Exclusive Interview: Steve Cardenas Talks Power Rangers at 20

Steve Cardenas had an interesting career path as a Power Ranger.Brought in to replace the popular Red Ranger played by Austin St. John, (check him out on Facebook and Twitter) the martial artist-turned-actor went through a cattle call audition not unlike what you might see for American Idol. He joined thousands of other would-be Rangers–professional and amateur actors, martial artists and stunt men–and was whittled down to a final three who had to travel from Dallas to Los Angeles to be interviewed by producers.Once he got the gig, Cardenas played Rocky the Red Ranger and the Blue Zeo Ranger, which took up about five years of his life before he left the series–and show business–rather abruptly, his character replaced by a 10-year-old in one of the stranger cast changes in the show’s twenty-year history.Now founding his own martial arts studio and hitting the convention circuit in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Cardenas joined ComicBook.com to talk about his experiences on the series, with the show’s fans and the kind of surreal nature of looking back on a job you had in your twenties and realizing that, more than a decade later, people are still talking about it.ComicBook.com: It’s interesting: My experience with Power Rangers fans, especially the adult ones, is that they’re very passionate. Is it a little weird dealing with that phenomenon when you haven’t been in show business your whole life?