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FFXVI Actors Audition to Be the New Mario Is Mesmerizing & Hilarious FFXVI Actor's Audition to Be the New Mario Is Mesmerizing & Hilarious Nintendo Ben Starr X Clive

FFXVI Actor’s Audition to Be the New Mario Is Mesmerizing & Hilarious

Charles Martinet is retiring from playing Mario after decades of “yahoos” and “mamma mias,” but Final Fantasy XVI actor Ben Starr is ready to take up the mantle. Starr, who played Clive Rosfield in this year’s 16th Final Fantasy entry, posted his very serious and totally real audition on X today. It seems he chose to channel Clive’s mesmerizing, gravelly vocals when taking his shot at playing gaming’s famous Italian plumber. Nintendo is surely already racing to the phone to give Starr a call. You can see history in the making by watching the FFXVI star’s audition to be the new Mario below.

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If you’ve never pictured what it would be like to see Mario whisper the F-bomb like he’s a Game of Thrones character, well, the floodgates are surely open now. All joking aside, Starr takes his tongue-in-cheek audition so seriously that it’s hard to look away. The FFXVI star comes up with so many different ways to say “it’s-a me, Mario” that it’s hard to choose a favorite. Personally, my pick has to be “What the **** are you looking at? It’s-a me-a, a-Mario.”

If Starr can’t suit up in Mario’s overalls in future games – let’s be honest, it’s not going to happen – maybe there is still hope that we see him fill a new role alongside Chris Pratt in The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2.


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Michael Cripe
Michael joined The Escapist team in 2019 but has been covering games, movies, TV, and music since 2015. When he’s not writing, Michael is probably playing Super Mario Sunshine, Dead Space, The Binding of Isaac, or Doom Eternal. You can follow his news coverage and reviews at The Escapist, but his work has appeared on other sites like OnlySP, Gameranx, and Kansas City’s The Pitch, too. If you’d like to connect and talk about the latest pop-culture news, you can follow Michael on Twitter (@MikeCripe), Instagram (mike_cripe), or LinkedIn if that’s your thing.