On February 15th 2009, James Marsters attended Your Funny Valentine, where a Q&A session took place. Lots of questions including one in particular, where he was asked about why he chose to do the part of Piccolo… besides the money!
James:
I have a son and we’ve been watching Dragonball for the last five years um, since he was about six or seven years old. I think the first DVD I got was kind of a strange experience because it was when my character, Piccolo, was standing (something something something… looking out over the desert?). A little kid comes up, who is the son of his old enemy, who is now dead, and begs him to train him. This little kid comes up, “Train me.” “Go away kid, you’re bothering me.” “Train me. My dad’s dead. Train me.” “Okay.” (James does an impromptu fight scene.) This little tiny kid, and he’s beating the crap out of this kid. So he picks the kid up and drop kicks the kid about 20 yards up this way (he points up in the air towards the left). He flies up, punches him back down to the ground. Kid hits the ground. Boom! Thick smoke. Granite cracks under the little kid’s head. Piccolo flies back down and goes, “That your first lesson.” So I’m watching this and I’m thinking, my son is seven years old, “what am I doing?” And then the kid, a close-up on the kid. And his face is all bleeding and bruised and his eye is swollen shut and he starts laughing. Like, I got you to do what I wanted you to do, man. And I thought, wow, now that’s a surprise. My son took to it like crazy. Basically it’s helped me raise my son. I feel like the main character, Goku, is a really perfect example of man. I kind of tend to say that a man is an enforcer of peace. What he wants is peace and quiet and if … he will force with violence if necessary, but that will be his last choice. Whereas a boys will create chaos and try to prove himself. So you have Goku, and Goku is a humble, meek, silly, goofy guy and who, given the choice will be out looking at flowers and worms and playing with his kid. But God help you if you endanger his family. And I think that we kind of have an over militarized culture, and we tend to think of our heroes and men as big burly guys. (He does this “macho” walk.) I see a guy like that and I just want to take him out. Because that’s the guy that’s never been a fight. Guys that have been in fights don’t want to be in fights, because that hurts. So I was really excited to go audition, and when they gave me the role I was excited. But I did know if I was the right one for it. I didn’t really see the connection. The director, but then by the time I got to the set. I felt like I was the only one on earth that could play that role. And I still feel that way.
Comment was made about him being green.
James:
Actually for me it was a little different, because it was not easy to get green. There was some disagreement on what my character should be. And I went off. I argued vociferously for green. I told everyone that our careers were over if I’m not green. I’m not making a threat, and I’m not going to do anything wrong, and I’ll go down with you, and I will be the first in line plummeting down into bankruptcy. I mean, if you do Superman, he’s got to have a cape. If you do Spock, he’s got to have pointy ears and if you do Piccolo he’s got to be green! So, no, as soon as I was green I was a happy happy happy little clam.
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