MOVIES
Chris Pratt on playing iconic role of Mario in ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’
The ‘Jurassic World’ actor revealed the most challenging part of taking on the iconic role as Mario.
With ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ set to hit theaters April 5, the movie’s star, Chris Pratt, is making his promotional rounds. Pratt, who plays Mario in the iconic pop culture film, has revealed the trepidations of taking on such a momentous role.
Chris Pratt has starred in a litany of major franchises, including Marvel superhero films and ‘Jurassic World’, yet he says the role of Mario is the most weighty one yet.
The things you love as a kid
In an interview with Gizmodo io9 published March 29, Pratt compared memories of his childhood watching the original ‘Jurassic Park’ and playing ‘Super Mario Bros.’ video games.
“I loved Jurassic Park as a kid,” Pratt said, “I was 13 years old when it came out. It was a big part of my childhood. I might have seen the movie five or six times through the course of growing up.”
“Well, five or six times is, you know, a few hours,” the actor continued, “I played this game [Nintendo Super Mario Bros.] for hundreds of hours. Probably maybe 1,000 hours of my childhood.”
“And so the sound of hitting a coin, catching a flower, hearing the score, every little detail of the movie, it was like I was hypnotized by it as a child,” Pratt recalled, “So to see it now, nothing really compares to it in terms of my relationship to the brand.”
The significance of the role
When the topic moved to the trepidation of taking on such a legendary role, Pratt admitted that it was really intimidating to take it on — but there was an advantage to playing a video game character in a movie: the creative scope in which the actor has to define the role.
“[Mario’s character] is largely undefined, but I think because it’s largely undefined, it kind of reduces the amount of trepidation that I personally felt coming in,” Pratt explained. “I mean, you have great reach. Anytime you have IP like this, it’s really something that’s almost required these days to create a big tentpole type of movie for these studios. You have to have some kind of reach.
“The fact that this hasn’t been a major motion picture recently was a really great thing,” Pratt continued, “there’s not that much familiarity beyond just what their costumes look like and a handful of catchphrases that you might hear.”
“And knowing that it was Illumination, I was like, ‘Boy, I think this is destined to be a home run.’ So I was really, really grateful to be a part of it.”
Pratt responds to skepticism over casting
The interviewer pointed out that when Chris Pratt was cast in the role of Mario, the announcement was met with excitement, confusion, and criticism, and asked the actor how he feels about the mixed reaction.
“Oh, I totally get it, man,” Pratt said. “There’s a passionate fan base and I’m one of the fans. I get it. Mostly, people don’t want something like this to get screwed up. They’re precious about it. They’re careful. And I’m grateful for that.