ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero stars Zeno Robinson, Jason Marnocha, and Zach Aguilar about the film’s villains and Gamma 2’s rich character. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero comes to theaters across North America on August 19.
“The Red Ribbon Army was once destroyed by Son Goku,” reads the film’s synopsis. “Individuals who carry on its spirit have created the ultimate androids — Gamma 1 and Gamma 2. However, these two androids call themselves superheroes and start attacking Piccolo and Gohan.”
Tyler Treese: Zeno, the Gamma androids are interesting because they have their hearts in the right place. They’ve just been given the wrong info. So what did you find most intriguing about this role?
Zeno Robinson: I found the role was most intriguing in that juxtaposition. I remember receiving the audition sides for Gamma 2 and him sounding distinctly different than what I was expecting. Him sounding very distinctly playful and comical and jovial and rambunctious, in a way that was very surprising for me, for a Dragon Ball character, I was expecting a lot of cool, heavy, Dragon Ball villain things. And so, even down to — and I think this is also just kudos to the writing and everybody on the team, and Chris Sabat — from the get-go, I was like, “oh, this guy is a nice guy. I think he’s a nice guy. Or at least he wants to be. He’s very heroic inside. There’s a genuine nature to him. I think was the most surprising [thing]. As the villain of the film, there’s a lot of heart to him.
Jason, you’re clearly a Dragon Ball fan. You were part of the Dragon Ball Absalon fan series so long ago. So what did it mean to officially join the universe and voice Carmine?
Jason Marnocha: That was definitely a dream come true because as I’ve said before, I didn’t watch a lot of anime when I was growing up, but I did watch Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball, along that vein. So I was delighted to be able to play a character that surprised me because, when you think about the Dragon Ball series, like Zeno was saying — especially a bad guy — very intense for all these things. Carmine is just so well put together, just very, very well-coiffed. So playing a character like that, who’s not throwing laser balls at everyone and things like that is, was definitely a fun thing to explore. “What do more regular characters do and how do they behave when they’re caught up in all of this?” Is kind of fun to play.
Zach, the character Dr. Hedo is a fun twist on the mad scientist that doesn’t really care so much about legality. He just wants to do his experiments. What did you find most interesting about him from a personality standpoint besides popping in Oreos every other second?
Zach Aguilar: That was a very fun thing that we made a lot of jokes about while recording, eating the Oreos. It was just so different from anything I’ve ever done before. I’ve done a lot of young-sounding hero characters. So it was a lot of fun, just kind of getting to throw on a voice and play around with it and create a full-on character. I think about Dragon Ball and I think about doing a voice. Actually getting to kind of throw that on and just have fun in my audition and then [to] get to actually work on the movie … it was crazy. Really just a ton of fun.
Zeno, Gamma 2 gets a full arc throughout the movie and he winds up being one of the most important characters. When you saw the script and you saw where the character was fully going, how pleased were you with his story arc?
Zeno Robinson: Right away he was a … I could tell Gamma 2 was going to be a fun character, but I had no idea that his arc would develop in the way that he does. I firmly believe that his heart is his strongest trait and his strongest feature. I think being able to give him that or him being him earning that full circle, exploring being a hero and getting that arc is a really cool thing. I’m very honored to be able to have told his story or [to] be the one to tell his story;
Jason, you’re the villainous sidekick here and you can play off Magenta so well. You guys have the goal of bringing the Red Ribbon Army back to power. How cool was it bringing back that Dragon Ball lore while also propelling Super’s storyline forward at the same time?
Jason Marnocha: It was fantastic because I remembered that arc — the Red Ribbon Army arc — and all of that. So much so that, I think I had gotten it at a convention a while back., I have one of the lapel pins that’s the Red Ribbon Army lapel, but the one that Magenta wears. So I was like, “oh man, I remember this.” I was just delighted by the prospect of contributing to that particular bit of the narrative. Again, not watching a lot of anime, remembering Dragon Ball and that particular arc especially … it was really fun to be able to dip into that again. That was really rewarding. And I’m glad that I had such great co-stars to scheme and plot with.
Zach, Dr. Hedo is so eccentric and you bring that out so well. Talk me through figuring out some of his mannerisms and his voice, because he definitely plays up some of the humor really well.
Zach Aguilar: I threw everything I could into it, to be honest with you. I thought of, “what is a crazy scientific voice?” I want him to be a little snobby and kind of bratty, but I don’t want it to be so annoying that it takes away from his intellect as well. I just want him to have that way of talking where it’s just on the cusp of getting just a little bit too far out there, but still trying to wheel it back in. We just had a blast doing it, to be honest with you. I tried all sorts of different things and funny stuff, and Chris let me improvise some of the things and then would reel it back and be like, “okay, that’s too crazy. Okay, wait, wait, bring it back a little bit. Okay. No, no, no, go crazier with it. Go crazier with it. I think it’ll be fun.” So I, I’m just thankful I got to work with a team that was willing to let me go wild with it and guide me in the right direction though, so he sounds chaotic, but not too chaotic.
Jason Marnocha: Reasonably chaotic.
Gamma 2 has some awesome battles with Piccolo throughout. Did voicing a big Dragon Ball fight live up to expectations? I’m sure that’s a dream come true.
Zeno Robinson: Absolutely. I said this somewhere, but I was hoping that I got to do the big Dragon Ball scream. I think if you grew up watching Dragon Ball and you end up wanting to do voice acting and do anime to scream, you want … or maybe you don’t want to do a Dragon Ball scream! But I did. And like Zach said earlier about like, like listening in and being like, “this is the voice of Vegeta.” My first cue is off of Piccolo’s line, and being like, “wow, I’m talking to Piccolo right now,” is absolutely mind-blowing. Even recording the trailer, Chris Sabat was like, “relax kid,” because I was like, “oh my God, you guys, thank you so much,” and he was like, “okay, okay. We get it. You’re excited.” He was just surprised that like I was very excited to be in something that I feel like he’s worked at for a very long time. I don’t know when this started to turn into a Chris Sabat anecdote, but uh …
Zach Aguilar: We love Sabat!
Jason Marnocha: Most things people say probably should.
Zeno Robinson: Just being in the world and … we were at Comic-Con and they played the first 20 minutes of the film. Being able to kind of hear myself, I got really emotional listening to my work against Piccolo and [in] this legendary franchise people and I grew up in. I got really emotional because it just felt so surreal and I was very thankful. I guess that’s the best way I could describe it.
Jason, Carmine is quite the fashionista. He’s got the giant pompadour, he towers over his boss. When you first saw his design, what were your thoughts on the character?
Jason Marnocha: My thoughts were, “it’s quite a man to match his shoes the exact shade of red as his suit.” That was my main thing. I was like, “ah, not going with the black shoes. Nice.” And the fact that it’s like, “man, he’s already tall and he’s gotta add that pompadour? That’s going to be inconvenient.” But I mean, hey, I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum. Go on, if that’s what you want for your head, sir. I think that’s what I mainly thought was hilarious. That, and he’s got the big foopy hair and he’s got this red suit, yet he looks so very serious. The fact that he’s able to look that serious, but also have such a wackadoo hairstyle … what a guy.