Charles Martinet interview

Last updated 14:54 09/09/2009

Martinetblog First, in answer to some comments about Halo 3: ODST (and hadleigh's kind offer to act as a travelling companion), I did have some hands-on time with both the campaign and the Firefight mode of Halo 3: ODST but the folks at Xbox have slapped me with a big old dirty Non-Disclosure Agreement by Xbox (which kinda sucks) so I can't say anything about what I saw until a few days before the game's released. I will, however, say that Firefight is great fun.

OK, I've finally got my interview with Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario sorted. Martinet first got involved with Mario when he voiced the character at trade shows using Nintendo's MIRT system - Mario In Real Time, an application that displayed a 3D Mario head on a TV screen. Martinet wore facial motion capture dots around his mouth and he could interact with visitors using a hidden camera setup. Martinet has provided voice work in more than 200 video games including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jet Set Radio Future and Ratchet and Clank, and there's a bit of a story about how he managed to get the gig to voice Mario ...

Charles Martinet (in his Mario voice): Hello, Gerard, it'sa me, Mario, woohoo.

Gerard: Hello, Mario, it's nice to talk to you.

Martinet: Hello to alla my friends at the Christchurch Pressa, Mamma Mia, you're number 1, woo hoo!

G: Now Charles, there's a wee bit of a story behind how you got to voice Mario. I understand a friend told you to go audition for it ...

M: Yes, it's true. It's the only audition I've ever crashed in my entire life. I'm sort of like at the beach relaxing and my friend says "You've got to go do this audition for a trade show," and I thought I'll just stay here and watch the sun set, it was about 5 o'clock and I knocked on the door and they had already put the camera in the bag, and I said 'Excuse me, can I please read for this?' and the producer, who looked at his watch, said, 'Oh, yeah, OK, you're an Italian plumber from Brooklyn and we've got this animation system, and we're not sure if it's even going to work yet, and you'll have this stuff glued to your face ... and the cartoon character will move when you talk. It's never been done before and in any case if it doesn't work you still gotta talk to people. So make up a video game, make up an accent and start talking to people. And whenever you stop talking, that's your audition.'

"So I'm standing there thinking 'OK, OK, an Italian plumber from Brooklyn. What should that sound like? In my brain it's like [puts on a tough plumber voice] 'Hey, howya doing? You know, I'm under ya sink here and don't bother me' but, of course, it was going to be for children and in a game so it should be really nice. I had never heard of Mario and I'd never thought what could be the plot of a game. I think I had played Space Invaders and Pong, so I thought what in the world could that be? I'm sitting there thinking and all of a sudden I hear 'action' and I turned to the camera and said [in Mario voice] "Hello, ima Mario. Okey dokey, letsa make a pizza pie together, you go get somea spaghetti, you go geta some sausage, I getta some sauce, you gonna put some spaghetti on the sausage and the sausage on the pizza, then I'm gonna chasea you with the pizza, then you gonna chasea me with the pizza, and gonaa makea lasagne.'

"And I don't know how it happened but I just kept talking non-stop until the tape ran out and I think literally that was about half an hour. I was at the producer's marriage anniversary recently and he said 'You know, when you were talking I turned to the camera guy and said "Do you think if we walked out the door right now and came back in 20 minutes, he'll be talking?" And the camera man said: "I bet he would, let's go!"'

"He said, great, great, stop, stop, the tape's stopped and we'll be in touch, which to an actor is like the kiss of death and you're done for when they say that. And I said 'OK, I'll go back to the beach.' No sooner had I got out the room, the producer picked up the phone and called someone at Nintendo and said 'I've found our Mario' and mine was the only tape he send up there. So I guess I did something right.

G: Was working in video games something that you had ever contemplated back then?

M: I never knew that video game characters had voices. In those days there was so little memory in a chip that you literally ... I had done war games when they asked you to die in a hundred and fifty different ways. OK, now you're shot in the head 'Urgh', now you're shot in the stomach 'Oogh', now you're shot in the arm 'Aagh', so you just sit there making tiny little noises because that's all the processor can do. And what I was doing wasn't even for a game, it was for a real time animation system [MIRT - Mario In Real Time] that we did over the internet so we could talk to kids around the world."

G: Over the years, you've done a lot of voice work for Mario but is there any one game that has resonated with you the most?

