Will Arnett talks about his role in Jonathan Liebesman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

A lot of fans were hoping that the upcoming TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES reboot would be grittier and follow the original Mirage comics, but based on some of the characters and images we've seen so far it's pretty obvious that the film will be more like the animated series and/or the Archie comics. One of those characters is Vernon Fenwick played by Will Arnett and he recently sat down with Zap2It to talk about his role in the film.

Just because TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES might be using the television show and comics as inspiration doesn't mean it'll be exactly like the source material, and in the interview Will Arnett talks about how his Vernon Fenwick will be different:

In this version, Vernon is April's cameraman, so they work together as opposed to being her adversary. He's a little reluctant when she starts talking about [how] she found these vigilantes and they're turtles and all this stuff and he kinds of looks at her like she's crazy. Once the action gets going and she kind of gets in trouble, Vernon steps up and helps her and then he becomes part of it as well. He helps April help the Turtles.

Vernon was April O'Neil's (played by Megan Fox in the film) cameraman on the show and in the comics at times, but for the most part he was an obnoxious adversary that kept trying to steal April's job. Not really a villain, just kind of a douche bag. In TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES it sounds like their relationship will be a bit like Scully and Mulder's (except for the sexual tension, of course), with Vernon being the skeptic and April having proof of the Turtle's existence.

Since Will Arnett's character will be teaming-up with April in the film that also means the actor was a part of some of the action heavy scenes in the film, and Arnett says he really enjoyed filming them.

There's some really great action sequences that I'm super psyched for people to see. They were really fun to shoot; very physically demanding. Very exciting.

Will Arnett goes on to reveal that he just finished shooting for TEENAGE MUTANT TURTLES (production on the film should be finished sometime next month), and again talks about the action in the film.

It's been kind of a crazy last year for me for sure. We shot the pilot [for 'The Millers'] and for the last sort of three and a half months have been working on the 'Turtles' movie. I just wrapped, and again, that's another sort of gearshift. It's much more of an action movie. Michael Bay's producing that, so of course it's a whole fantastic, big, great action-packed film. I had such a blast doing that and doing something a little doing that too. I'm not going to say I'm an action star, but it was fun being in it.

I'm willing to give TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES a chance, however my expectations are not high at all. Maybe that's for the best and I (as well as other fans) will be pleasantly surprised when the film does come out. There are some things about TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES that might irk some people, but if the film delivers as a whole and if you're open-minded about it you should be able to have a good time, even if you do have some issues with the movie.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES also stars William Fichtner, Danny Woodburn, Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, and Alan Ritchson, and will be in theaters on June 6th, 2014.