters and to, you know, every, every corner of the world is amazing. You know, just the people you know that we grew up with and have continued to still, you know, grew up with, it was just universally impacting.

Kevin Clash: I was actually working. Jim and I did the Arsenio Hall Show. The Arsenio Hall show two weeks prior, you know, I was, I was performing Clifford, and he was, like, “You did so much better than me.” I said, “I could never do better than Kermit.”

But we played around, and for after that, he went to, they shot a commercial for, for the Muppets at Disney World commercial, and then after that, you know, it was so, of course, it was a shock, because, as I said, I worked with him two weeks, two weeks prior. And, of course, we still miss him. Very much.

Robbie Rist: I think. I think Jim Henson brought into the world something that I still use regularly on a daily basis, which was the ability to be sarcastic and innocent at the same time, like a lot of that Muppet Movie and Muppet Show comedy. There’s a tremendous amount of satire and really caustic humor, except it’s delivered in such an innocent way that it’s, it’s no wonder that when he passed, both adults and kids were bummed about it. Yeah, it was just a little music. It didn’t have to be anything. As you were.

Judith Hoag: I think that Jim was already obviously an icon when he passed. It was so tragic that he was so young that he still had so much good work left in him. His funeral was all of the Muppets came out. Everybody came out with their characters. They had.

We walked into St Patrick’s Cathedral, and there was Kermit under a glass cloche and pictures everywhere, and seeing his children up on the altar, talking to their you know about their dad, and they read a letter that he had written to them in the event of his death that was incredibly moving, and his legacy is just so sprawling and so indelibly tied to this film and these characters and all of us. It was a real loss. It was a real loss.

Kevin Clash: He came to visit the studio, which was the first one.

Judith Hoag: Amazing.

Kevin Clash: And we got to hang out with him at a nice little beach. Marty, Marty Robinson, is actually one of the puppeteers. So we got to hang out, which was really fun. So he came, and he was there for the first time.

Judith Hoag: He was in my eyeline. I was shooting the scene in the turtle den when I woke up, and you’re in my face, and they’re all there. And so when you’re shooting a film, they pretty much try to keep your eyeline where you’ll be looking towards the camera, free of people, because it’s very distracting. This gentleman walks into the frame, and it’s Jim Henson. I start having a screaming conversation in my head while I’m playing a scene. And it was, Oh, my God, that’s Jim Henson. Stop. Come on, you gotta shoot this thing. Oh, my God. He’s standing right. He’s in my eyeline. Oh, my God, it’s Jim Henson.

And it’s like, stop, stop. You’re like, this was my first starring role in a movie. It meant the world to me like, focus, focus, focus. It was a thrilling moment to finally wrap that scene up and then go over it, like just the biggest uber fan, and get a chance to meet him. And it’s always thrilling when you meet somebody that you so admire, who actually knows who you are. And, yeah, that was pretty thrilling.

Kenn Scott: I think when it comes to the Ninja Turtles, you know, everybody loves the Ninja Turtles. It’s bigger than everybody thought the movies were going to be. The franchise is bigger than the creators ever thought it was going to be. The different things helped propel it, like turbo boosts, along its journey. Probably the first film took the cartoon to a whole other level in the franchise because it was no longer cartoon, brought it out of the world of the mind and the pad, and brought it into a real visceral world you can touch.

I think what a lot of people outside this room don’t know is when people find out that Jim Henson had something to do with the Turtle suits and the Turtles’ creation, they’re just like, Oh, I didn’t know that. And I think it’s not the Ninja Turtles alone that propelled itself to be what it could be on the back of that first movie. When you have Jim Henson, what comes from his mind, and the people who work with him and contribute, that’s a whole other level of magic powder that gets put into the cauldron of what’s being made. And anybody can put a puppet on their hand and talk, but a puppet is not a Muppet, and you can tell the difference when you watch a TV show when you’re seeing a Jim Henson derivative product of some kind or somebody else that’s doing something.

And when you took that magic and mixed that together with the mythology of the Ninja Turtles. It took that whole thing together to make Ninja Turtles what it was. Otherwise, nobody would feel the way they feel about these turtles. They’re real. They were alive. We were right there in your houses. We were actual creatures that you could touch, and people got to talk to and play with. And I think Jim Henson does get a lot of credit, but he doesn’t get all the credit from the rest of the world for what he contributed to making this whole thing what it is.

Judith Hoag: Not to mention the puppeteers.

Kenn Scott: Yeah. That whole world.

Audience Member F: Hi, when you first heard about the movie doing well at the box office, did you go out to celebrate or have any type of celebration for it?

Kevin Clash: I don’t think. I don’t remember doing anything for a celebration.

Judith Hoag: I don’t think we did. I mean, I think it was really, you know, wrap parties and premieres and stuff like that. I think, you know, the crazy thing about filmmaking is you come together, and it’s like summer camp, and you’re all just in it, and you’re exhausted, and you’re playing, and it’s so much fun.

And then when it’s done, you all go, sort of cast back into the wind, and everybody goes back. We had people from London, we had people from New York, people from Los Angeles, people from North Carolina, and you didn’t get a chance to see each other.

And that’s why doing these is really fun, because we do, or when your work gets set and, you know, a familiar face comes in, and it’s a very, actually small business, so you do run into each other, you know, fairly often, or at least now and again. And I don’t think there was what I think we all just kind of, you know, pumped a fist in the air.

Kevin Clash: I think the celebration actually happened more with that was a huge screening of the second one in London. I mean, all these major movie stars were there, and so that was really cool to sit there. And you, I mean, because we got to sit in the Audience with kids and everything, and it was amazing. That was so cool.

