Hollywood star Chris Pratt's Mario voice has been a topic of discussion ever since the first trailer for 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' debuted last October.
Some fans claimed that it wasn't Italian enough, while others felt it was too aggressively Brooklyn, reports Variety.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pratt revealed that one of his first attempts at the Mario voice got rejected by the film's directors, Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, because it far too resembled Tony Soprano, the anti-hero mob boss played by James Gandolfini in HBO's 'The Sopranos'.
"For a minute, I walked in and they were like, 'That's a little New Jersey. You're doing a Tony Soprano thing,' Pratt said, quoted by Variety. "(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 outaare they Italian? Are they American?"
Pratt added: "We know a little bit about Charles Martinet's voice that he's sprinkled in there with the 'Wahoo!' and 'It's me!' and these Mario things, but how do you craft a 90-minute narrative with an emotional through-line and create a living, breathing person about who you'll care?"
"We tried different things, different voices," Day added. "Every now and then they would say, 'Charlie, maybe a little less 'Goodfellas' in this one' - I'm like, 'Alright! I think you're wrong, but fine!' - until they landed on something they liked."