AS LEO Nicolas Cantu

What was your history with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise before you were cast in this film?

NICOLAS CANTU: My history with the franchise was seeing everybody in the schoolyard with Ninja Turtle backpacks or lunch boxes and kids bringing action figures to school. They became part of my world through merchandising. I just thought they were the coolest dudes ever since I was four years old.

Even just seeing them on backpacks made you go, “These guys are cool….”

NC: It’s wild because they really are very well designed and they bring out your imagination from your first sight of them. I have made up more about the Ninja Turtles in my head than any other fictional character.

How would you describe Leonardo?

NC: I would say the way that he’s different from his brothers is that even through all the turmoil of being a teenager, he still sees the end goal of having him and his brothers become this famous crimefighting team. He still has that dream, that’s the goal he’s working towards, and he’s the most serious. He’s still a teenager, so you’re always gonna be goofy. But he’s the one always trying to keep the brothers on track and he’s got a lot of anxiety because of that, I think.

Do you see any of yourself in the character of Leonardo?

NC: His position regarding his brothers is very similar to how I grew up. I was the middle child; Leonardo’s the oldest, so not that part, but the part where his brothers are getting up to something and he’s the one trying to reel them in to behave. That was very much me growing up with my brothers. We’re very similar in that sense.

How did the four of you create the brother-like connection in your performances?

NC: I think [co-writer and producer] Seth [Rogen] really helped because he set the precedent for the banter, like, “We have the script. We love it, and it’s great. But if you guys want to step over each other? That’s how people talk. Not every line is delivered and then people wait to speak.” It’s this mishmash of a conversation that is so real. You get that a lot with brothers. People don’t let each other finish sentences. They try to get their ideas out before the other one. It’s a really brotherly thing to just disregard what somebody else is saying and say something completely different in the middle of it.

What was the audition process like for Leonardo?

NC: Although this was a voiceover project, and usually those auditions are just recorded through a microphone, they wanted to record me on video. They wanted to see my full body as I did the lines. I think they did that