Original Mario voice actor Charles Martinet has shared more on how he came up with the voice for Nintendo’s moustachioed plumber.
Back in 2023, Nintendo announced that Martinet, the exuberant voice of Mario, would no longer be the English voice actor behind Nintendo’s most recognisable mascot, after almost 30 years in the job. Starting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the role was instead taken on by Kevin Afghani, while Martinet became a Mario Ambassador.
But, how did Martinet actually come up with the ‘whoops’ and ‘wahoooooos’ of Mario? Well, first off, it turns out that Martinet actually crashed Nintendo’s audition for Mario without knowing anything about the character. In fact, he didn’t even know anything about Nintendo. But even so, he had “so much fun at the audition” many decades ago, and soon his iconic legacy began.
“I was simply told to start talking, and when you run out of things to say, that’s your audition,” Martinet told GamingBible. “I didn’t want to do an Italian plumber sounding gruff, mean and nasty or scary to children, like a Mafia member. I didn’t know whether the audience would have children in it, but I have a principle of comedy of always being kind. I thought to myself that I’ll do something much more silly and fun. I didn’t know anything about video games, so I just made things up about food and started talking.”
Martinet added that “being able to bring that joy into children’s and adults’ lives” has been a “tremendous honour” for him.
“When they tell me stories of growing up with Mario, and playing the games with their parents, grandparents, and now their children, it gives me such a feeling of joy that cannot be described. I’m just grateful for those moments every day.”
Since his turn as the voice of Mario in the games, Martinet did have a rather charming cameo in the Super Mario Bros. Movie. Here, he voiced Mario and Luigi’s father. Mario and Luigi’s father appears in multiple scenes during the film’s opening section in Brooklyn, and again at the end, when Bowser’s castle comes crashing back through to the “human” world.
At one point, we hear Mario and Luigi’s father congratulating his sons by saying: “That’s my boys!” Awww! I wonder if he will return for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, as well…?
