The Big Picture

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem cast pinpoints things their Turtles say or do in the movie that they’d actually do in real life. Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Brady Noon & Shamon Brown Jr. explain the benefits of recording their voice performances together. The Turtles love pizza, but what about Cantu, Abbey, Noon, and Brown Jr.? What food could they in all day, every day?

[Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.]There are many great iterations of the Ninja Turtles out there, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’s heroes in a half shell stand out for two key reasons — they’re voiced by actual teenagers and those teen actors got the unique opportunity to record their voice performances together in the studio.

Nicolas Cantu plays Leonardo, Micah Abbey is Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. voices Michelangelo, and Brady Noon lends his voice to Raphael in the coming-of-age tale that sees the Turtles eager to fit in above ground. The trouble is, Splinter (Jackie Chan) is very wary of humans and tries to keep the Turtles on a tight schedule; they can go above ground to run errands, and that’s it! However, on one such trip, they bump into Ayo Edebiri’s April O’Neil and their shared dream of becoming liked — or in April’s case, just not being called “puke girl” — sparks an adventure that will hopefully result in them being seen as heroes.

With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’s hitting theaters nationwide on August 2nd, I got the chance to chat with Cantu, Abbey, Brown Jr., and Noon about their version of the Turtles, the benefits of recording their voice performances together, which actor is most like each Turtle, and loads more! You can check it all out for yourself in the video interview at the top of this article or read the conversation in transcript form below.

Image via Paramount

PERRI NEMIROFF: You’re playing crime-fighting Turtles here, but I know there was a heavy emphasis on them feeling like real teenagers in this movie, so can you each tell me something your character does or says that made you think, “You know what? I would actually, in real life, say or do that, too?”

MICAH ABBEY: We mention the New York stereotype of the “bacon, egg, and cheese.” Like Tims, that’s something we genuinely were joking about before recording, and then they’re like, “You know what? Say that on the recording.” So yeah, we just added that in there.

Can confirm you nailed bacon, egg, and cheese.

ABBEY: Thank you!

NICOLAS CANTU: Thank you! I’m glad you liked the scene. We have the approval!

Yes, you do!

CANTU: Leo in the movie says, “Oh, so it’s a date,” completely misunderstanding what April is saying and that’s like me. That is me.

SHAMON BROWN JR. Yeah, I think just adding all the modern-day energy. Again, we are teens, so it’s adding a youthful energy, being excited about improv and all those kind of things, and playing on their phones in the middle of the night before going to sleep. Things like that.

BRADY NOON: For me, a lot of us used a lot of language that we use in our day-to-day lives. We put ourselves into these characters, and really made them our own version. For Raph, particularly, if I could think of anything, he’s always like, “Alright, bro. Alright, bro.” I kind of say that a lot. I’m like, “Alright, bro. Alright.”

CANTU: With less of the gravel.

NOON: Less of the gravel, but yeah

The improv in this is exceptional. I don’t know how you record an animated movie any other way after having this experience. It’s something else.

BROWN: We set the bar. I think we set the bar.

The best part is, you feel the difference it makes in the movie. Your energy together, it leaps off the screen and really does make all the difference with the character chemistry.

CANTU: Yes, it was incredible. And it’s so important for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because they are brothers, and you really need to have that translate to the movie. The fact that Seth [Rogen] and Jeff [Rowe] were able to make it happen where we can record in the same place, it made a great product.

Image via Paramount

I’m gonna dig into specifics with that in a minute, but first, for all four of you, if you got the opportunity to swap roles and each get the Turtle that you relate to most, who would you each be playing?

CANTU: Do we point? No, it would be better to describe this. What am I thinking?

I was wondering if it would be better for you to name the Turtle you related to most yourself or to have the other three, name him for you.

ABBEY: Ooh, I like the naming …

NOON: I like the other three name it for you.

CANTU: Alright, let’s start here. Which one would I be?

ABBEY: I think Leo.

CANTU: Still? I’m supposed to switch!

NOON: I think you could pass for a Mikey, if anything else.

ABBEY: Yeah, Nick’s very fun-loving.

CANTU: I’m a fun-loving guy. Alright, Shamon, who would you be then?

NOON: Shamon’s got Raph in him. He’s got Raph energy.

CANTU: I would actually like to see you play Raph. It’s so different from your Mikey.

BROWN: [Imitating Raph] Aghhh!

CANTU: [Laughs] There we go! Brady. Brady, you should be Leo. Let’s see what Leo looks like.

NOON: I’m Leo.

CANTU: And then that leaves …

ABBEY: I’m a Donnie! [Laughs]

CANTU: Oh, Donnie! Wait …

BROWN: I feel like he could be a cool Mikey.

NOON: No, you could play Mikey. I think you could pass for a Mikey.

ABBEY: Micah for Mikey.

I love how you were all cast in this film, but I would happily watch an alt version of the film where you all swap roles.

CANTU: That would be fun to do.

NOON: I think we could do it just as good!

BROWN: The next movie, Turtles swap brains.

There’s some sort of multiverse version that would be very in right now and make all the sense in the world.

Image via Paramount Pictures

So you go into this movie, I’m sure you are prepared to a tee, but when you’re playing characters like this, there’s always opportunities to discover things along the way, so what is a quality about your Turtle that you discovered during the recording process that wound up being creatively fulfilling for you to play?

