[Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.]

The Big Picture

Superfly may be the villain of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, but Ice Cube insists he’s not such a bad guy. He also breaks down the Mutant Mayhem recording process and explains why he’d like to see that technique used on more animated features. Ice Cube reveals one especially unforgettable line of dialogue from the film that he improvised.

It’s tough being a human teenager trying to fit in, but as audiences will see in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, it’s even tougher to do when you’re a “turtle mutant karate teen.” But what’s even more challenging than that? Trying to fit in as a mutated fly after human beings kidnapped your dad. That’s the predicament Ice Cube’s Superfly’s in, and he’s not happy about it. In fact, Superfly is so enraged by how he’s been treated by humans that he’s determined to wipe them all out by making mutants the dominant species on Earth.

In a new interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Ice Cube talks about taking on the role of Superfly and why he believes that despite being a supervillain, he isn’t really such a bad guy. He also breaks down the film’s unique recording process, reveals an especially memorable improvised line he added to the film, and more.

Check it all out in the video interview at the top of this article or read the conversation in transcript form below.

Image via Paramount Pictures

PERRI NEMIROFF: I know that things evolve along the way when you make a movie like this, so what is the biggest difference between how you pictured Superfly turning out when you first accepted the role and who the character became in the finished feature?

ICE CUBE: When I’d seen the character and they sent me just a 3D image of Superfly, I knew it was gonna be crazy. But when you actually see it come together, you just can’t imagine how cool it is. It’s like the cool factor is on 1,000. You just pinch yourself and say, “I’m glad to be a part of something this big and this epic.” I knew it would be dealing with Seth [Rogen] and Jeff [Rowe] and Kyler [Spears].

I always got a lot of faith in that team, and they definitely don’t disappoint here.

I know the recording process on this movie was a little unique. What is something about the way you did your voice recording on this film versus past animation opportunities that you hope to see on animated projects you work on in the future?

ICE CUBE: We were in the room together. I think it’s important to try to get as many actors together that make sense. I did a lot of my scenes straight with the Turtles, so the guys were in the room with me. You can hear that, you can feel that in the movie. If you look at other animations sometimes you can tell that it’s singly recorded, but here you can feel the flavor of all of us in the same room.

Makes all the difference in the world. I understand it can be a scheduling challenge, but based on this finished product, it seems well worth trying to tackle that.

ICE CUBE: Yeah, I mean, scheduling challenge? Okay. I guess, but I’ve been [in] plenty of movies and we’ve had a read-through of the script, and it seems like you can get a lot of actors in there. But I guess for multiple sessions — but at least one. Just try to get as many as you can and go through the script.

I like that approach.

Image via Paramount

So having done some of your recording with the four young actors who play the Turtles, can you give me an example of a time when one of them improvised something that kept you on your toes and inspired you to do something with your own performance that you didn’t expect?

ICE CUBE: Well, I mean, they all were kind of blurting out things, and repeating me in a way. If I say, “Imma molly wop you,” and they would be like, “Oh man, I don’t wanna get molly wopped!” So you would have to listen for those things so you can catch them in case they said something out of line and Superfly had to check that. So they kept me on my toes. The energy was high and it just kept building. And we could ad-lib and have fun, and we could do no wrong. You know, they never told us, “Wait a minute that don’t work.” They were like, “Can we get another one?”

With all that ad-libbing going on, can you maybe pinpoint either a particular line or something you did with the character that wasn’t on the page that people should keep an eye out for in the finished film?

ICE CUBE: “6 ‘n the mornin’ police at my door.” You know what I mean? Shout out to Ice-T. That’s just a famous hardcore hip-hop line that was perfect whenever you kick in the door.

Very much belonged in this movie!

Image via Paramount Pictures

With Superfly’s whole agenda here, I imagine a lot of this is on the page in the script, but I’m curious if you can enhance this through your performance as well. What is it like making sure that the audience doesn’t just view him as a bad guy doing bad things, but a bad guy doing bad things with purpose, where maybe we don’t back his plan, but we understand why he’s doing that plan?

ICE CUBE: Superfly, he’s a supervillain, but he’s a sensitive guy. He wants to be accepted. He knows he’s not the prettiest, but he dresses fly. You know what I mean? He knows how to dress, so he just wants to be accepted like everybody else, by regular normal people who might want to go to happy hour, you know what I’m saying? Have a bowl of sugar and a beer, a cigar, chill, call home, see how the maggots are doing, and make sure everything is all right. What’s wrong with that?

I would have a bowl of sugar and a beer with Superfly any day.

Now you have food on my brain so I’ll ask you something that I posed to the four of them as well. What is your version of the Ninja Turtles’ pizza? The specific food you could eat all day, every day in any variation imaginable?

ICE CUBE: Oh man, my version would be I’ll put pastrami on there, I’ll put olives, I’ll put mushrooms, I’ll put chicken on there, I’ll put a rib-eye steak, I’ll add baked potato. We put some macaroni and cheese on that thing. Hit it off with some spaghetti on the side.

You’re hitting every food group on a pizza now!

ICE CUBE: I mean, we ain’t got the tacos and burritos. I have a double cheeseburger on there with an egg on it. And put some chili on that thing, and let’s have it!

Looking for more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem conversations? Check out my chat with the Turtles themselves – Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., and Brady Noon – below: