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When I visited the exhibit hall at GalaxyCon Richmond, I was intrigued by how Charles Martinet set up his booth. Formerly the voice of Mario and other characters for Nintendo’s Super Mario games, he’s still active as a Mario Ambassador to promote the beloved plumber. At this comic con in Virginia, I noticed that fans were amused to find music from the video games playing at the booth. And if you stopped by for an autograph, Martinet would do the voices of the characters he quoted while signing.
On Auditioning for Mario
Aside from this Mario party, Martinet spent time with fans at his panel, explaining how he crashed the audition for his most famous role almost 32 years ago. A call from a friend had him rushing to the place, where the cameraman and producer were already leaving.
Begrudgingly, the producer agreed to give Martinet a chance and told him, “You’re an Italian plumber from Brooklyn named Mario for a company called Nintendo.”
Martinet considered the audition prompt, but the first thing that came to mind was a gruff voice. He said to the Richmond audience, “I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that all day long! What if there are kids in the audience? Be scary and mean and angry?'”
Instead, Martinet pulled from his portrayal of Gremio from The Taming of the Shrew and made the voice younger. He spoke about Italian food with this Mario voice he created until the producer told him to stop talking. “We’re going to put spaghetti sauce on the pizza and then I’m going to chase you with the pizza. And if I catch you with the pizza, you got to eat the pizza!”
On Mario and Other Franchise Characters
For Martinet, Mario carries a special significance as a hero who loves and respects everyone. “I made that character to be the man that I want to be: always faithful, always loyal, always kind, always trustworthy. Protect the Princess, rescue her again and again.”
Martinet went on to voice Luigi, Mario’s brother, who is generally fearful but still acts courageous in the end. Their nemeses are Wario and Waluigi, also voiced by Martinet, who are portrayed as opposites to the heroes. Wario is about anger, while Waluigi is focused on self pity.
He described Waluigi as having the “energy that I have the right to do whatever I want because I’m not happy. Nobody treats me well!”
On Actors and Efficiency
Martinet is grateful for the acting jobs he’s done over his career. He wouldn’t change his portrayals, but he did point out one time when he could’ve done better in an interaction with a producer. He’d read for that company’s corporate videos before, so he did the next reading similarly for a follow-up job. But the producer asked for a different reading.
“I did that [other reading], but it was my attitude that was bad…When you put yourself outside looking in, you do less efficient work. That’s what I did in that session. I was less efficient because I was watching from the outside and [was] convinced that I knew better than the producer.”
For Martinet, the keys for a successful career are having the right attitude about your work and having fun. “That’s the thing about acting for me. It’s like, come and play in our sandbox. I’ve probably done close to 4,000 jobs and I’ve loved every single one of them!”
Visit the GalaxyCon Richmond website for more information.
