Cast to ThirdPersonCharacter from ThirdPerson_AnimBP delivers variable but fails to cast

Using the default character and anim bp from the third person project I am trying to cast to third person character from that character’s associated anim bp like this:

I am using the values from the associated third person character to determine which blend space I use and the movement values for it.

In the above example I am getting the variables directly from third person character in the Idle/Run State graph instead of assigning them to variables in anim bp and using those variables. I get the same result both ways (version 1 spams “cast failed” string, and version 2 gives me the The following warning)

Error Blueprint Runtime Error: Accessed None trying to read property K2Node_DynamicCast_AsThird_Person_Character from function: 'ExecuteUbergraph_ThirdPerson_AnimBP' from node: Blend Poses by bool in graph: Idle/Run in object: ThirdPerson_AnimBP with description: Accessed None trying to read property K2Node_DynamicCast_AsThird_Person_Character

It seems to work just fine, I get the values and I don’t notice any hiccups in the animations that might suggest I am not keeping the proper values of axis_right and axis_forward in my anim bp, but even as I am getting the values as desired I am still getting constant stream of failed casts.

Anyone have any ideas on how to prevent all these failed casts? I am not having issues with them currently, but I would like to resolve this now if possible, rather than wait for it to break something later.