The following is an excerpt from a new WWE.com interview with WWE Hall Of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper:
WWE.com: How did the role of Bolphunga come about for you?
Piper: The director heard me do other voice-over work and she asked me if I would do the voice for Bolphunga in the Green Lantern short. I actually loved working with Andrea Romano and I didn’t know a whole lot about the characters, but it turned out to be a really fun experience.
WWE.com: Who exactly is Bolphunga and was there anything specific that drew you to him?
Piper: Bolphunga is this real bad guy with no redeeming qualities, kind of like Mr. McMahon. He’s this alien that just doesn’t care about anybody. Bolphunga’s attitude actually reminded me of a lot of past and current WWE Superstars, so it was a very fun role to play. And with no real redeeming qualities, I was able to bring a bit of myself to the role.
One of the things I tried to bring to Bolphunga from my experience in WWE is that, you can be as bad as you want to be, but you won’t get anyone’s attention unless you have something people can see and latch on to, a certain quality about you. Bolphunga is a little bit of a sissy inside because when things get bad for him, rather than stand up to adversity, he runs and hides. I really tried to use that to add an extra layer and personality to the character.
WWE.com: Did you ever read comics at any time in your life?
Piper: No, in fact, I’m the guy that walked into Stan Lee’s office and said “next time you do Batman, I’d be a great villain,†and then I found out that Stan Lee didn’t create Batman. So, I didn’t really have any background on the comics or the universe going into the role.
WWE.com: Having never read comics, what was the most fascinating thing you learned about the Green Lanterns?
Piper: Well, you’ve got to have the ring. Every superhero has something and Green Lantern has the ring. What’s really cool is I actually got a Green Lantern ring from the producers and I gave it to my son before he went into a mixed martial arts fight and he won. It makes me a big fan of the character because Green Lantern’s not just smashing things, he thinks a bit. From the animated perspective, they really try to bring the morality to the situations for the kids watching, you’ve got to have justice.
Check out the complete interview online at WWE.com.
