ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with voice actor Imari Williams about his role as Tremor in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind. The film will be available digitally and on DVD and Blu-ray on October 11.
“When Kano and Black Dragon mercenaries become determined to take over Earthrealm, undisciplined Kenshi seeks tutelage from retired Kuai Liang to stop Kano from decimating all of Earthrealm,” reads the film’s synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Mortal Kombat is such a huge franchise, not only in gaming, but there are also so many great films, animated and live-action. What was your relationship with the series before you got this role with the franchise?
Imari Williams: I mean, just a general fan. I grew up with Mortal Kombat during my whole life. It was the split between Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Tekken. It was great. What I associate Mortal Kombat with is frustration, because you’re always trying to get their fatalities, you’re always trying to master the character, and you’re always trying to get your timing just right — especially for the controllers when they first came out with it. Then over time, seeing it evolve and seeing things change and gameplay change, and then all of a sudden, they made a franchise. I was around to see the first Mortal Kombat movie in the 90s, man, when it first came out. So it’s been part of my fabric since I was a kid, basically. To be part of the franchise … it’s absolutely amazing.
You get such a fun role here with Tremor, who’s this total badass. He has these awesome earth elemental attacks that look so cool with the animation. What did you like most about this character?
Oh man, I love that he just gets nasty, you know what I’m saying? It was like therapy sometimes. He wanted to be a nice, good, nasty, bad guy, and he was able to do that. He also enabled me to distill and just kind of sink into him and not really rush him and take my time with him. Then bring a deepness and a grittiness to my voice.
The fight scenes are so awesome in this movie. When you’re approaching a role where you’re going to be grunting and doing all these wild fight noises, how do you approach that?
When you do fight noise or efforts … efforts are always there. They’re interesting because you know when you do a video game, you’re going to be doing some efforts unless you’re doing one of those role-playing games where you just kind of move the scene along. But I went into there knowing I’d have to chase the grunts and stuff, so it takes a little bit of stamina — I’m not going to lie. I had to stand up. I like to swing my arms around. For some of it, I’ll give myself a little light sock in the face to kind of get the feeling. I like the physicality of it. That’s like when you’re like, “oh! Grunt!” You’re listening to what they want, you’re looking at how the character’s moving on screen — because you have dailies that you’re going to — and then you’re making your choices. So it’s always … I love it. It’s fun. It’s after the session [that] I’m always wiped out, like I just worked out or something. It’s physical, but it’s great.
One thing I really loved about the film is it definitely lives up to the gore level that people expect from Mortal Kombat. What was your reaction?
There’s those scenes that happen where I had to get real guttural and just get nasty. I won’t spoil it or anything. But I love that because when you’re just getting disassembled, it’s funny to see where you can go, like how can you push this character and convey to the audience what this guy is going through? A lot of the gore in this film was just so nasty. You’re just seeing blood splatter everywhere. It’s kind of like unblinking in a way. No apprehension. No buildup. Just heads flying, people getting impaled and shit. Unbelievable. It was great.
You serve a really cool role in this film. Tremor lets his fist do the talking a lot of the time, but he’s kind of a roadblock for Kenshi — somebody that he fails against and then has to defeat in order to fulfill his arc. How satisfying was it to have that full meaningful story for this character?
I just think, for me, I looked at it as, “Here’s this muscle for this iconic character, Kano.” I thought it was awesome. I mean, I love what he does. He is there for the muscle, but he’s also keeping things in line for King Kano. I love the physicality of the character and I love the pure power of him. So it was awesome. And I thought he fit really well in the storyline.
One of your early video game roles is in my favorite game, Asura’s Wrath.
God, dude, can I tell you something? I am shocked. Like I did that game, right? And I’ve never heard more about that game than now. That game was one of my first games I ever recorded in my career. The first game I ever recorded was Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, where I played this guy named Shona. Then the second role I booked was for Asura’s Wrath, where I play Augus. I get goosebumps thinking about it, because there are so many people who are showing their love for the game. Like, it’s unbelievable. I think it’s fantastic. I’ve never seen a game register for as long as Asura’s Wrath.
It wasn’t a huge hit, but the fan base is super passionate. What does it mean when people are still praising your performance as Augus a decade later?
