Charles Martinet who has played the voice of Mario in over 150 games has revealed he did not prepare for the role.
In an interview with Retro Gamer Magazine published online by Games Radar, Charles Martinet spoke of his experience playing the voice of gamin’s most popular character. One of the more surprising facts from the interview revealed that he initially did not know the role he was auditioning for. After learning of the part he had just a few moments to come up with the now iconic voice.
“As I was walking in the door, the producer was walking out and the cameraman behind him with the case. And I said, ‘Hi, can I read for this part?’ And he signs and goes, ‘OK. Alright, we’ll set the camera back up, come on in. You’re an Italian plumber from Brooklyn named Mario, for this company Nintendo, it’s a video game character. — So, make up a voice, make up a video game, make up anything you want, I don’t care, just carry on until you run out of things to say.’ ”
“I’m literally thinking, ‘OK, video game {Pac-man} Wakka wakka wakka. How do you make up a video game? Italian plumber from Brooklyn? {Rough voice} Hey, get outta my face, I’m working ‘ere. — if I did that for nine hours a day, it would be horribly unhappy and negative — so a nice Italian guy, you know? I’ll make it younger, I’ll just make up things about food.’ ”
“And I heard ‘ACTION!’ I said {Mario} ‘Hello, I’m-a-Mario, let’s make a pizza pie together. You get some sausage, I will get some spaghetti. And then I chase you with the pizza, and if I catch you with the pizza, you gotta eat de pizza.’ He didn’t say cut, — and he never said stop, so I kept going through every pasta I have ever heard of, and then I started making pasta up [until] I finally heard, ‘Stop talking, cut, there’s no more video tape. Stop, thank you, we’ll be in touch.’ And I was for sure that was the end, I would never hear another word. ”
