THE TURTLES IN THE ROOM

The story and style of Mutant Mayhem boast teenage vigor, but to hear adults voicing the core team would betray all that the filmmakers envisioned. So it was critical that, for the first time ever, the Ninja Turtles are played by actual teenagers. “Part of the spirit we were trying to capture was to make the movie fun, like kids playing with toys,” says Rogen, revealing that even his adult co-stars had fun playing off each other IRL. “That was something we talked about. How do we make it feel fun and silly? This reckless weirdness that almost every kid playing with their toys has?”

Actors Nicolas Cantu (The Walking Dead: World Beyond), Brady Noon (Good Boys), Shamon Brown Jr. (The Chi), and Micah Abbey (Grey’s Anatomy) voice Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello, respectively. In an unusual turn for any major animation project, Mutant

Mayhem recorded the cast in-person, together, allowing them to improvise lines. The goal was to capture the authenticity of teens hanging out— something that no adult screenwriter can replicate in Final Draft.

Casting was “arduous,” according to Rogen. Citing his own experiences in voiceover work, Rogen strove to mitigate factors that can sometimes leave animation projects feeling inauthentic. “A recurring frustration I have is that you never perform with the other actors,” he says. “The magic of our work that people like is a result of being in the moment and playing off each other. That energy was important to capture. So we went through painstaking lengths to make sure that as much as possible, they all recorded together.”

Fittingly, this approach to recording enabled the filmmakers to see their adolescent stars slowly become their characters—and vice versa. “They’re very much [acting like] themselves,” Rowe says. “So much of the dialogue is just things they said to each other.

I cannot think of another animated film at this scale that’s worked that way, in casting kids and letting them be their authentic selves. We wanted these characters to be complex and feel like people you knew.”

“I remember seeing them between takes, eating snacks in the lunch room. They were yelling at each other, talking over each other and making fun of each other. I remember being like, this is what it needs to feel like,” Rogen says, remembering how similarly his earlier teen comedy hits came together. “It can’t be scripted. It can’t feel overly written. It was important to have them together and guide their improv in a way we knew would be usable. We gave them as few specific words as possible, because we knew we’d never be able to word stuff in the way they would.”

Rounding out the cast are a few grown-up actors you may know. The Bear star Ayo Edebiri stars as April O’Neil, now a high-school student who dreams of being a TV journalist. Seth Rogen lends his own voice to the iconic mutant warthog, Bebop, partnering with John Cena as Rocksteady. Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph, Hannibal Buress, What We Do in the Shadows’ Natasia Demetriou, and rap star Post Malone (who, Rogen says, gave him “one of the funniest [voice recording] sessions I’ve ever experienced in my entire life”) all fill out the cast as an array of mutants who serve terrifying underworld boss Superfly (Ice Cube). Giancarlo Esposito, who thrives in a career playing bad guys, voices Baxter Stockman, the iconoclast scientist whose unhinged experimentation is responsible for the Ninja Turtles’ creation.

And then there’s legendary martial artist and action star Jackie Chan as the voice of Master Splinter. “I’m the biggest Jackie Chan fan,” Rogen raves. While most of the cast recorded lines together in person or via Zoom, Chan’s time zone in China meant he couldn’t engage with his co-stars in real-time interaction.

But still. He’s Jackie Chan. “I would wake up at four in the morning and do these long recording sessions with Jackie,” remembers Rogen, “Every time, the whole time, me and Jeff were like, ‘I can’t believe we got Jackie Chan.’ He’s so funny and so good in the movie.”

“I love his contributions to cinema,” says Rowe. “Getting to direct him was a gift to me. He’s everything you hope for. He doesn’t shy away, and he works so hard. We’d wake up groggy like, ‘What are we doing?’ And then we leave the recording sessions dancing on the Moon, screaming, ‘That was amazing! Jackie Chan!’ It’s better than coffee, directing Jackie Chan.”