And to see these different celebrities, you know, with their kids and stuff like that, I think that was the party for us. It was coming off of the first one, which was so huge. And then the second one was like, you know, “Hollywood,” so it would that was fun. That was fun to be around that.

Kenn Scott: Yeah, if you guys don’t know, the first movie didn’t. They didn’t know how big it was going to be. So they just had cast and crew screenings where cast and crew got to go, I think, in New York and, you know, LA, but because that was so successful, and the second one came out, as Kevin was talking about, they pulled out all the stops and threw a huge premiere at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

And I mean, they had exhibits and performers, and they had like a valet line of cars, Ted Danson and Billy Crystal and Robin Williams just on and on, all these celebrities pulling up and getting out of cars and walking into Universal Studios. That’s when I first met Brian for the first time. And man, that was just.

Kevin Clash: And besides that, I think they were just, they were parents. You know, they weren’t, they weren’t coming as celebrities. They were parents because they were bringing their kids, who, you know, like, even, you know, he was talking about Jim, and Robin already knew about them because of his kids and stuff. So they were coming as parents, and so it was nice to see them excited about the kids because they felt huge.

Audience Member G: Thank you for coming out. Today. I’m Phil, and my daughter Isabel has a question, but she’s getting too shy to ask it. She asked me to. If your ninja turtle could live anywhere, where would you want your ninja turtle to live?

Brian Tochi: On the beach in Thailand.

Audience Member H: Hi, my name is Michael. I’ve seen that movie so many times. You guys did a really good job. So I’m just curious when you were in costume, was it hard to move around? That’s what I found the most amazing, how you made those costume characters look so real, even Splinter.

Ernie Reyes, Jr.: Oh, yeah, yeah, it was crazy. They’re made of latex rubber, which is kind of like a Nerf football. First of all, we’re in North Carolina, and it’s, like, 100 and something degrees, and then, like, the humidity was crazy. And then we’re pretty much split up into kind of two units. So, a lot of action was taken in the second unit. And so we were doing fight scenes. It was like, you know, a normal workday at the movies, around 12 hours.

I remember some days were like 12, 14, 16-hour days, and you’re doing fight scenes all day long. Like. That’s when that’s your job, but imagine taking a Nerf football and dunking in the water, and it just all holds the water. So, like, we sweat in it all day, and then by the end of the thing, like, the costumes were almost dumpy and heavy just from the sweat, you know.

But it was crazy, but it was also just, you know, for me, anyway, I knew that it was something special because I grew up like Bruce Lee movies and Jackie Chan and Jet Li and all that. And so, you know, being part of Golden Harvest for me was like, whoa. These people make martial arts movies, and that’s what I was there for. So it was a lot of it was a lot of fun. It was a crazy amount of work. And I see these pictures of them.

Kevin Clash: You have to do double duty. You got to be inside the Turtle, and you got to act as yourself, which was, like, cool. You know, us walking, you know, they had these amazing martial arts people who actually flew over from Hong Kong, some of them. And we would stand and, you know, the guy whose name was Pat Johnson was amazing. And he would let him show us all.

You know, we’d show Steve, the director, and we’d watch this, and we were blown away by the whole choreography of the fighting that we had. I had no idea. And it was, it was beyond incredible. As a matter of fact, one of the guys from Hong Kong, I don’t think he really understood how the head of the Turtle when he was going to be fighting. At one point, they did the whole scene, and one of them was that this guy just ripped off the head. Ripped it off.

They flew him right back to Hong Kong. He couldn’t do it. You see, this major, major thing happened, and all of a sudden, one it’s like, but it was, I was, I’ve never seen anything like that close up, the talent and the choreography of that was blew me away. The flips and everything was amazing. The nunchucks, everything.

Paige Turco: I was so talented.

Kenn Scott: When it came to the fight scenes talking about how difficult it was, you couldn’t see out of the Turtle’s head. You just had these tiny little pinholes we could see out of it. So trying to do the fight choreography, usually, like, if I was fighting Ernie or Brian or whoever, I can look at and see what’s coming, and they can kind of, we can kind of dance together. Well, because you couldn’t see, we had to train and drill these fight scenes over and over and over again. So that kind of became second nature. Just knew where to turn and what to do. But it was a lot of sound cues.

They’d be yelling at each other, like, if I was gonna punch Ernie or something like that, I’d have to be like, hey, and he knew the look. And we kind of time, like, 123, all these. You kind of heard this, like a military cadence thing going on, and everybody gave each other cues about what we were doing. So we had to find other ways to overcome the limitations we had in order to put the fight scenes and stuff like that together, despite the weight, the heat, not being able to see, and not being able to breathe either. That was a challenge.

Robbie Rist: So, here’s a quick question for Ernie and/or Ken. So I’ve wondered about this for a long time. When there is a martial arts fight, why do people still attack one at a time?

You would think their odds would be better because there are like 15 of them against the one dude usually right but they still attack one at a time. Can someone explain this to me?

Francois Chau: It’s the movies.

Robbie Rist: Well, now it’s ruined.

Moderator – Mike Lopez: So listen, this has been quite, quite amazing. I mean, we have been honored to have such a large reunion of this and discuss it. I think we touched upon the real magic of what these movies meant to everybody but these characters and what all of your work has done. So I think that’s fantastic. But before, before we go, we gotta take care of one more thing that TMNT Collector’s is gonna handle.

Dave: Okay, hold on. Hold on. I gotta come up here for this. Are you guys ready? Are you guys ready to help us sing Happy Birthday to you?

{Audience sings Happy Birthday to Judith}

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