Q&A with Actor Mario Cantone

Rick DeMott talks with voice actor Mario Cantone about his experience playing stressed-out shorebird Mikey Abromowitz in Surf's Up, the second feature from Sony Pictures Animation, opening June 8.

by Rick DeMott

Mario Cantone comes to the production from the world of stage and stand-up comedy, making him a perfect fit for the musical theater talent scout, who now scours the globe for the next big wave in surfing. Cantone's character has rapid-fire report with his cutthroat boss, Reggie Belafonte, who is voiced by James Woods. Cantone gained critical acclaim for the Tony-nominated Laugh Whore. His TV and film work includes Sex in the City, The Aristocrats and Mousetrap. The longtime animation fan got his big break in the entertainment industry in the late '80s hosting the local New York kid's program, Steampipe Alley, which featured sketch comedy, games and classic animated shorts.

Rick DeMott: Is this your first chance to do voice work for an animated movie?

Mario Cantone: I was involved in another animated movie for three years that just recently fell apart. I started that one first and then this one came along. I'm a big animation buff. I don't do this for my kids, because I don't have any. I love a lot of animation. I know a lot about the classic feature films from the '30s, '40s and '50s. To get to do this finally in my career is something that I've always wanted to do. It's a long time coming.

RD: For this film they brought together some of the actors to work off each other, how was that experience?

MC: I worked with James Woods, who I work a lot with in the movie. So I got to work with him a few times and it was a blast. Slightly intimidating at first, but a lot of fun. We came up with a lot of good stuff together.

RD: Was there memorable stories working with James Woods?

MC: He was just nutty. He's pretty crazy and funny. I asked him a lot of questions about his career and he loved talking about and I loved listening to it. He's Hollywood royalty.

RD: What attracted you to this character?

MC: When I sat down with Chris Jenkins, the producer, and Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, the directors, knowing the animated projects they worked on before, and when they showed me the character and told me what he was, I was like, "yeah, let's go." It was a new company within Sony that was just starting to do these films and they had some good people that had a good history with animation. And thank God, it turned out brilliantly. No one wants to make a bad movie, they all set out [to make good movies], but you never know what is going to happen. It really turned out great. It's nice to be able to sell a movie you believe. The surfing community -- including the likes of Kelly Slater and Rob Machado, who have cameos in the film, really put their stamp of approval on it, which says a lot, because that's a tough group of boys.

RD: What kind of direction did you get?

MC: They just let me go. They would give me the script and just let me go. The best direction was just sitting there watching Chris, Chris and Ash laugh hysterically for three hours with me. So that was fun. It gives you confidence and makes you feel like you're doing the right thing.

RD: So they encouraged a lot of improv?

MC: Oh yeah, they told me that from the beginning. They told me that they wanted a lot of improvisation and I was like, "You picked the right guy."

RD: Did they have a full idea of the character before you came in or did you tweak it a little?

MC: I think they matched me up with him. I added the whole musical theater thing to it, but it was a talent scout so from there you get casting agent or frustrated performer and that kind of thing. They definitely matched up my voice to this character for a reason.

RD: What are some of the animated characters that have influenced your career?

MC: I love Jiminy Cricket. He's kind of like Mikey, because he's the voice of reason at time. I love Peter Pan. I love Lady and the Tramp. I love all those classics. It took me awhile to get use to all the CGI stuff. At first it was very plastic looking and it's finally softening up and they're giving it more style, because every animated movie has a different style. If you look at Pinocchio, it's very watercolor. And Bambi is very pastel. And Sleeping Beauty is very angular and detailed. So in CG if you have a background of a row of suburban houses, it just looks like a row of suburban houses, there's no style to it. If they draw lawn, bushes or hedges, it just looks like lawn, bushes and hedges. There's no flare to it. But it's finally, softening up. And this movie has a great look to it and that's the other thing I really love about it. That's important. You can't just draw an iceberg and have it look like an iceberg, if you're doing an animated film. It has to have some kind of style to it.

RD: When you first heard about the mockumentary style to Surf's Up, was that something that you connected to from the start?

MC: Oh yeah, I thought it was brilliant, because it had never been in animation. So when you have the animators asking you questions as your character, you just get to go. And that's a lot of the way they directed the actors just by doing that too. That was pretty refreshing and pretty new.

RD: As an animation fan, were you involved in choosing the animation for Steampipe Alley?

MC: Wow. You mean all the Warner Bros. cartoons?

RD: Yeah.

MC: I was much more concerned with the sketch work and the comedic aspect. It was the producers' choice to do the Warner Bros. cartoons, which was great because they're classics and they're great. It really added a lot to the show. But there were a few times when I'd say, "hey can we show the one with Michigan J. Frog."

RD: One thing about Steampipe Alley was that you injected pop culture innuendo and that was before Shrek, that was before it became common, so was it exciting to come back to family entertainment where that's the norm now?

MC: Yes. And this movie walks that edge too. And I love being able to do that. And people who don't know that I did a kid's show -- like I was being interviewed earlier and they say your stand-up is kind of blue and you swear -- first of all I know the difference when I'm on television from when I'm in the theater or in the club and I'm live and secondly I had a kid's show for five years so I know how to walk that line. But the thing with Steampipe Alley too was that it was on WWOR, which was like a superstation and did go all over the nation, but it was on an independently owned TV station, so we didn't have the crazy suits and censorship that we would have had had it been on network. So we got away with a lot. And I look back at that now and I can't believe I got away with that. I can't believe I did that. But it was before all that stuff like Shrek and we got to throw in all that pop culture stuff. I was proud of it. It was a fun show. And if I look back at it, it was one of the most creatively freeing things I ever got to do. And I actually had a lot of creative control on it too. That's something that doesn't come along too often.

RD: In your stand-up and stage work you do a lot of impersonations, do you think that helps in creating a character for animation?

MC: Being able to do impressions and doing characters, it definitely helps you as a voice over artist for sure. It gives you more range. Hopefully, if other animated characters come along in the future, they will be different than this [which is based on my over-the-top persona] and I'll get to surprise people a little bit.

RD: Other actors who have come to voice over work for the first have said it's a freeing experience, because you don't have to get into make-up, you can roll out of bed and go to work. Did you feel it was a freeing change?

MC: Yes. This time I got to work with James Woods, but with the other film I was working on, it was me; alone, in a booth. Which to me, I don't mind at all, because you just go to that scene, you can hear the other line being read in your head that you're not doing that the other actor is doing in the film. You just do a run of the scene. It's like doing an acting exercise. You do it so much that new things come up and it's incredibly freeing. I love doing it.