You know, that's a really great question. I have loved every single game I have ever done. The first game I did with Mario's voice was Mario64 and that was such a joy. I remember we had a script, but we were also doing improvising voice and they said 'When you put the controller down we want to do something to make it just an interim thing' and I said what about if he (Mario) falls asleep. So I went (in Mario voice) 'ZZZZ, spaghetti, ravioli, ZZZ, oh mamma mia." That was so new and so alive then I'd have to say recording Mario Kart doing all the characters was super fun. And Super Mario Galaxy (in Mario voice) 'Welcome to my neeeew galaxy, woo hoooo' which I recorded in Japan. There are just certain things that stand out like that. Fantastic memories. And Nintendo is so wonderful. They've just been so kind to me. There I was playing Mario and there were all these other characters that came into existence: Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, then baby Luigi and baby Mario and each time they said 'Well, what would they sound like?' [Martinet breaks out into the voices of Luigi, Wario, Walugi, baby Luigi and baby Mario.] It's been such a joy."

G: Has the voice become easier over time? Is it like second nature to you now?

That's a great question. It actually always has been. As soon as that voice for Mario was there, that's always been there for me. I find myself walking down the street going 'do, do, do, do, do, do wah hoo' I just think that way. When I have a rotten day and I'm in a bad mood I'm a Wario. The characters are so wonderful that they become a part of me."

G: How does it feel to be voicing what is perhaps one of the most iconic game characters in the history of games?

It brings joy, and fabulous memories. In the DS game, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, I remember doing some Italian speech [breaks into some Italian] and I put in there little words - I have five nieces and a nephew - and I put in words that I can remember they heard as babies, so I'll put in little words there. You forget what you've done until you play the game. Like the "Waaaaaaaaaah" noise when Mario falls off a wall, I remember doing that and it always brings back a smile.

It is a huge honour, though. The amount of work that goes into a video game is like a cake but a cake the size of the Empire State Building. [Martinet slips back into Mario] 'Woo hoo, letsa go, okey dokey, ah hoo, oh yeah' and it has such a wonderful effect on people and the honour is in the fact that people that love Mario associate me with that, and they tell me that it brings them joy. Which to me ... there is no greater honour to be doing something that you love doing and having that have an impact of joy for people."

G: How different is doing voice work compared to working as an actor? Do you prefer one craft over the other?

You know, I love 'em all. Of course for me Mario will always be the favourite: I absolutely love Mario and I love the character. You know, I think Mr Miyamoto is a genius in being able to create a character that is like an everyman who falls in love with a princess and spends his life rescuing the princess and has a wonderful loving and positive nature ... I wish I could be more like that!

G: How much of your personality do you bring into Mario when you do the voice work?

I think it's a mutual effect that Mario has such an effect on me and I try to have an effect on Mario. When we do MIRT and are talking to children my first rule in comedy and life is not to be harmful to people and never make a joke at other people's expense and I think that maybe with me having fun and doing something that I enjoy are all things that I live by. And I think - and hope - that some of that comes out in the character: of carefree, joyful, grateful, happy - because that's certainly what Mario brings to me.

G: How do fans react when they finally meet the man who has been voicing Mario for such a long time? Are they blown away?

It's so sweet. Even the big burly guy with tattoos on him comes up and goes 'Oh my gosh, I played Mario since I was a little boy and I love that voice. It's so great to meet you.' It's so great. It's like in a way the innocence of Mario rubs off on everybody. And you know, people do come up and say 'I've played your game my whole life' and I love that. Mario brings so much joy to people. I get the reflection of that joy.

G: Have you played a lot of the Mario games yourself, and if so do you have any personal favourites?

Yes, I do, but my big confession is that I'm not very good at any of them. At E3 we were playing a preview of the new Super Mario Brothers for the Wii, which is one of my most favourite games I've ever played, and you can play very cooperatively and you help each other out, you pick each other up, you jump across an abyss, or you can be very competitive and throw someone into the abyss. And I thought when people were playing cooperatively 'Oh, I can get pretty good at this' but when people were playing competitively, I didn't make it very far. I lost very fast.

I love all the games: I love Super Mario Galaxy and I can't wait for Super Mario Bros to come out on Wii. Those are games that, to me, are absolutely timeless fun and Mario Kart, of course. It's super fun. I wish I could say that I was really good at Mario Power Tennis but I'm not."

G: These days a lot more actors are doing voice work for video games. Why do you think it's such an appealing prospect for actors?

M: It's a great gig. Voiceover work is kinda like a dog chasing a ball on the beach: it's pure focus, pure fun, and like a cartoon, with a lot of games - you can go way over the top and just have complete joyful fun. You don't just laugh 'ha, ha, ha', you laugh "HA HAAAAA' You really feel the big emotions. It's a bit like opera. You get to play the craft and the skill and try to make it as much of an art form as you can. It's great doing voice work for video games because, especially for me, you've got this beautiful character, there's storyline, there's adventure. You get to kind of live through the character all that joy and fun. So, who wouldn't want to do that?"

G: Charles, thanks very much for your time. You've been the highlight of the day.

M: Thank you Gerard and I hope I get to see you some day. [Slips into Mario's voice] Thank you very mucha, woo hoo.

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