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The youngest is The oldest are Two are newly minted Emmy winners Two had dreams of professional soccer Two count Tom Cruise as a pivotal co-star And two changed career tracks in college But there s one thing all five have in common a banner The Associated Press has inducted Arden Cho Owen Cooper Danny Ramirez Chase Sui Wonders and Tramell Tillman as its class of Breakthrough Entertainers And in our ninth year of this franchise we decided to introduce a rapid-fire segment to our interviews A selection of their answers has been edited for brevity and clarity Describe your in a insufficient words ARDEN CHO feels like a dream come true It just feels perfect It feels secure OWEN COOPER Mind-blowing is number one Just crazy DANNY RAMIREZ Across the board it s been creatively incredibly fruitful CHASE SUI WONDERS It feels really special it feels really joyful I feel like I ve been surrounded by all these amazing people TRAMELL TILLMAN It s been quite a banner year Who have you leaned on the majority of in the past year ARDEN CHO via email My friends my partner and my faith have carried me It s been a whirlwind year but the people who know me best dependably keep me centered OWEN COOPER My parents and family my publicist and my agent Netflix DANNY RAMIREZ via email There are several people and groups I lean on and it s genuinely hard to pick just one My day-to-day life my acting work the filmmaking side of my career family love each part of me naturally gravitates toward different people depending on what the moment requires One of the luckiest things in my life has been the kind of people I ve attracted and been attracted to I ve reliably had individuals around me whose integrity work ethic and approach to life I trust I m not shy about asking questions or leaning on people when I need clarity or guidance I m grateful for every person who s helped me along the way and hope to do so in return CHASE SUI WONDERS People s opinions I really trust whether it be my agent or my sister or one of my best friends Because as this new sort of step of my career is being ushered in there are a lot of tantalizing offers I dependably go back to what makes my creative juices start flowing and I feel like the people that know me best kind of have that idea too TRAMELL TILLMAN There have been a sparse people that I ve had to lean on Lots of friends You know the work can be very isolating What s the best and worst change in your life since becoming famous ARDEN CHO I remember the first time where I was at a Korean sauna like a spa Korean spa where we were like fully naked I remember I had this like tiny little towel and I ran into these three adorable teenage girls that were like Oh my gosh you re Arden And I was like Yes hi And they re like Can we take a photo with you I m like I mean yes maybe in the inhabitants area when we have clothes on OWEN COOPER Everything that s happened since the show has been positive in my life DANNY RAMIREZ I ve located more freedom in feeling confident with the work that I m going to be doing and then realizing I find happiness in these very simple things that I used to find happiness growing up as well I think if anything it s given me more clarity as to what s central The worst change Ramirez stated us was time CHASE SUI WONDERS Getting to work with people that I ve looked up to The least cool part I would say is the moments where you re not feeling super confident or you re not feeling super secure in yourself and yet you feel those eyes on you TRAMELL TILLMAN I ve never been a person who allows other people s opinions or eyes to control who I am by nature So if I want to dance in constituents I ll do it Name your career role model ARDEN CHO via email It s so hard to choose my list is endless but I really admire artists like Reese Witherspoon Margot Robbie Natalie Portman and Son Ye-jin who have built their own paths as actors producers and storytellers They didn t wait for opportunities they created them That s the kind of career I aspire to using my voice to champion new stories and new talent OWEN COOPER My number one s Jake Gyllenhaal I remember he was like I think him Tom Holland and the cast of Stranger Things they were like the first people I saw when I was watching films when I like or DANNY RAMIREZ via email It s impossible for me to reduce it to one career hero I m inspired by athletes like Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi by actors like Tom Cruise and Christian Bale by filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve Christopher Nolan and Ryan Coogler What they share is complete commitment An almost spiritual devotion to their craft My own art form grows out of the things I m eternally curious about so my influences come from everywhere I borrow I steal I absorb It s less about idolizing one person and more about learning from a constellation of people who dedicate themselves fully to what they do CHASE SUI WONDERS Creative duos like Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes and Elaine May and Mike Nichols TRAMELL TILLMAN Jeffrey Wright Colman Domingo Hugh Jackman and Donald Glover How did your childhood prepare you for your career ARDEN CHO I was a curious kid and I requested to do it all but I was very insecure very shy I even had like a kind of like a stutter had a hard time with certain words I really didn t notice how bad it stuck with me as an adult until I would have script supervisors come up and be like That s not how you pronounce that I think it s just really fun for me because I feel like every year I feel like it s a new season of learning something new and accomplishing something that I didn t think I could You know years ago moments like this I would have such bad anxiety I would be like having a full on panic attack and during the interview I would be like internally passing out like soul leaving body not really sure what conversation was happening But I think now for the first time in my life ever like I feel like I can just have a conversation with you and I m here and present DANNY RAMIREZ via email Everything I m drawn to is a continuation of things I liked as a kid And my approach to the way I work is something that was instilled early on in my childhood TRAMELL TILLMAN I believe Milchik to be a people pleaser He is dutiful and in my childhood I was very much the same way got to please the parents got to please the teachers We have to ask How do you feel about artificial intelligence ARDEN CHO I know that a lot of people in our industry are obviously very scared but I d like to hope and think that people will inevitably appreciate art and soul and the human touch at least in stories and music I really hope we re not lost and replaced by robots OWEN COOPER I never use AI to be fair Only for maths and several sort of homework but I don t think AI s got a lot to do with acting at all I don t think there should be AI actors I think that just ruins everything CHASE SUI WONDERS There is room for AI to be really exciting in terms of medicine in terms of physical condition care in terms of politics I think it s not exciting when it comes to the creative realm I think there will perpetually be a place for seeing your favorite performers and directors make stuff that s my optimistic take TRAMELL TILLMAN It is ever-present and people will use it at their disposal My hope is that we will continue to thirst and desire for humanity As far as I know AI cannot replace the human experience the human soul What was your dream job as a kid ARDEN CHO It really depends on what day you would have petitioned me I was one of those kids that was like I m going to be a vet and then I m going to be a tutor No I want to be CIA agent No no I want to be a police officer And of discipline I perpetually craved to be an actor or a singer or a dancer I mean I kind of wished to do it all which is fun because I think as an actor you do get to kind of do it right And so I would say though there was reliably the biggest part of me that craved to be particular kind of supernatural character OWEN COOPER Footballer DANNY RAMIREZ Professional athlete CHASE SUI WONDERS Corporate businesswoman TRAMELL TILLMAN Storm chaser Interviews were conducted separately in Los Angeles and New York by Associated Press journalists Liam McEwan Andrew Dalton Leslie Ambriz Gary Gerard Hamilton and Mark Kennedy For more on AP s class of Breakthrough Entertainers visit https apnews com hub ap-breakthrough-entertainers Source