EXCLUSIVE: ComicBookMovie Sits Down With TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Star Pete Ploszek

Pete Ploszek: Yeah, I think it was a combination of both. Obviously, the familiarity with the technology and all the mo-cap work along with our dynamic as a cast to get to come back a second time with the same people, same cast, same filmmaker. That’s just awesome. And you can really hit the ground running and build on what you did the first go-round, so that really helped us tell the story. But then of course there are new set pieces, new sequences – we were telling a bigger story this time around, so obviously you gotta step-up and deliver that, so yeah, it was a fun time with a little extra something too.

Rohan (CBM): I remember when we spoke the first time that you mentioned how you and the other guys went through a few weeks of specialized weapons training? This time around, did you have to do a refresher course or did a lot of it just come back to you?

Pete: This time around, we did a little bit, a little refresher course, but beyond that, the stunt team knew what we could do and what they could do. And so again, them just letting us open and close fights with certain beats and then letting those guys do all the hard work and make us look good.

Pete: Yeah, exactly, that’s why nothing really changed this go-round. As a foursome, we all kinda lean on each other to tell the story, to help each other out, call each other out if something wasn’t working, and we can make something better, cleaner, more fun and so it’s really a collaborative effort in that sense. Getting to do the voice made it all that much sweeter.

Pete: Exactly, yeah, and this time around, it helped even more as we had a really clear sense of the tone of the movie and we were really aware of how far we wanted to push the fun and the revelry and the whole joke of the turtle universe. I think the Turtles are always sort of inside of the joke, they get it, so us being able to embrace it this time around and just go for it really helps. It made this a better experience the second time around.

Pete: I got that sort of childhood feel, giddy excitement, opening up that toy box as a kid, pulling out all your action figures and basically everything is fair game. It’s just exciting as an actor to take on those villains and tell all of those different stories. We have as much fun on set as you can imagine. I mean if you’re not having fun on a Turtles set, then you’re really screwed.

Rohan (CBM): Shifting gears a bit, this film had a ton of cameos from supermodels to NBA players and while I don’t think the Turtles exactly got to share a scene with any of them, what was it like having people like Carmelo Anthony or Alessandra Ambrosio on-set, what was that environment like? Had to have been pretty exciting.

Pete: Yeah, you know as Turtles, we never actually got to overlap with any of the cameos, but we hear about it and they show us the dailies, so it was pretty exciting, just having that exciting feel to the set. These sports figures, they all want to take part in it and that’s just exciting. That’s some indication that you’re doing something right. So, that just sort of builds the energy. We had athletes visit the set, a lot of key New York athletes, that’s a blast and it feels so good to kinda reinvigorate the franchise and share it with people again. We actually did get to briefly meet Judith Hoag, who played the original April O’Neil, and who was awesome. That’s who I grew up with and I think we all sort of had a crush on her growing up because she was the OG April and she was the coolest, sweetest, kindest person around. So, it was fun getting to hear the stories from her and get to share that with her.

Pete: Yes! Some of it was, yes. So, in that sequence, all of the environment and backdrops, the water, was all shot with plates on-location. A crew went down, headed by Pablo Helman, to shoot all of that and we later shot all of our work on a mo-cap stage.

Pete: The car chase was awesome. They shot all of that in Buffalo and we were on a stage with the entire dump truck built for us, so everything you see there is real. Now, of course, we’re in a truck on stilts, not really moving at all, so there are challenges with that, imagining all these things moving by, all these helicopters flying overhead, but that’s pure play, that’s being a kid again. If you ever made sounds as a kid, shooting a toy gun, you know ‘pew pew pew,’ like that’s what it was. A full day of that.

Pete: Yeah, yeah, I have seen it.

Pete: I remember that sequence, I’m pretty sure Raph wins at the end too and kind of gives Leo a bit to think about. I’d love that, that relationship is such an important part of the Turtle story and that’s why we see it come up time and time again, on the show, in the movies, and we have to keep it fresh because people see Leo & Raph argue and it’s like ‘here we go again’ and so as an actor, there’s always a challenge in putting a fresh spin on it, trying to inject something new. It’s a big struggle to be able to do that type of rooftop sequence and keep it new, but it's such a gorgeous sequence and to get to be able to do that in mo-cap live-action, like they can add that rain in after, it would be so awesome.

Pete: Yeah, yeah, and I think it really tells a story too of their relationship and they’re both great fighters and in their own ways are very capable leaders and they both step up and determine in the right moment which kind of leadership is necessary, you know leading by example or leading by the mind as a tactician, so it’s great to kind of take all of that into account when we’re shooting.

Pete: Not yet. As far as I’m concerned, there are people a lot higher up the food chain making those decisions, so we’re waiting to hear and I know that we’re all excited to keep doing these and I'm dying to get back in the same room with those four guys.

Pete: Oh man, that’s a great question. I think what we were successful at this time around was telling sort of the emotional story of these brothers and their relationship with their family. And to continue to raise those stakes and continue to show these guys as very real and grounded and emotional brothers that love each other and hate each other and fight in equal measure, that’s the good stuff to me, that’s how this story expands beyond just the jokes and the play and all the fun stuff.

Pete: I’ve got my practice katanas from the first film, that I’ll swing around from time to time, but outside of that, we didn’t really take anything. I’m not sure. A lot of the stuff has to be preserved for reshoots or pickups and so they keep a close eye on us to make sure we don’t try to take anything off the wall, but if we get to do a third one, I’m going to have that at the top of the list.

Pete: Yeah, Rohan, really appreciate it man. I love what you guys do over there at ComicBookMovie. Always the first to break a lot of things. Keep up the good work.

Pete: Thanks, yeah, I’m really excited. It’s such a fun show and they’re really, with this being their final year, pushing the envelope and I got a chance to play a Nazi werewolf, so it’s fun to mix things up a little bit from the Boy Scout I'm usually playing to this character I’m playing that’s a really nasty guy, so that’ll be fun.

Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo are back to battle bigger, badder villains, alongside April O'Neil and a newcomer: the hockey-masked vigilante Casey Jones. After supervillain Shredder escapes custody, he joins forces with two dimwitted henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady, to unleash a diabolical plan to take over the world. As the Turtles prepare to take on Shredder and his new crew, they find themselves facing an even greater threat with similar intentions: the notorious Krang.