Interview with James Marsters
As promised, my source has translated the interview with James Marsters (Piccolo) from the August issue of Jump Square magazine. Give it a read!
What is the difference between the original and the live-action movie ?
JM: Definitely the story of this movie is different from the original. But it’s a necessary change because we need to condense the long story of the original for a movie. For example, some characters in the original don’t appear in the movie. And we try to give it a more gritty and graphic (realistic) feeling.
Though there are differences between the two, I think it is all right if the core part of Dragonball remains. I let my son watch the anime’s Dragonball, DBZ and DBGT since he was eight years old. At first, I thought it was too violent, but I realized this is the best show for training to become a true man. True men need not to flaunt themselves. Their calm, gentle and modest but when it comes to the crunch they don’t hesitate to kill the enemy, and I think that’s what Goku is.
Goku is a real man. I know my son received such a message and applied it to his own life. My son doesn’t use violence to others, but he isn’t afraid of his own anger. I think it’s an important thing.
How many hours does it take to apply the make-up?
JM: It takes about four hours. Luckily, my make-up artist is very chatty, we have a lot of chat during the make up.
Please tell us the most remarkable scene in the movie, especially action scenes!
JM: It is the last battle after all! I like playing the battle scene. When I worked for a TV show for seven years, every Friday I fought till sun rise, I felt I would never have such a good time again until now. In addition, I have never gotten terribly hurt (laugh).
Do you talk with other co-stars as well?
JM: When I have a problem, I have a talk with Justin [Chatwin]. At first, we worried about the costumes. We thought it should reflect the spirit of the original, we persisted this thought to the producers. We didn’t want to make our characters beautiful and safe. I talked with Justin, and he agreed with me. So did the director.
What do you care about in acting for this movie?
JM: That’s a good question. Speaking of Piccolo, one word comes into my mind, it’s “loneliness”. Piccolo is always floating in the air in the beautiful landscape, but he never even admires the landscape, he is only thinking or musing and staring at his feet. I think that is a characteristic of piccolo more than anything else. Maybe it must be a characteristic for revenge. He hates himself and blames the people who has trapped him. His desire to kill not only them but their family, furthermore to destroy the city and the planet they live and protect. To get revenge is everything to him. Everything.
How was shooting in Durango?
JM: The desert of Durango is very cold at night (laugh). I was luckily wearing armor, but Goku was freezing at the beginning of shooting. The local people are very kind and get along with us. Besides they love to party very much! If I didn’t have work, I would be willing to join them. They are drinking and singing songs until 4:30 a.m. But I need to sleep for the shooting the next day, after all so I changed the hotel to get away from the partying people.
Finally, please give us a message to our readers in Japan.
JM: Japan is beautiful. Thank you for giving Dragonball to us! It’s an important show to us all and I want you to watch it, especially the young people. I thank the show for a lot of good times with my son. I’ll do my best to meet the high expectations the fans have.
Also, Dragonballfilm posted up a small interview with Texas Battle (Carey Fuller) about his role in the movie. Check it out here.
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I know Marsters wont dissapoint…. and by looks of it, chatwin has payed attention to DB and even wanted to stayed faithful to the series just like marsters and wong… thats very good!!!!!
thanks man
Dude, awesome!
But what does he mean by, “We didn’t want to make our characters beautiful and safe.” I don’t get that…
I respect Chatwin and Marsters so much.
They are so committed to these characters and staying true to the series. Even if their performance lacks a little I will still respect them because they tried and gave everything they had.
Hell Yeah, I’ll be rooting for Piccolo on April 10th!
@Tommy:
By that he means the producers wanted to play it safe and make the characters more beautiful so it would appeal better to the general audience.
@tommy … i think it means the producers wanted something beautiful and safe for the american audience, but thanks to marsters and whoever else… they decided to keep it more true to the story… obviously still not COMPLETELY true to the original story, but much better i assume… anyway, i always feel a little better about things after hearing marsters talk about the movie…
decent interview. nothing to get krunk about. thnx anyways tho
@Tommy
I think he just meant that Justin and himself had a conversation about the original costume ideas with the producers. I guess the original plan was to make the characters “beautiful.” So he and Justin talked the producers into making them more like the show. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.
