John Leguizamo, the actor behind Luigi in the original Super Mario Bros. movie (actually the live-action version), criticized the casting of the new animated film.
No one is entirely happy with the casting of the Super Mario Bros. movie (mostly because of Chris Pratt), but one of the original actors who portrayed the taller, greener Mario Bros. recently had some criticism of the cast . In a recent interview with IndieWire, Leguizamo expressed his displeasure with the lack of variety in Illumination’s development films.
“I’m OG and a lot of people love the original,” Leguizamo told IndieWire. “I went to Comic-Con in New York and Baltimore, and everyone said, ‘No, no, we like the old, the original.’ They didn’t feel the new. I didn’t hit the ball, which is unfortunate.”
The actor went on to talk about his role in the original film, saying, “The directors, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, worked so hard to cast me in the lead role because I’m Latin and they [the studio] I don’t want to be the main character. They played so hard and made such a breakthrough.make them go backwards instead of casting another [actor of colour] Kind of sucks. ”
The film’s cast was announced last year, and everyone was surprised when it was revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy star Pratt would voice the role, rather than Mario himself Charles Martinet. Martinet seemed to be feeling a bit of pain in recent trailers, as voice actor Tara Strong called on fans to reminisce about their experiences with Mario’s voice actor after speaking about the film’s casting.
Other cast members include Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad (who sings a bit in the film), and Seth Logan plays Donkey Kong.
