Wanna fight monsters? There’s a lot to learn

Sometimes you just have to learn by getting it wrong.
That’s especially true if you’re working the media and/or battling demi-gods. Just ask Walker Scobell (shown here), whose “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” airs its second-season finale today (Jan. 21).
Both seasons are on Disney+, where you can see Scobell evolve — from a 13-year-old novice to … well, a 17-year-old who’s still learning.
On Jimmy Fallon’s talk show this week, he started talking into the microphone on the desk. Fallon had to explain that it was a fake mic, just a decoration.
“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s why I have this (real) mic on me,” Scobell said, with a grin, in a Television Critics Association press conference.
He’s had a lot to learn. He was only 11, with zero experience outside of school, when he played Ryan Reynolds’ younger self in “The Adam Project.” Then came “Secret Headquarters,” with Owen Wilson. And then — at 13 — he became Percy, a seemingly ordinary kid, facing gods and monsters.
What has he become better at in the four years since then?
Maybe combat, Scobell said, simply because the role requires it. “Percy gets better as the fighting gets ramped up.”
And there’s been a lot. “It’s been pretty hard-core,” said produced Dan Shotz.
They were talking Tuesday, on the eve of the finale — which various people described as “brutal” and “awesome” and such. “There’s a lot of demi-god-vs.-demi-god action,” producer Craig Silverstein said.
But back to that idea of learning by doing: Aryan Simhadri (who plays Percy’s friend Grover) and Dior Goodjohn (his tormenter Clarisse) are both 19. Both said they gained from seeing the whole filming process.
“You see how (an actor is) one of the least-important parts,” Goodjohn said.
And you see how to help the technical part, Simhadri said. “I’m not that great at finding my light or hitting my mark.”
Then there are the details. Scobell is used to having a little mic hidden on him, with bigger ones overhead. So he thought it was the same thing in Fallon’s studio; “I’m not used to there being a fake mic.”
Now he knows. He also knows how to slay monsters. These things are helpful.