Seth Green based his Howard the Duck voice on Danny DeVito.
Seth Green
The 'Guardians of the Galaxy' star - who first played the character in a post credits scene for the 2014 Marvel blockbuster and later appeared in the 'Guardians' animated series and 'Ultimate Spider-Man' - has reprised the role for this week's episode of 'Marvel's What If...', and he's explained the genesis of his take on the character.
He told Collider: "We had talked about something that felt like Danny DeVito, and I did it... if you listen to the very first one, it's even more like Harvey Fierstein kind of Jew-y. He's got a lot of like this thing.
"And then the more that we did it, James [Gunn] was like, 'Less of an accent and just more like a guy who's got a gruff voice.'
"Like Danny DeVito in 'Other People's Money', as opposed to Danny DeVito in... 'War of the Roses.' "
When DeVito's role in 'Batman Returns' was mentioned by the publication, Green immediately praise his performance as The Penguin.
He added: "What a masterwork. If ever there was a role to aspire to, it's his Oswald Cobblepot."
Meanwhile, the 47-year-old actor admitted getting cast in the role wasn't something he'd chatted to director James Gunn about before being offered the part.
He said: "Gunn and I have pretty similar tastes in movies, especially the weirder, more fringe or even grind-house kind of movies, but I don't think we'd ever had a conversation about Howard specifically.
"I know they'd already done the CG, and so, they needed somebody to loop the line, but I think he just ... Who knows? Who knows?
"I've never asked him why. You don't look a gift horse in the mouth and say, 'I don't know about these teeth here.' "
Tagged in Danny DeVito Seth Green James Gunn