Pop-Culturalist.com

Kate Godfrey and Anton Starkman are two of the stars of the must-see comedy Warped!.

In Warped!, Milo (Anton Starkman), the beloved head geek at a popular strip-mall comic book shop, Warped!, finds his world disrupted when his boss hires a new employee. With the quirky and excitable Ruby (Kate Godfrey) now on the payroll, the two form an unlikely alliance to create the world’s greatest graphic novel. Joining them in their adventures are Darby (Ariana Molkara), a smart and fashion-forward friend who is always there to lend a hand, and Hurley (Christopher Martinez), a neighboring pizza shop employee who spends his time coming up with brilliant culinary creations.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Kate and Anton about all things Warped!.

PC: To start, Anton, can you introduce us to the series and your character?
Anton: Of course. I play Milo—who is known as the “head geek” at work. He’s the “head nerd.” He knows everything about everything when it comes to the comic book world, pop culture, and fiction of all kinds. He’s living the life working at Warped. Then Ruby comes in and showcases how she knows just as much as he does, but she goes about things differently. She’s much more chaotic than he is. The series is about the two of them, along with Darby and Hurley, getting along and getting through life while balancing each other out.

PC: Kate, Ruby and Milo have such an interesting dynamic throughout this series. What can you tease about that? How did you and Anton build that bond?
Kate: Ruby and Milo start off as strangers, and so did Anton and I. Filming the pilot was pretty real and raw. But I will say, they do go on some pretty cool adventures together, and they become really good friends.

Anton: Just like us.

PC: Anton, you’ve played a wide range of characters in your career. What made Milo stand out to you?
Anton: This sounds weird because it’s not something that necessarily would stand out, but he’s exactly like me. Obviously, it’s a sitcom, so he’s much more of an extreme personality, but all the characteristics he has I find in myself. I’ve never related to a character this much. That definitely stood out to me. It was the script, being on Nickelodeon, the multi-camera, and the fast pace of it all. It’s something that I’d never done. I thought that was something that would be really, really exciting and honestly a learning experience. In the life of an acting career, this has been like college for me. I’ve learned so, so much about the whole world.

PC: Question for the both of you: the Warped! set is filled with Easter eggs to other Nickelodeon shows. Which was your favorite show and why?
Kate: I’m a sucker for Good Burger. I love Kenan and Kel. They’re geniuses. They’re really funny. There’s a Good Burger poster inside the set. When you guys watch, see if you can find it!

Anton: For me, it’s hands down Avatar: The Last Airbender. I watch that show now. I recently re-binged it. It’s so good. The storytelling is way beyond just a kid’s show. It’s so good. We definitely have a lot of memorabilia from it.

PC: There’s such great chemistry that comes across between all four of you. How were you all able to build that during a pandemic?
Anton: It was hard. When we filmed the pilot, it was in December of 2020. So it was as locked down as it could be. When we met each other, it was us poking our heads out of a window and looking at each other and being like, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Anton.”

Kate: Then looking at each other and being like, “I could spend the rest of my life with these people and I’m meeting them through a window.”

Anton: It was such a strange experience. But from us being on set together, all of our humor and all the jokes we made fit really, really well together. We got really close. We FaceTime all the time.

Kate: We did Zoom lunches because we couldn’t eat lunch together when we were filming. We had Zoom birthday parties. We tried to make the most of it.

Anton: That was funny. My birthday was in January. They sang “Happy Birthday,” but because it was on Zoom it was all out of sync. It was so entertaining.

PC: If you had to describe the first season in a sentence, what would it be?
Anton: If I had to summarize it in a sentence, I would say, “Chaotically filled with friendship.”

Kate: Whoa. That’s a lot of words.

Anton: Four. That’s four words. “Chaotically filled with friendship.”

Kate: I’d say, “Crazy.” My word of the day is “crazy.”

PC: Your two characters are writing the greatest comic book ever. If you had to make a comic book about your own life, what would you call it?
Kate: Anton already knows what I’m going to say. In an interview a long time ago, they asked me, “If you were to make a comic about Anton, what would it be called?” I called it Anton Eats because he eats chicken fingers and mac and cheese and that’s it. At Cheesecake Factory, he’ll order plain pasta with butter.

Anton: It’s good. I have a plain choice of what I eat.

Kate: The waiter will be, “Do you want any salt?” And he’s, “Uh, no thanks.”

Anton: No, I add salt. The comic that she mentioned was an adventure about me trying new foods.

PC: What do you hope audiences take away after they see it?
Kate: I hope they laugh. I hope they love it. I hope it makes them happy.

Anton: I think one of the basic things about the show is the friendship between the four—and honestly just the overall excitement and fun that goes on in every episode. Yeah. I hope they enjoy it. I hope they have a good time on the rollercoaster of this show.

Make sure to follow Anton (Twitter/Instagram) and Kate (Twitter/Instagram). Watch Warped! every Thursday at 7:30/6:30c on Nickelodeon.

Photo Credit: Tobin Yell and Nickelodeon