And thanks for the interview, Adam. You rock!
@Sean: @ssj3000: @Tim: Oh. Got it!
haha.
James marsters is the MAN. One thing I noticed tho. He said that not only him but even justin wasnt pleased with there costumes. I’m jus kinda wndering how much really needed to be drastically changed.great interview none the less. He’s awesome
Please tell us the most remarkable scene in the movie, especially action scenes!
It is the last battle after all! I like playing the battle scene.
Well thats nice to hear.
thanks for this adam!!
james is awesome, everytime i read or hear him talk about this movie, he gives me a lot of confidence that it will be great
its good to know that chatwin got so much into the role as well, he might be able to pull a great goku
yeah james is a BEAST lol.
I love hearing him talk and interview about the movie. gets me pumped.
also im glad to see chatwin is really into his role also. makes me even more excited about the movie
Ok it’s settled. There’s absolutely no way this will completely suck, not with that kind of true understanding of the franchise behind it. that’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t here from anyone working on street fighter or DOA. Yep, finally someone understands dragonball’s turns boys into men…. wonderful…
Agreed Breasts. Both main characters in James and Justin are taking their roles seriously. That can only spell kick ass’ness. if that’s even a word lol
James Marsters is just awesome.
Any actor could just hop aboard such a rushed film as DB and not give a crap as to how they perform Piccolo (he’s evil, grawr, that’s it, and the check’s in the mail), but it seems like Marsters really thought about his character, really tried to delve into his personality and “get” him. Gotta love that, hehe.
And like others have said, it’s nice to hear a little bit more about Chatwin’s commitment to his role, as well. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a ton of stuff from him in the future, but right now, promotion has barely begun, and one of the first full-fledged interviews isn’t with the star, Goku, so it seems odd. Without much to grasp onto, people tend to see the lack of promotion on Chatwin’s part (even though the movie’s promotion hasn’t even really begun yet – I mean, there’s not even a website or an officially released poster from Fox) as a sign that he doesn’t care or something. I think it’s quite the opposite, so I can’t wait to see something from him soon.
I have some faith in this movie after hearing this. I already knew James Marsters was going to a great piccolo, but now I’m sure Justin’s going to be a good Goku. Of course not going be 100% like the anime, but I just hope they keep key elements that are important to DB, like Kami (seeing that he’s the creator of the dragonballs).
PARTY ALL NIGHT LONG!!!
I can’t wait till I start seeing Chatwin on TV, on that MTV show in New York getting interviewed about Dragonball, and then the talk show hosts says “Alright then, lets see our man Justin Chatwin in action!” And they roll a few unreleased fight clips from the movie.
Just a hope of mine!
tommy you make a good point i just cant wait till its december/january but only time will tell how this movie well look good or bad
Everybody can deduce it’s gonna rock.
I gotta admit, this does make me feel a bit better.
James is awesome.
Heh, i love how no one is bashing the movie now. See, i knew it would work out XD It doesn’t matter about the minor changes or anything, it’s how they play the characters that really matters!! And it’s sooo obvious that at least the main two characters are really trying their bloody hardest to be that character! Go Chatwin
go Marsters 
I’m so frikin’ excited!!!
Even more news to get my hopes up. I have so much faith in Chatwin, Marsters, and this movie. Keep up the good work Adam!
I just wish we had the trailer. That’d either completely confirm or squash our fears. There’s a billion different ways this movie could go wong. tee hee.
Well at least from Masters interview we can expect dragonball not to be as cheeeezzzyyy as speed racer. If they are making it realistic it might be a good thing if they keep burst fighting and etc…
“Gritty and graphic (realistic)”
thanks for Interview
this made my day it’s making me super excited for this movie again. thanks Adam
cheeeeezyyy? Speed Racer is the best live action anime adaptation to date.
