Actor Chris Pratt responded to backlash over his accent in his upcoming project, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” — and he encouraged his would-be critics to see the movie before passing judgment. “You know what? In all honesty, I think you probably need to watch it twice,” he said.
Pratt, who voices the titular character Mario, joined Extra’s Jenn Lahmers alongside his costar Charlie Day — who voices Luigi — to discuss the movie and some of the fan complaints about the characters’ accents. The main point of contention was the move to use more of an Italian-by-way-of-Brooklyn accent than straight Italian.
WATCH:
Chris Pratt reacts to criticism of voice accents in #SuperMarioMovie: "Go watch the movie and then we can talk." Full interview: https://t.co/p2LDxJcOmf pic.twitter.com/BhMZSsSHZC
— ExtraTV (@extratv) March 27, 2023
Lahmers tackled the issue head on, saying that she felt like the movie had handled the accents in a fun way — but then she asked what the actors would say to those who were bothered by the fact that they didn’t sound more Italian.
“I — you know, come watch the movie,” Pratt began, and Day nodded in agreement. “Go watch the movie and then we can talk. I really think that once you see the movie — and, you know what? In all honesty, I think you probably need to watch it twice.”
Pratt went on to acknowledge that there were a lot of super-fans in the “Super Mario Bros.” fanbase — counting himself among them — and he said that he absolutely understood that no one wanted to see a movie company come in and change a piece of their childhood in order to make a “cash grab.”
“This is the soundtrack to your youth, and you don’t want someone to come along and cynically kind of just destroy it as a cash grab with the movie,” he said. “I fully understand that, you do not want that to happen. And there are so many hearts and souls and minds dedicated to making sure that didn’t happen … it really honors the video game and honors the world of Mario.”
Pratt went on to joke about wanting to make better animated movies not just because the audience would love them but also because, as a parent, he was going to be subjected to most of them anyway.
“Now that I have kids, I have to see every animated movie whether it’s good or not,” he joked.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
“Mario” is slated to hit theaters on April 5.
WATCH MORE HERE: