The violent rotoscope animation film The Spine of Night was recently released in theaters, on demand and digitally. Written and directed by Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, the film features a great voice cast comprised of Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless, Patton Oswalt, Betty Gabriel, and Joe Manganiello.
“An ultra-violent fantasy epic, ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind,” says the official synopsis. “A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together in order to defeat it at all costs.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Joe Manganiello about his voice acting career, The Spine of Night, and his connections to professional wrestling.
Tyler Treese: The Spine of Night is such an interesting film. We don’t see rotoscoping all that often. How was it to be a part of such a unique-looking film?
Joe Manganiello: Oh, man, it was super exciting. I grew up with all those films and like you said, there hasn’t been one in a long time. So to be invited into it and be a part of that legacy, the rotoscope, fantasy film legacy was really exciting for me. Are you kidding me? I almost didn’t even need to see the movie to say yes. I was going to do whatever they wanted. But then I saw it and I couldn’t believe that they had really and truly pulled it off and in an amazing way. They had made this incredible film in that style. And it’s one of these things that like, I’m just super proud to be a part of.
The art style attracted you initially, but what about this project were you really impressed by and able to really dig your teeth into once you got to take a look at it?
Well, I think it’s more of the soul of the project even more than the art style. I mean, the art style is great because it’s nostalgic and hearkens back to a very select group of classic fantasy films. But really it’s about the soul of it and what they did with it. I think that the story that they tell and the philosophy behind it and the tropes. I don’t even want to say tropes because they found a way to twist a lot of the tropes, which I really enjoyed.
It’s a film with a message. The different segments are really fascinating. I think it’s something that would be eye-opening and appealing to anyone who winds up stumbling across it on a streaming service or in a theater. And also for me, it’s such a fun character to just play a really just a psychopath. It was really fun.
We’ve been seeing you do a lot more voice acting lately. You’ve got Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas coming up. What have you been finding out about getting to go into the booth and doing VO?
Well during the pandemic, it was really exciting because it was all we can do for a while. So a lot of it, whether it’s Army of the Dead, Big City Greens, Dark Alliance, American Dad, I’ve been able to do a ton of animated stuff. I’ve always loved doing voices.
In fact, my friends used to make me do impersonations at parties in high school. They were instrumental in just bolstering my confidence to think that I could actually pursue an acting career. A lot of it started for me doing voices whether it was Rodney Dangerfield or Kermit the Frog or Pee-wee Herman or Arnold [Schwarzenegger], and so for me to be able to do as much voice work as I get to do, it’s fun and it’s really easy to do. And it’s a lot of fun for me.
You mentioned Arnold. How was it to work with someone you used to do impersonations of?
Well, and Pee-wee Herman also. And what’s funny about both of those was on talk shows, they would make me do Arnold’s movie lines and then they would make Arnold do the same line after me and the audience would have to vote on who did it better. And then it was the same thing Pee-wee Herman. And I remember like Jimmy Fallon does a Pee-wee Herman impersonation and it’s just like he and I were like doing dueling Pee-wees on The Tonight Show. When I looked back, believe me, it is not lost on me, the unbelievable ability to manifest some of these relationships that have happened in my life with people that I grew up idolizing and then to get to work with them has been… there are just no words for that.
You went viral in the wrestling community a few years ago when you and your wife Sofia Vergara attended a Pro Wrestling Guerrilla show. Are you a big wrestling guy? And since you’re from Pittsburgh, I’ve got to ask about Bruno Sammartino and if you were a fan?
I’m not that old for Bruno. [laughs] I’m younger than that. But I do know Bruno and I’ve gotten to spend some time with him, but he was before my time. The answer is yes, a big giant resounding yes, but I was a fan during the golden era. Macho Man Randy Savage was my favorite wrestler by far. Wrestlemania IV was the highlight. His match against Ted DiBiase where he won the title, I went crazy when I was a kid for that. And then super angry after WrestleMania V when the Mega Powers exploded. I just don’t think that wrestling for me was the same really. Stone Cold came into the ’90s but like, of course, we’re talking Macho Man in the ’80s, who I then got to hang out with on the set of Spider-Man.
And then you’re talking about the ’90s and the Attitude Era, you’re talking about big, sexy Kevin Nash. You’re talking about then the Big Show. Nash and I were castmates in Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL and then Big Show [Paul Wight] plays in my weekly Dungeons and Dragons group. So there’s a long history of me with professional wrestlers. I also shot a movie a long time ago with Ken Kennedy or Mr. Anderson and he invited me to tour around with the WWE for a little while at the time.
I love all that kind of old-school wrestling. And my buddy Chris Bauer was the one who got me into Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. And I started going to PWG matches, but I had been going for a while prior to bringing Sofia. Wrestling is not Sofia’s thing. So I was like, “You gotta come with me on Friday night to this wrestling show. Like, please come with me. You’re going to laugh.” And so we just had a blast.
Kevin Nash is so effortlessly cool. He lives up to the big sexy nickname. How was it just being on set with him?
Kevin was my lifting buddy at the gym so we would always go to the gym together for Magic Mike. During Magic Mike, we stayed in touch. Then when Magic Mike XXL came out, he was always my lifting buddy. We would go to Ruth’s Chris Steak House afterward. Without fail, every night we’d go in there, and this gives you an insight into what we were eating at the time or what we needed to eat to keep the engine going, but the waitress would come around and be like “Can I take your order?” I’d say, “Yeah, I’ll have the porterhouse for two” and she’d go, “OK, great.” Then she’d walk away, and Nash was like, “Hey, I haven’t ordered yet. I’ll also have the porterhouse for two.”
He was my lifting buddy. He was my eating buddy. We still stay in touch. I love that guy. He’s also one of the fucking smartest people you’ve ever met. Like you’ll just be sitting there bullshitting, and then he’ll come out with some fun fact about Cubism and the Cubist period. And you’re like, “What the fuck?” There’s nothing that guy doesn’t know. He’s a fountain of information on everything. He’s a trip, man. I love that dude.
You got to reprise the role of Deathstroke for the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Are you still optimistic that you’ll get to portray him more in-depth down the line?
No, I let that go a while ago.
