Aakriti Sharma: Have started to reduce, reuse and recycle things
Mumbai - Child actor Aakriti Sharma says the lockdown has made her realise "how much destruction humans have caused" to the planet, adding that she has introduced a few eco-friendly changes in her life.
"We have been staying at home for so many days so that the virus does not spread more. With everybody sitting at home, everything around me is changing, even the environment. The sky is clearer and there are lesser cars on roads, thus reducing pollution," Aakriti said.
"This has helped me in understanding how much destruction humans have caused. I have even started to reduce, reuse and recycle things kept at home and ask my friends to do so. I am glad that we are looking at the positives of this lockdown," added the actor, who features in the musical drama Kullfi Kumarr Bajewala.
Fellow child actress Myra Singh Gill, who has a starring role in the show, says "as a part of the young generation, I feel it is everyone's responsibility to take care of nature".
"At present, the world is fighting a big crisis but it has also helped in healing the environment. From cleaner beaches and fresh air, I also hope that the world is able to come out soon without masks and protections and I can go to school soon and meet my friends. My mother and I have decided to plant more saplings this Environment Day," Myra added.
As part of celebrating World Environment Day, the child stars have collaborated with Nickelodeon India for the channel's #GoGreenWithNick pro-social campaign, through which they aim to educate people about the positive ways in which the lockdown has benefited the environment.
Sister, Sister and Instant Mom star Tia Mowry has revealed several moments in which she saw her white father and black mother treated differently due to their skin colour.
Tia and Tamera Mowry found fame on the sitcom Sister, Sister (Picture: Getty Images)
The actor opened up about how she would watch her mother Darlene get discriminated against, while her father Timothy would instead be able to benefit from white privilege.
Sharing a Throwback Thursday image of herself and her twin sister Tamera posing with their mother on the red carpet, she shared several examples.
The actor wrote: "This is a photo of my beautiful mother. Growing up biracial, mom is black and dad is white, it was very clear to me seeing the privilege that my dad had as opposed to my mother."
The Nickelodeon alum continued: "Some examples, during our Sister, Sister days when traveling for work we would often fly first class.
"There were several times my mother was asked if she was in the right seat. Another incident that stood out for me was when we were buying our first home as a family."
The Family Reunion star explained: "My goal is to see change. This year has been a tough year. Several tears have been shed.
"However, a friend told me these tears will not be wasted. The love and support around the world has kept me going. A #change is gonna come."
Tia shares a son and daughter with her husband, actor Cory Hardrict. She is one of the many stars who have been speaking out about the injustice faced by African-Americans due to systemic racism within society following the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of a racist policeman.
Tom Kenny, who voices SpongeBob himself, also talks about why SpongeBob is a meme star.
SpongeBob SquarePants has a TV special, movie, new season and a spinoff show coming. Tom Kenny jokes that the Krusty Krab would be all takeout and delivery since the coronavirus outbreak. Courtesy Nickelodeon
The COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak hasn't been easy on anyone, and there's one fictional character who'd especially struggle with the isolation of lockdown. Perpetually upbeat SpongeBob SquarePants would be crushed by having to put his social life on hold, Tom Kenny, who voices SpongeBob, told Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, reporting for CNET.
Of all the residents of Bikini Bottom, lockdown is "probably hardest on SpongeBob because he's such a social creature," the Emmy Award-winning actor told Cooper over the phone. SpongeBob "loves going out to work at the Krusty Krab, and he loves being out in the town, and he loves hanging out with his friends, and he loves doing stuff."
SpongeBob's friends might adapt better to quarantine than the sponge himself.
Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, is recording his lines from his "pineapple under the sea" at home in California these days. Courtesy Nickelodeon
"Squidward is a social distancer just by his personality," Kenny said of SpongeBob's morose co-worker. "Patrick lives under a rock. Sandy is the only mammal for 20,000 leagues around, so she's used to kinda being a lone wolf -- or a lone squirrel. And Mr. Krabs would rather just hang out with his cash register and count his money in the back room than do anything else, so yeah, I think that they're probably doing better than SpongeBob."
