During his appearance on 'Good Morning America', the actor says, 'I got involved with the movie because my kids are fans of the TV show.'
- Jul 12, 2018
AceShowbiz - Actor Will Arnett landed a lead role in the new Teen Titans movie after discovering the "hilarious" animated series through his two sons.
The Lego Movie star voices the supervillain Slade, also known as Deathstroke, in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, which is based on characters from the original DC Comics series, but he had no idea that the franchise even existed before learning his sons Abel, seven, and Archie, nine, were big fans.
"I got involved with the movie because my kids are fans of the TV show, and I would hear it from the other room (at home) and I'd be like, 'What (is that)?'," he explained on breakfast show Good Morning America.
"Usually you hear kids' shows, you're like, 'Oh my God,' and I was like, 'This is hilarious!'".
Will promptly reached out to Teen Titans producers and offered his services for future episodes of the cartoon series, but the call actually led to his casting in their planned big screen adaptation.
"I called the show (bosses) and I said, 'I want to do something with y'all,' and they said, 'Well, we want to make a movie,' and I said, 'Let's go!'" he recalled. "That's how it happened; my kids had the assist".
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is the latest family-friendly project for Despicable Me star Will, who shares his boys with ex-wife Amy Poehler, and he admits working on age-appropriate films and TV shows are important to him as a father.
"It's fun to be able to do stuff like this that my kids can enjoy and be a part of, and that just makes it so much (more appealing)," Will said.
He also revelled in getting to trade in his role as the voice of superhero Batman in the Lego films to play the villain.
"The good news about playing the bad guy is you can get away with a lot more...," Arnett grinned. "The good guy, he always has to end up being the good guy, but a bad guy can just say all sorts of crazy stuff and you're like, 'Well, he's the bad guy...' It's fun though, it's really fun".
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, which opens in theatres later this month, also features Nicolas Cage as the voice of Superman, singer Halsey as Wonder Woman, and comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who takes on the part of Batman.
