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Charles Martinet

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Charles Martinet (born September 17, 1955) is an American actor and voice actor, who is best known for portraying many of Nintendo's famous characters, most notably Mario and Luigi from 1991 to 2023. After stepping down as the voice of Mario in August 2023, Martinet would continue to work with Nintendo as a Mario Ambassador.

Biography

Early life

Martinet's mother's family had been in the country since the Mayflower voyages, and his father's family had immigrated from France shortly after World War I, in which Charles' grandfather had served.

His family moved to Barcelona when he was 12 years old, and later to Paris. He attended the American School of Paris and graduated in 1974.

Martinet attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he originally intended to study international law. In his senior year, he decided to discontinue his studies after a tutor told him to "regurgitate information he'd written in his book, chapter-by-chapter". A friend suggested to him to take acting classes to combat his fear of public speaking. His first role was a monologue from the Spoon River Anthology.

Eventually, Martinet earned an apprenticeship at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. After training with the Berkeley Rep for several years, Martinet went to London to attend the Drama Studio London, where among other skills, he discovered his talent for accents and dialects. Upon returning to California he joined the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He went on to become a founding member of the San Jose Repertory Theatre for four years.

Mario (1991-2023)

Martinet earned the job as Mario's voice at Nintendo when one day in 1991, he was on the beach and received a call from a friend who told him that there was going to be an audition at a trade show in which auditioneers "talk to people as a plumber". He went to the audition at the last minute as the casting directors were already putting away their equipment. Charles Martinet walked in and asked, "Can I please read for this?". The directors let him audition and told him, "You're an Italian plumber from Brooklyn". At first, Martinet planned to talk like a stereotypical Italian American with a deep, raspy voice. He then thought to himself that it would be too harsh for children to hear, so he made it more soft-hearted and friendly, resulting in what Mario's voice is today. Martinet has also stated that he kept on talking with his Mario voice until the audition tape ran out.

At the time of his audition, Charles Martinet had never heard of Mario or Nintendo. Martinet originally was not invited to audition for the role of Mario; according to him, he crashed the auditions and was asked to do an Italian accent. His recordings left so much of an impression that they were the only ones sent to Nintendo. As a former Shakespearean actor, Martinet has stated that Mario's voice was based on his voice for Gremio, a character from The Taming of the Shrew.

Martinet was flown to SimGraphics in South Pasadena the next day to be fitted for the Mario in Real Time system, wherein he had motion sensors attached to his face, which transposed his facial movements to a computer-generated Mario head on a screen. Martinet watched people passing by the screen through a hidden camera and talked to them as Mario, used rather often by Nintendo for promotional events. He would not start voicing Mario in games until the 1994 CD release of Mario Teaches Typing (featuring an altered form of Mario in Real Time), which, while the first video game to have Mario portrayed by Martinet, has been contested by the Super Mario Bros. pinball machine in 1992, although no reliable source has been given to this claim. He formally debuted in the 1995 release of Mario's Game Gallery, where he spoke full dialogue as Mario for extended periods of time to the player.

Charles Martinet's voice for Mario would be solidified as standard by its usage in Super Mario 64. The non-Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 would be the first game to feature him as the voice actor for Luigi and Wario (with him having developed the former's voice when trying to minimize his mouth movements while speaking in Mario in Real Time), and he went on to also voice Waluigi upon the character's introduction in Mario Tennis.

As the long time voice of Mario, Martinet has become a well-known personality and has made public appearances at several video game related events where he meets fans for chat, photographs, and autographs. He has made regular appearances at game events such as Electronic Entertainment Expo, Gamescom, and the Eurogamer Expo, and at launch events of games like Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel.

With his work as Mario in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Martinet for having performed the same character in one hundred different titles, the most of any video game voice actor.[1]

In 2021, when asked if he wanted to voice Mario in the The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Martinet stated that it sounds marvelous and if invited he'd play Mario with great joy and happiness,[2] mirroring his earlier statements from 2003 of wanting to see an animated movie and that he would love to do every voice for Nintendo he possibly could.[3] Though he does not voice Mario and Luigi in the movie (with the characters instead being voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day in English, respectively), he provides the voices of their father and Giuseppe in various languages.[4]

Mario Ambassador (2023-present)

On August 21, 2023, Nintendo announced on Twitter that Martinet would be retiring from providing voice voicing characters in the Mario franchise, but would continue to work with Nintendo as Mario Ambassador, which entails interacting with fans, signing autographs, and performing his Mario voices at events.[5] Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the first Mario game not to feature Martinet with Kevin Afghani taking over the character. However, Martinet's voice clips are still used in newer games and reissues of games that featured them originally, as well as for Mario in Real Time at Nintendo New York and in attractions, costume meet-and-greets, and trailers for Super Nintendo World.

Voices

Trivia

Gallery

  Main article: Charles Martinet/gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ Charles Martinet now holds a Guinness record for voicing Mario 100 times The A.V. Club; Date: December 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ Nintendo Life: Charles Martinet Would Love To Voice Mario In Upcoming Illumination Movie
  3. ↑ nsider: E3 Interview: Charles Martinet
  4. ↑ Chris Pratt Will Voice Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie IGN; Date: September 24, 2021.
  5. ↑ Charles Martinet Steps Down As Mario, Now Mario Ambassador
  6. ↑ Convention Coverage (February 10, 2023). Charles Martinet Got This Response When He Pitched The Idea Of Voicing Link In The Legend Of Zelda

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