Artt Butler is Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms. While he personifies the warlock in this film, he’s also known for his role as Agent Jack Flowers in The Boondocks, a Central Terrorist Agency agent with a penchant for stomping on testicles.
Senior Gaming Editor talked to Butler about how he portrayed Shang Tsung in Battle of the Realms, his complete lack of history with the Mortal Kombat series, and more. This interview contains some spoilers for the film.
Michael Leri: “Do you know what kind of damage a steel boot can do to prepubescent testicles?!”
Artt Butler: [laughs] That’s so funny. Yes, I do. That’s my specialty. I was just thinking about that character a couple days ago.
You had a very memorable role in The Boondocks as Agent Jack Flowers. Do you have any memories of that appearance?
Actually, yeah. That was the job that got me into SAG. That was like the best time ever: to have your first official gig to be a character that runs down a hallway and kicks a terrorist in the nuts with a steel boot.
I think that was one of my effort noises. “Now, you run down a hallway, it’s about 30-feet long and we’re going to need you to scream the whole time and kick the guy in the nuts.” I’m like, “Got it. Let me give you three in a row.”
Shang Tsung is such a devious bastard with the veneer of credibility that he likes to pretend to have. How do you tackle that?
That’s how I play him. He thinks he’s legit and he’s got his own mission in things at all times. He’s got dual motives for everything. He’s got special powers and does better than kicking people in the nuts. It’s funny because he seems to me kind of the Darth Vader of the universe. Like he’s middle management but he’s got himself some power.
His relationship with the humans is very antagonizing, especially with Liu Kang. Liu Kang eventually gets the better of him in their second fight. How is their relationship specifically?
In the first movie, Shang Tsung dismisses him like every other human. He’s insignificant. And as it goes on, he realizes that Liu Kang isn’t as puny of a human as he thought and feels as though he’s more of a challenge. And with Shang Tsung’s hubris and arrogance, he discovers him as a better toy to play with.
By the second one, it’s like, “It’s going to be fun to kick your ass.” In the first one, he’s more like, “I could flick you with my pinky and destroy your whole universe.” You can see how that turned out. [laughs]
The end of the fight is pretty great as it shows Liu Kang’s strength and character as he beats Shang Tsung, but then refuses to do a Fatality to humiliate him.
He leaves him to live with the humiliation, but Shang Tsung seems like someone who would resent that even more, just the fact that he didn’t kill him. It’s this weird dichotomy of, “You let me live, but now I think less of you because you’re not a warrior.” That is the mission: to kill them at the end [of the fight]. And Liu Kang thinks he’s even too weak to do that.
Jordan Rodrigues’ delivery of that final line sells that, too.
He did great. It’s so weird that we all, for the most part, record separately. It would be fun to have done that scene with him. It would just be both of us screaming our heads off. [laughs]
That whole fight scene was done in my booth at home during the pandemic. So when he breaks my knee apart, that was me screaming in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of a tiny booth and it was very metaphorical. [laughs]
What is your relationship with Mortal Kombat?
I love that everybody likes it. I can feel it when anybody talks about it. I am glad that they do. Everybody has such strong opinions about it. I am the one who didn’t really know about Mortal Kombat before getting the job. Everybody has such a deep history and I was the one who just missed the boat with the whole Mortal Kombat thing back in the day. It just wasn’t on my radar. But being part of something this massive and the fact that I completely missed it is kind of weird. [laughs]
There’s always that one in the people that do Star Trek or Star Wars or any other giant property and they’re like, “I’ve never even heard of it before I got the job.” And I’m like, “Yeah… I am kind of that guy.” [laughs] But I am so stoked and honored to be a part of it.
