Chris Pratt’s original Mario voice for the movie was rejected for being “a little New Jersey”

Chris Pratt has provided more insight into coming up with his voice for Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which took some time to get right.

Pratt told Variety that initially, he was told that his performance was “a little New Jersey” and he was “doing a Tony Soprano thing.” He said:

“For a minute, I walked in and they were like, ‘That’s a little New Jersey. You’re doing a Tony Soprano thing.’ [The voice] was a really exciting and daunting challenge. Talking to these guys, they say, ‘You wanna do the Mario movie?’ I think both [Charlie Day and I] said yes. Didn’t even ask, ‘What’s the deal? What’s the story?’ ‘Yes, I’m in.’ And then we had to really dig in and figure out… are they Italian? Are they American?”

Charlie Day, the voice of Luigi in the film, added that the cast “tried different things, different voices.” Those working on the film would sometimes say “Charlie, maybe a little less ‘Goodfellas’ in this one”.

Pratt didn’t have too much to reference for past Mario performances, as Charles Martinet – the voice actor for the games – has only had small sound bites here and there. But Pratt further explained his approach with Variety, stating:

“To develop the voice, I sampled various Italian and New York accents. As the directors and I developed the character, we came to land on a voice that is different than Charles Martinet’s version of Mario, but also different from my own voice…My hope is that people will come into the movie with an open mind and that once they see the film, any criticism around Mario’s accent will disappear.”

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is playing in theaters now.