I wish people gave it a chance. Found this online: Ii23TvBaLB0
Dragonball’s obviously a different ball game than speed but don’t knock what the wackowskis achieved because it’s accurate to the insanity anime’s known for.
oops, here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii23TvBaLB0
James is so committed i love that and so CHatwin
marsters is awesome… i love how he has the idea of piccolo’s character down perfectly. I’m pumped!
Thanks for the interview scoop, Adam.
As always, James gives good interview. Thoughtful, detailed responses to the questions being asked ~ not just some boilerplate propaganda off the press releases.
I especially like his thoughts regarding his son and how they’ve shared the fun of Dragonball while James keeps in mind it’s teaching potential. What a guy!
I have so much faith in this movie right now!
Every pic or interview increase my hope in DragonBall
If someone gets pregnant within this week, ur baby might pop out the day DB comes out jajajaja…..
@Karen: DB wont dissapoint, that im sure off, but what will b hard is to get the masses of people who dont know squat about DB or those who thing anime/manga is stupid to come watch it…. if u know what i mean.
And what if Marsters´s son is a psycho-killer and Marsters doesn´t know??? hahahahahaha. I´m joking. Really I think EVERYONE got a message from DB and I think everyone apply that message in their life in many ways. Part of me wasn´t convinced after seeing the pictures of Roshi with hair and with out his glasses (just for an example) but then I realized they are trying to make a realistic vision of Dragon Ball. I only hope for REALLY good fights for this movie
I am sure this movie won´t suck 100%…but we are not REALLY sure if this movie will rock…
@victor: jajaja
it seems they were trying to make a movie that appeals to everyone, not just the fans, so it shouldn´t be that hard. all they need is good trailers and good critics
most people i know, including me, didn´t go to see speed racer because the trailers showed me how crappy the movie looks like. in the trailers, it looks more like a video game than a movie
luckily dragonball seems to be going a very different direction than speed racer
more graphic than the cartoon, that sounds like a pg-13 rating to me, yeah!
Here’s what Marsters was talking about when he mentioned 7 years of fighting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T_cRsJUrJ0&feature=related
I think it’s safe to say he’ll do well there. And Wow, I was never much of a fan of buffy, what the hell was I doing back then, probably drooling over Jessica Alba in dark angel… ah, tv used to be more than a bunch of csi derivatives wasn’t it…
JAMES MARSTERS ROCKSSSS!!!!
James Marsters gets me soooo freakin’ excited about Dragonball, because he talks from a fans perspective. Plus he always delivers a little bit of news when he speaks. He knows what the fans want to hear. You Rock James
Wait a tic….
Wait a freakin’ minute!!!!
Did James just say what I think he just said????
“Piccolo is always floating in the air in the beautiful landscape”
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!! Does this mean there going to fly???? Oh wow!! I really hope so
If there is no krillen…..
HOW WILL GOKU GO SSJ?????????
Well, he may or may not have prevented from Lord Piccolo being ‘beautiful and safe’ but obiously that wasn’t the case for Chatwin as Goku. Gotta love Marsters though, he just gives everything away, I love it, lol!
Corey they confirmed flying a long time ago, and I think he is talking about Piccolo meditating in the Original DBZ.
James Marsters, he’s soooo dreamy! I love that he is playing the part of Lord Piccolo. I’ll always love him as SPIKE from BtVS, but he did a bang up job as the voice of Lex Luthor in Superman: Doomsday. But IMHO I feel his best stuff was as the narrator for the DRESDEN FILES audio books by buzzy multi media. Check it out at http://www.buzzymultimedia.com/storm-front-audiobook-by-jim-butcher.html
Warner bro’s confirm trailers with The Dark Knight. Dragonball is not on the list.
Source: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=46678
@DBZM28: Are you serious Dbzm28???? There is going to be flying? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! Thank you Jesus
This is going to be the best movie ever!! Thanks for telling me that….