Kenny has voiced SpongeBob since the Nickelodeon animated show's 1999 premiere, and he'll voice SpongeBob in a new program, The Stars of SpongeBob Fan Favorites Special, airing Friday, May 5, 2020 on Nickelodeon.
YouTube personality David Dobrik hosts the half-hour show, which features animation from original SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, with the regular voice cast redoing the same lines they delivered years ago. Fans were allowed to vote on a small selection of scenes at NickPlay.com, with the top vote-getters being used in the special.
Kenny said the re-created scenes felt fresh to the voice actors, even though they've done them before. "Some of (the scenes) are 20 years old, so those mental files were dumped long ago by the cast," he said. "So that just kinda adds to the fun."
The actor hopes the fan-favorites special provides some laughs in these strange times. The cast recorded from their homes, as opposed to joining together in one studio as they usually do.
YouTuber David Dobrik joins the SpongeBob cast for the fan favorites special. Dobrik grew up with the character, and Kenny dubs him a "SpongeBob kid." Courtesy Nickelodeon
"Cartoons are this kinda comfort-food product," Kenny said, in a friendly, professional voice you'd never connect to SpongeBob's bubbly, perky tones. (He sounds a bit like Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle star Bryan Cranston, actually.) "You can make it in a different way but the end product still looks and tastes and smells the same way it ever did. It's like a Krabby Patty."
Kenny himself is staying busy in his "pineapple under the sea in Studio City (California)," he said. In addition to recording for Rick and Morty -- he's voiced everyone from the ever-helpful Mr. Meeseeks and the cat-like Squanchy to the uber-creepy King Jellybean -- and other projects, he's working on regular SpongeBob SquarePants season 13 episodes as well as the show's upcoming new Nickelodeon spinoff, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years. (Neither the new SpongeBob season nor Kamp Koral have premiere dates yet.)
"Cartoons just translate globally to all cultures better than most pop culture." - Tom Kenny, voice of SpongeBob SquarePants
In the new show, a 10-year-old SpongeBob and young versions of his current pals enjoy crazy adventures at sleepaway camp.
"All the regulars are there, and you get to see them in their nascent days," said Kenny, demonstrating how he squeaks his versatile voice into an even higher register to voice "little-kid SpongeBob."
The spinoff show will be set up in the upcoming third film for SpongeBob and crew -- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, which includes flashbacks to the friends' Kamp Koral days. The film is currently scheduled for theatrical release on Aug. 7, having been postponed twice now by the coronavirus outbreak.
While the outbreak hasn't found its way into SpongeBob's fictional world, the character himself, long a favorite topic of meme-makers, is again showing up in plenty of memes about the virus.
In one, a nervous SpongeBob SquarePants hyperventilates underneath the caption, "Somebody said reopening the economy right now is like believing your ex changed after two months."
In another, SpongeBob appears to be getting up to leave his house, (he's actually sitting down), and the wording reads, "People with the coronavirus when they get infected and go to get other countries infected."
Cooper talked to Kenny before global protests erupted following the tragic death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis. But SpongeBob has turned up in those related memes as well, including one showing a sick SpongeBob after presumably contracting the virus at a protest, and one offering a jab at those who replaced their social media image with a black square, but did nothing else.
Kenny says he hasn't seen any of the coronavirus-specific SpongeBob memes -- and Cooper and Kenny spoke before the protest-related memes really took off -- but he understands why the character he voices has become such a universal backdrop, praising the expressiveness of the artwork and the artists' talents.
"Cartoons just translate globally to all cultures better than most pop culture," Kenny said. "I think that's why he's been so adopted by the meme culture."
Korra's Final Moments with Asami, Tenzin, and Mako! | Legend of Korra
In the conclusion to Book 4 of Legend of Korra, Korra has final conversations with her three closest allies–– Tenzin, Mako, and most importantly, Asami. Her and Korra get real about their feelings and end up deciding to take one of most the exclusive vacations in the Avatar-verse–– a trip to the spirit world! Korrasami 4 eva!