This is exactly why, when I got Tremor, I wanted to … If you give 100% passion into a character, it’s going to resonate with somebody. When you feel that from other people, you feel like you’ve done your job and you feel amazing, because you’re like, “yes. The choices I made worked. Other people understand where I’m coming from.” And there’s no better joy than seeing you succeed at a job that you’re passionate about, right? Because we have many passions in life, let’s be real. There are people who are passionate about a lot of things, but to be successful in your passion is just a gift and it’s a blessing. So I am just so happy, man. I’m just so, so elated that people can hold on to what I’ve done and recognize what I’ve done and appreciate it. It’s the biggest rush.
You’ve done a lot of great work within anime lately. Were you a fan of anime before?
Oh dude, yeah! I was watching anime before I even knew I was watching anime. I was watching Voltron, you know what I’m saying? There was no name for anime when I started watching — I’m Gen X. So I was raised on Speed Racer, Voltron, Robotech … I would get video tapes — when we still had VHS tapes — and I would go to a special shop that would have anime. I started checking out Bubblegum Crisis and all these other awesome anime that I raised on. But what really set me off on anime that made me fall in love instantly was Akira. Akira was like … it blew my freaking mind. And ever since I saw Akira, I wanted more. So I just started scouring everywhere I could find anime. I would dub it, I would consume it. I’d go into any video tape store and try to find like my favorite ones. Yeah, I’m an anime head .
You’ve gotten to work on some really iconic series. You did Hol Horse in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. What did it mean to be involved in that franchise?
Dude, I had no idea about JoJo until I started acting in JoJo, and I was like, “this show is crazy as shit.” I was like, “what?!” With good old Hol Horse, he’s a gentleman, but he is also a brute, but he’s also a second-rate thug. With him, you’re just like, he’s the man, right? But he’s not the man, He’s a coward, but he’s a gentleman. He has so many different layers, man. I mean, I’ve never played a character like him. He’s a ladies’ man, right? He’s kind of a scoundrel, but he has ethics. He won’t hit a woman. He loves all women, “even the ugly one and the fat ones,” he said, right?
But then he’s also like a badass, but then he attaches himself to powerful bosses, so that gives him leverage, right? So he is kind of like a hermit crab, going from bad boss to bad boss that gives him protection. So I love to do it. Hol Horse is one of my favorite, favorite characters, dude. He’s so good. In fact, I might get Emperor on my forearm. I’m debating that. I might get an Emperor tattoo.
You put a lot of thought into the characters and the performance. You recently appeared in Demon Slayer and your role there, Shinjuro Rengoku, is so interesting because he used to be a Hashira and was a top-rank Demon Slayer, and he falls so far. So like, talk me through just playing Shinjuro.
Shinjuro is like … when I got offered that role, I remember when I begged Bang Zoom! Entertainment. I was like, “please, if you have anything for Demon Slayer, just please send it to me.” It’s one of my favorite series. I found out they were doing it. I’ve done stuff for Bang Zoom a lot, and I was like, “Please let me just do something there.” And then they gave me this role and I just was like, “I cannot fuck this up.” So I just wanted to go in there with everything I had. Research the character, research his alcoholism, who he lost, and try to bring it up to the character as best as I can. And I’m still … I’m praying that they have another Demon Slayer again. So I’m like, “Please, please just bring it back. Please bring it back.”
You did some great work in the dub for Sword Art Online as well, and that’s such a huge series. Your character, Bercouli Synthesis One, is just so awesome. How is it playing that character within such a popular series?
Dude, I got on Sword Art really late. It’s such an expansive universe. It’s so big and there are so many series that lead up to what I did for Alicization. But my guy, Bercouli … that role, for me, was one of my favorite roles because it was a different approach that I took to him. I really wanted to slow him down. Alex von David, who helped me, was the voice director of the series, and he really helped me slow him down and get this badass … they call him Hot Uncle Bercouli, because he has gray hair but has this chiseled body. He’s this guy that could take care of everyone he cared about, so I really wanted to put that into my character. So I really fell in love with Bercouli, and I actually have a time sword on my forearm with his dragon watching over the Citadel that he lived in on my arm right now. That was the first tattoo I ever got, was of Bercouli. So I really love that character. I love the franchise, being part of Alicization was just awesome. Such an epic arc to be on, man.
