Carly Mallenbaum

USA TODAY

The more you learn about actor Ryan Potter, the clearer it becomes that he was meant to voice Hiro Hamada, the protagonist of Disney's Big Hero 6.

In the animated film, opening Friday, teenage robotics genius Hiro, his robot and his science-superpowered friends band together to fight evil. The film is based on the Japan-set Marvel Comic of the same name.

Voicing this character is "surreal," says Potter, who uses that word often to describe his Big Hero 6 experience. The role marks Potter's first feature film and voice-acting experience. He's best known for the Nickelodeon show Supah Ninjas.

"I grew up watching Disney films, reading Marvel Comics, (watching) Japanese animation. This film really combines every aspect of my childhood together," he says.

Hiro was designed before Potter took the role, but the two have bold eyebrows, round faces, bright smiles, slim physiques and aren't very tall — well, Potter has several inches on the approximately-five-foot-tall Hiro. Also, they're both half-Japanese, half-Caucasian.

Seeing the character for the first time, at Potter's audition, "was kinda surreal," he says.

Then there's Hiro's hometown: San Fransokyo.

Though Potter has never spent time in the fictional hybrid city, he's quite familiar with San Francisco, where he spends holidays, and Tokyo, where he lived the first seven years of his life. (He lives in West Los Angeles now.)

The actor isn't exactly a brainy inventor like his animated counterpart, but he does enjoy creating. Instead of programming robots, he builds with LEGOs, popsicle sticks, clay or wood. "I've always been building and building," says Potter, who sometimes posts his artwork to Instagram.

It's true that Potter doesn't quite fight evil, but he is a skilled fighter with about 12 years of training in traditional Kung Fu.

That's actually what got him into acting in the first place. There was a casting call in his martial arts studio for a part in a series that would become Supah Ninjas. Potter almost tossed the flier, but his mom convinced him to give it a shot. "You'll be able to take the day off of school … and we'll be able to see what Hollywood looks like," she said.

He got that day off from school, all right. And now, after graduating from high school, starring in a show, and leading a Disney voice cast, Potter's getting a glimpse of what being a recognizable Hollywood face is.

"When people come up to me and ask for a photo, ask for an autograph, I'm like 'Me? Are you sure?' I don't consider myself to be a public figure. I just happen to be," he says, now that he has over 35,000 Twitter followers.

"It's surreal to have people beg me to follow them. It's like, why? … A majority of my life is spent getting donuts, doing martial arts and seeing friends," he says, contending that he's just a normal guy. But if someone wants to take a picture, "I'll be happy to do it."

Potter began working on Big Hero 6 a year and a half ago, before his voice dropped. "I went through the change during recording," he laughs, explaining that he used his regular voice at the start of the shoot, but now, demonstrating Hiro's voice, he has to "go in a slightly higher register."

Does that mean it's time for the 19-year-old to try for more adult acting roles?

Not necessarily. "I love acting, and I'm going to continue to do it," but I also want to learn about "the other side of the camera," he says. Potter, who cites filmmakers Ray Harryhausen and Tim Burton as inspirations from his sixth-grade stop-motion animation class, is looking into Los Angeles film schools.

In Big Hero 6, Hiro is thinking about applying to schools, too — but in robotics, of course.