Chris Pratt gets candid about changing accent for ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’

Chris Pratt, who is garnering praises for his work in The Super Mario Bros. Movie revealed that he changed his Italian accent in the film on director’s demand.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie star said his Italian accent needed some work before he could successfully voice Mario. 

Pratt spoke with movie costars Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, and Charlie Day for Entertainment Weekly’s Around the Table segment on Thursday.

The actor explained it was uneasy for him to perfect his Italian accent. “For a minute, I walked in and they were like, ‘That’s a little New Jersey. You’re doing a Tony Soprano thing,'” he said.

Meanwhile, Pratt’s costar, Day, who voices Luigi in the movie, also had trouble nailing his Italian accent.

“We tried different things, different voices,” Day said. “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.”

In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, plumber brothers Mario and Luigi are sucked into a magical portal where they meet iconic characters Princess Peach played by Taylor-Joy, Bowser played by Black, Toad played by Key, and Donkey Kong played by Seth Rogan. 

Mario, with the help of Princess Peach and Toad, try to stop Bowser from taking over the world and save Luigi.

“It was a really exciting and daunting challenge,” Pratt said. “Talking to these guys, they say, ‘You wanna do the Mario movie?’ I think both of us 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 out, Are they Italian? Are they American? We know a little bit about Charles Martinet’s voice that he’s sprinkled in there with the ‘Wahoo!’ and ‘It’s-a 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?” Pratt continued.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been released in theaters on April 5.