'I totally get it': Chris Pratt understands why he faced casting criticism over Super Mario Bros Movie

Chris Pratt "totally gets" why people criticised his casting in 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie'.

The 43-year-old actor was subjected to a backlash when he was revealed to be voicing the beloved Italian plumber in the video game spin-off movie and he thinks it is a testament to how "passionate" the fans are about the project and he is "grateful" for their concern.

He told Gizmodo: “Oh, I totally get it, man. There’s a passionate fan base and I’m one of the fans. I get it.

"Mostly, people don’t want something like this to get screwed up. They’re precious about it. They’re careful. And I’m grateful for that."

Read the whole interview, which also features insight from Cha

But despite the weight of expectation, Chris admitted he didn't have a lot of nerves going into the movie because so little is actually known about the characters.

He said: “[Mario's character] is largely undefined, but I think because it’s largely undefined, it kind of reduces the amount of trepidation that I personally felt coming in.

“I mean, you have great reach. Anytime you have IP like this, it’s really something that’s almost required these days to create a big tentpole type of movie for these studios. You have to have some kind of reach.

"The fact that this hasn’t been a major motion picture recently was a really great thing.

"And you’re right, there’s not that much familiarity beyond just what their costumes look like and a handful of catchphrases that you might hear. And knowing that it was Illumination, I was like, ‘Boy, I think this is destined to be a home run.’

"So I was really, really grateful to be a part of it.”

The 'Jurassic World' actor admitted he was always a fan of the 'Super Mario Bros.' game when he was a child.

He said: “I played this game for hundreds of hours. Probably maybe 1000 hours of my childhood spent. And so like the sound of hitting a coin, catching a flower, hearing the score, every little detail of the movie, it was like I was hypnotised by it as a child.

"So to see it now, I mean, just nothing really compares to it in terms of my relationship to the brand. So it’s pretty, pretty cool. Pretty incredible.

"And also, I care just as much as everyone else to make sure that doesn’t get screwed up.”