Italian American stand-up comedian and actor, Sebastian Maniscalco, has revealed in a recent appearance on Live! with Kelly and Mark that he applied to be the voice of the iconic Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. He went to the audition and was sadly turned down, but he was offered the role of Spike. Maniscalco says he was grateful to be a part of the movie and says that Chris Pratt, who was played the role of Mario, “did a great job.”
“Everybody was like, ‘How come they didn’t cast an Italian American for the role?’ So I read for Mario, and I went in there, and I did the whole, ‘It’s a’me, Mario!’ And then they said, ‘We’re gonna give you Spike.’ Apparently, that didn’t work out. So it was great to be part of that movie, the thing’s a juggernaut, and Chris did a great job.”
I’m over this whole, people should get roles because they are whatever race or nationality of a character, ESPECIALLY more so when it’s an animated role. Everyone should be able to audition of course, but the role should go to whoever they deem best for it. Not to check boxes. Not saying Pratt would’ve been my choice, but letting the diversity game dictate who should be cast instead of who earns the role? No.
How far would it even go with casting diverse crew though, their are so many woman who voice young guy characters, and no one ever bats an eye over that, casting a young boy in a cartoon is super low nowadays and even back in the early 2000’s and even if your casted your most likely gonna star in a live action sitcom than an animated show or film, I honestly really don’t care about diverse casting and rather have someone that sounds good and fits the the character.
People get peepee hurt when someone that isn’t their color is voicing them especially when it comes to black characters cuz you will hear about it from the black neo Nazis 24/7. They scream about DEI which i don’t believe in cuz it’s actually about being inclusive to certain groups, mainly black neo Nazis and the infinite ABC soup community. Sometimes Mexicans are included as long as they are aligned with their left wing and liberal agendas.
I kinda agree and disagree; yes a chris pratt should be able to play a Mario or let’s say its not the race that might male Prat problematic for some. But I still do understand why its a problem to cast white people into asian or black characters. I’m not sure if I care that much if its in animation movies, but in live action movies that stuff happened and I totally understand that discussion and the issues that people have with for instance Tilda Swinton in Dr. Strange and similar cases.
Its on the other hand interesting when nobody mentions that it also works in both directions as Christopher Judge is the actor behind Kratos which was always righteously seen as a win. But then again, thats also because we’re still speaking about cultural minorities here and as long as there aren’t popping up dozens of cases where black cops kill white men, shit ain’t gonna change.
Whie this whole discussion can be pretty tedious and repetitive at times, its still an interesting one to observe as it all feels very transitional. 30 years ago, racism, sexism and stuff was just part of our lives and you had to deal with it, be the wolf or the sheep blabla.
In 30 years this discussion might have found a few conclusions and we are about in the middle of it. At least thats how it feels.
Who?
He looks like Steve-O from Jackass.