Welcome back to the Pizza Interview, a series from New York Times Cooking where the Q&A has a catch: Our guests have to make pizza.
Chris Pratt, Charlie Day and Keegan-Michael Key lend their voices to the cosmic new installment of the Super Mario universe, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” opening on April 1. Mario (Mr. Pratt), Luigi (Mr. Day) and Toad (Mr. Key) embark on a bigger, more interstellar adventure beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, where they face a new enemy, Bowser Jr., voiced by Benny Safdie.
Watch the full video below (or on YouTube), and read ahead for excerpts from the interview and outtakes, which have been edited and condensed.
Credit…Victoria Chen
Have you ever made a pizza before?
CHRIS PRATT I have a pizza oven at home, and I have children so we periodically will make pizzas. I have yet to do it well, so maybe today’s the day.
KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY I have officially never made a pizza before, and I love that we have all of this array of things for this to be my first foray into pizza making. I’m very excited.
CHARLIE DAY As a young man, I would take a slice of bread and some tomato sauce and some cheese and put it in the toaster. And is that a pizza? No.
KEY It’s not, not a pizza. It’s pizza-ish. It’s pizza with one “Z.”
DAY It’s a cousin of pizza.
PRATT It’s pizza adjacent.
Do you like to cook?
DAY I like to cook. Although I rarely cook because I’m not great at it. But when I do do it, I enjoy the process of doing it.
KEY Me, I’m a good sous-chef. I’m really good at cutting the things and ordering them. Like this [gesturing to the spread] is my domain more than the actual putting together a recipe.
PRATT I love to cook. I cook as often as I can, which is, you know, maybe a couple times a week.
Mr. Pratt was the only one of the three stars who had made a traditional homemade pizza.Credit…Taylor Miller for The New York Times
What’s your favorite pizza place?
DAY We live in Los Angeles, not known for its pizza, but there’s a pizza place called Tomato Pie. I think it’s great. Shout out to Tomato Pie. Love your pizza.
KEY I’m a big fan of Buddy’s Pizzeria on Conant in Detroit, where I am from. Detroit-style pizza, like square pizza that’s thick. Buddy’s pizza with garlic. That’s my favorite pizza place.
PRATT I used to be a dishwasher at Omega Pizza and Pasta in Granite Falls, Wash. Still there. I painted a mural on the wall. Go see it. Ask for Alex. He’ll hook you up. Chris’s special. I’m not above a Domino’s thin crust, double pep, double cheese though. You know, at like 2 to 3 in the morning. You have to eat all of it, though.
DAY I’m above that.
Growing up, what was your family’s pizza order?
KEY We liked olives and ground beef and onions. That’s what my dad really liked. As opposed to pepperoni and sausage, it was ground beef.
DAY I don’t ever remember my parents ordering pizza, I think I had to go to my friend’s house to get pizza.
PRATT Yeah, me too. We were too poor for pizza. It was expensive, so we didn’t get a lot of pizza.
Do you like pineapple on your pizza?
PRATT Yup.
KEY Yes, I enjoy pineapple on my pizza.
DAY No, that’s ludicrous.
PRATT What I think is funny is how strongly opposed to pineapple, the nonpineapple people are. It’s a real line in the sand for them. I love it. I think it tastes good.
DAY It’s a fruit!
PRATT So is tomato!
KEY Not to mention the fact that why would you not want both savory and sweet to wash over your palette?
DAY Sure, let’s mix Italy and Hawaii. They go perfectly together.
KEY Both are warm climates.
Chris, you mentioned you’ve worked in the food service industry, has anyone else?
KEY I did, I worked at the Original Pancake House in Birmingham, Mich., where I used to make Dutch babies, kind of cool pancakes. I really enjoyed that. I was a prep chef there.
DAY Let me tell you something. If the year was 1998, and you had gone out for brunch with your friends at a little restaurant called the Cornelia Street Cafe, here on Cornelia Street in Manhattan, you might have been waited on by a young Charlie Day. And you probably were waiting for your eggs Benedict and wondering where the heck they were. Let me tell you; This guy was always in the weeds. Every single time I went to take an order, it was a nightmare. I was cut out to do one thing and one thing only, and it’s not make pizzas.
PRATT What is it?
DAY I don’t know, we’re working on it.
Before you were cast, which Super Mario character did you choose when playing Mario Kart?
KEY I came by my casting honestly, because it would have been Toad anyway.
DAY Really?
KEY Yes, I love Toad. That, and I’m kind of partial to Waluigi. I don’t know why he’s so interesting to me. Just “Wa.” I just like that it’s “Wa.”
PRATT I always had to be Luigi because my brother was older, and he was like, you know, gonna get Mario.
DAY I, too, was second fiddle to my sister and often played Luigi. I always felt like Luigi was a little more vulnerable because he was taller. And I was like, well, things are going to hit me easier. In real life, I’m unscathed, nothing hits me.
If you could eat any food that was featured in a movie or TV show, what would it be?
PRATT I would try the Everlasting Gobstopper from “Wonka.”
KEY The steak that Cypher eats in “The Matrix.” Are you kidding me with that thing?
DAY I think I’d go Will Ferrell “Elf” with the spaghetti and the syrup. Just to try it. Just to try a bite of it. I wouldn’t eat a lot of it but I’d have a bite.
PRATT I might like to be Jaws.
If you were a food dish, what would you be? Can you answer for each other?
DAY [To Pratt] I feel like you’d be, like, a nice filet mignon. A good piece of steak. Classy.
KEY Charlie, I don’t know why this is coming to me, but I’m looking at it like a puff pastry situation. Like a chicken potpie, a steak and Guinness pie. There’s a comfort, you know what I mean?
DAY You’re not wrong.
KEY Just drop a little cayenne in that bad boy.
DAY The question is, what do we do with you?
KEY I don’t know, and I’m not allowed to answer!
DAY I feel like it’s Pop Rocks and a Coca-Cola. Just exploding everywhere.
PRATT Mentos. Coke. Cap. Shake.
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