This weekend’s Toronto Comicon is celebrating the heroes in a half-shell with the 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film stars Brian Tochi, Kenn Scott, Ernie Reyes Jr. and François Chau, who played Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Shredder respectively.
We caught up with Chau in an exclusive interview to talk about the legacy of Ninja Turtles after joining the franchise as the Turtles’ iconic archnemesis Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze where the villain returns after his defeat in the first film with plans to create his own mutant army to destroy the Turtles. “It’s crazy that now, even 35 years later, it is still so popular,” Chau said of the first film and the second, the latter of which is currently celebrating its 35th anniversary. “Lightning struck and I am so very fortunate and happy to be a part of it.”
The turtle suits his co-stars wore, designed by the Jim Henson Company, are one of the most memorable aspects of the films for the level of detail that hold up to this day, but they were not easy for the actors to wear. While Chau had his own costume as Shredder, he jokingly said he “felt very lucky that I did not have to be in the turtle costumes. They were suffering. They were wearing these like Nerf footballs on their bodies all day long and it was very hard to do. I was glad that was not me doing it!”
As for his own costume, which has been likened to other masked villains like Darth Vader, Chau said “It was hard because all you could see was this,” covering his eyes and mouth to deliver that Shredder glare. “Most of it was through my eyes, what I wanted to convey, but it was okay. It was fun, it’s always great fun to do a comic book character. I read the comics way before the movies so I knew what was going on.”
For being a fan of the comics before the films came out, does he have a favourite turtle? “There’s no favourite turtle. For the Shredder, there is no favourite.”
In the decades since, he has starred in Lost, The Expanse, Ghost of Tsushima and The Penguin as well as many more films and TV series. You can check out our full interview on the Flickering Myth YouTube channel below.