ABBEY: I’m a bit of a geek. I’m a bit of a nerd. There’s certain things I obsess over, and I did my research, I wanted to immerse myself in the character, and so I listened to some K-pop, I watched some anime. I became very much a nerd in the anime and K-pop world.

CANTU: That’s fun.

BROWN: Yeah, I come from a little school theater background, so just seeing that in Mikey [was] just so ironic. And just certain things that he loves like waffle pizza, out of all things. I think New York, it’s somewhere you can actually get a waffle pizza, so I’m definitely gonna try that when I pop out there.

Waffle pizza doesn’t sound half bad to me. I would try that.

NOON: I think for me, I think Raphael, something that I learned from him was that he does have a heart in him, believe it or not. I mean, a lot of people just stereotype him as just this hothead that just is always angry, always yelling. But when I was taking the approach, when I knew that I was initially getting into this role, I really wanted to add some heart and some comedy into him and have people relate to him and understand him a little bit better.

CANTU: I think for me, it was more so in the process of recording, finding the journey to leadership rather than just being there already. I think in the first few sessions, I came on, I think, very on top of things as Leo, and Jeff had the great direction of, “Well, let him figure things out a bit.” It’s the youngest Ninja Turtles we’ve seen on screen, right? I think so. We’re all real teenagers. So seeing him figure that out instead of just having it just in his heart, I think it was a great journey for him to go on.

I dig that arc quite a bit. It plays quite well.

NOON: You actually just pointed out — I think Micah’s the youngest Turtle ever.

CANTU: Yeah! Look at that!

[CLAPS]

As it should be! I love all iterations of Ninja Turtles, but the vibe in this felt so right and true to me.

Going back to the improv now, can you each give me an example of a time during your recording sessions when a scene partner surprised you and it wound up bringing something out of your own performance that you didn’t expect?

BROWN: Well, I think always recording with these guys, you never know what you’re gonna get [laughs], and I think that was one of the things that Jeff and Seth were looking for, and they definitely got it. That was one of the things, coming into the movie and seeing it on screen is so amazing, but before I was kind of like, “How is all of this …?” Because we’re always on top of each other with lines and everything, so I’m just kinda like, “How is this gonna come out?” I think one thing that surprised me was these two [points to Noon and Cantu], their banter, it’s so crazy because they always had them looking at each other in the booth, so it’s like the brains and the brawn going at each other. I think that was one of the things that surprised me how well it came out.

NOON: Yeah, I think for me just being around these three guys and just the level that they record at is just so, so high. Even with all the improv, it was hard for me to keep up sometimes, and I really had to stay attentive if I really wanted to stay in it. Because once we get into the character and once we’re improving and going in, you can’t snap out of it or you’ll fall out of the scene. So for them to always be able to just snap-of-a-finger go into that, you just really got to keep that hyper-focus and I really learned a lot. I feel like I definitely grew as a voice actor just working with these three amazing actors.

ABBEY: I think an example I can reference is — I’m sorry for bringing this back, but the New York scene.

I’m here for the New York talk. I love it!

ABBEY: Initially, I was supposed to say the line, “I’m a cabbie from the Bronx. I love these Turtles.” That was it. But I remember I was like, that’s kind of boring. It’s a good line, but I was like, [with accent] “I’m a cabbie. I got a puffer!” Then Jeff was like, “I like that,” and then we started talking about it, and then Nick’s was like, “Yeah, lemme get a bacon, egg, and cheese,” and then they’re all like, “Yer! Yer!” And so it really adds a good little inside joke that we had, which is actually in the movie and which is really cool.

CANTU: Yeah, I love how that scene just exploded because it really did start out with one small line, and then it turned into that.

NOON: It wasn’t even supposed to be really anything. It was just one small little line.

CANTU: What I was going to say to answer your question about something that surprised me in the booth, Leo and Raph butt heads. That’s just in their nature. And dude, you would get some digs at me in the improv. I don’t remember specifics, but I’ll be like, “Damn, dude! Get off my back!” And I think it would come out in the performance!

Image via Paramount

I’ll end with one semi-silly personal question because I like talking about pizza, but also food in general. For real you, what is your version of the Turtles’ pizza? Something you could eat all day, every day, and eat it in any variation you can come up with?

ABBEY: That’s a good question.

Mine is peanut butter sandwiches. Any type of peanut butter, you have fluffernutters, there are so many options.

BROWN: I was gonna say, Alfredo. Yeah, pasta.

CANTU: I have this horrible habit of Uber Eats-ing all the time. I don’t know if you can verb-ize that word.

Oh, you can make that verb. I’ve said it.

CANTU: Okay, I’m making that a verb. But I have a horrible habit. I’ve just been ordering wings all the time recently. I go this one place and I’m trying out all their flavors. I need to stop. It’s hurting my wallet.

ABBEY: Mine would definitely be, I’m very into spice, but I always get spicy chicken sandwiches. Shout out to U-Jay’s Hot Chicken.

CANTU: You trying to get sponsored?

ABBEY: Hey, if you can hit me up, I’d be down. Let me know! Anyways, I would make like a pizza sandwich. That’d be so sick. I’m thinking, you gotta go more than just a chicken sandwich. I would maybe want to combine a pizza because pizza’s a great food. I see where the Turtles are coming from, and then you add a chicken sandwich.

NOON: I’m thinking like a Big Mac, but with pizza in it.

CANTU: You would eat that every day?!

NOON: I can eat a chicken sandwich every day. Like a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich? So good.

Looking for more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem talk? Catch my interview with director Jeff Rowe below: