The character of Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy is my son Ben’s favorite character because of 2 reasons. First, Ben thought it was cool that Yondu could see into the future, and second, Ben thought it was cool that Yondu could direct and control an arrow by his own whistle. Yes, 2 pretty cool powers to a 9 year old!

Michael Rooker plays the role of Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy and reprises his role as Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

When I saw that Michael was on the roster of interviews for our blogger secret set visit and interviews, I was excited! Just as Dave Bautista was in full costume, so was Michael when he arrived for our group interview. I have to admit – his costume is intimidating! You know there’s a “real man” under the makeup and clothes, but it’s still pretty fascinating to sit there interviewing him while he’s in his Yondu costume. You almost can’t take your eyes off of him because you’re so fixated on everything – he’s blue and has a fin on his head!

We couldn’t help but ask, “Is the new addition (fin) heavy?”

“The fin’s not heavy. Not at all. It’s hollow and I thought they were going to put lights and different things in it, but they decided not to.”

And yes… the fin does work into the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 story line!

Here’s the thing about Michael – he’s hilarious. He’s quirky and cool and was fascinating to listen to throughout our interview. What was cool to discover from Michael was that James Dunn brought some of the “real” Michael into the character of Yondu, too.

“Gunn wrote it, you know, and it’s a continuation of Yondu in the first script. He wrote that for me, so he just wrote more odd things that I get to do and stuff because he knows me and he knows I’m a wee bit odd, so he just plays on it and writes some silly things. It’s not all silly, but it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.”

It wasn’t surprising to hear that Michael really doesn’t have a tough time getting into character because “it was really written for me, so he (James Dunn) uses a lot of… just some of my ways.”

Michael’s excited for the audience to learn more about Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and see a different side of his character. “You do see there’s some differences from the first one. You don’t get too in depth with the first one. We get to learn a bit more about Yondu and stuff. His relationship with Quill, you know… you’re experiencing some more cool stuff with Yondu for sure. Yeah. Definitely. I won’t tell you specifics because I don’t want you to know! [LAUGHS]”

We had a feeling Michael wasn’t going to give us too much intel on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but we thought it would be fun to find out from him if his crew rebels in this one! He was VERY funny with his immediate answer, “I’m here to entertain you. I’m not here to give you any kind of information [LAUGHS]!”

Honestly, Michael was hilarious! He really DID entertain us and keep us laughing throughout the interview. Although, he did dish a bit about his crew and gave us some inside info… “My crew is a very violent and aggressive crew. And they’re always looking, I’ll just put it this, they always look for a weakness… There’s, you know, there’s loyalty going on, but there’s also a lot of rivalry. Almost in everything and that’s kind of the dynamics, that’s what is going on. There’s this rivalry and for me it goes on all the time because of who Yondu is. He’s the leader of this whole ravaging group.”

Before we ended our interview, we NEEDED to ask about that whistle! I mean, his whistle is a defining piece of Yondu. We were dying to know (and I was, too, so I could tell my sons!) if Yondu’s whistle in the movie was actually HIS whistle.

“Well, it’s harder to do with the teeth in [COSTUME TEETH], so I can still do it, but it’s a lot more difficult. I’m probably going to be doing some ADR in my future you know, for this whistle. It sounds pretty good, but they enhanced the other whistle, too [from Guardians of the Galaxy], so I’m assuming they’re going to enhance this whistle.”

Now that I know James Dunn has created Yondu on much of who Michael Rooker is as a person, I will be watching him on screen in a completely different way. I love that Yondu has many characteristics and traits of Michael. I think this is amazing. He was such a character within himself to meet, that it truly has made me a Yondu fan. He kept us laughing for 20 minutes and beyond that, was interested to learn about us, too! He kept asking us where we were from, how many kids we have (he couldn’t believe I had 5 kids!) and what kinds of blogs we write. He was happy to share, but also curious to learn about us, too.

Michael Rooker, you have a new big fan now! I cannot wait to view Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and see that fin in action, the whistle in motion and his character rocking the screen with his crew.

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GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 is in theaters May 5th!

Disclosure: This is a press trip with Marvel. All travel expenses were covered and all opinions are 100% my own.