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INTERVIEW: The Creators and Stars of the Deadpool Webseries

As many of you know, Chris Notarile’s Deadpool webseries has been at the center of a legal battle with Marvel over the right to use their characters in a non-profit fan-film. I had a chance to speak with Chris about the situation earlier this week, as well as his wife, Andrea-Nichole Olivas, who plays Boss Lady in the series, Deadpool himself Damian Vargas and his wife, Veronica Vargas of Nerd Herders. 
Chris Notarile

Chris Notarile


A Place To Hang Your Cape: Thanks so much for speaking with us. I wanted to start off just by talking about the series itself. How did it start? Why Deadpool?

Chris: That kind of started when I had done a Deadpool Christmas Special back in 2009. I’ve had a desire to do Deadpool for the longest time. Episode 1, I wrote years ago. I’ve been sitting on the script since 2006. But nothing ever really came to fruition from it. And then I met Damian and I saw what he was capable of doing and I said to myself you know what, screw it, let’s just finally go ahead and do this.

AP2HYC: So Damian, how did you and Chris first meet?

Damian: I was a fan of his when he started early on on YouTube. I watch more YouTube than I watch TV. So I became a fan of his films and I kept up to date on everything he had coming out and I always wanted to work with him in some way or fashion. Three years ago was actually the first time I got to meet Chris at a Comic-Con. He pretty much told me to keep in touch with him, maybe there’d be something, but I didn’t want to be too pushy. So fast forward another year and he’s like “Yeah, stay in touch with me man” and I kinda did. So my wife and I started a radio show [Nerd Herders] in September and Chris was the first guest that we had on the show. I became a little more persistent, stayed in touch with him. I saw him put up a teaser picture for the Deadpool webseries and I was like “Oh dude, my whole family is a huge fan, we’re a little Deadpool core family, so we’re all about it.” So we’re taking the kids out to see Santa Claus and my phone rings, and it never rings, and my wife sees it’s Chris and she goes “Well you better pick it up then!” And I did and that was pretty much the start from there. Chris pretty much sold me on the story right there and it’s been a hell of a ride ever since.

Chris: When I called him, I was actually headed to the store that day and all of a sudden I was like “Brain fart! I’m gonna call Damian” cause I had his number. So I’m just like “Hey buddy, you wanna audition for Deadpool?” And he’s like “Whaaaaaaaa?”

Damian: I was trying to play it cool on the phone, but in actuality I was freaking out on the other side.

Chris: So I told him to come on over at some point and we’ll make it happen and that was really it. His interest in the character and his knowledge of the character really helped make everything happen.

AP2HYC: So how was the decision made that Damian would play the physical body while Chris would play the voice of Deadpool in the series?

Chris: That really came down to the fact that cloning hasn’t been invented yet. I wanted to be Deadpool really badly, people said that I should be Deadpool, but I don’t have the body for it, and I don’t have the martial arts skills to do it. Plus, I’m a little bit more gangly. I decided to do the voice though because I wanted to have a stamp on the character. And as much as I love Damian, he doesn’t sound like Deadpool. He sounds like Damian. But he looks like Deadpool, so that works out.

AP2HYC: Having seen the first two episodes, I have to say you both seem to really own the character.

Chris: It got to the point where, the scene where Deadpool comes out of the bathroom and he’s shaking Weasel, I actually felt guilty voicing him over because he actually did a really good job and he was really funny. And I’m like “Aw man, now I gotta voice this” and I’m trying to match his pitch.

Damian: I got into that scene a little bit.

About the author

David Molofsky

David is the Founder & Editor-in-Cape of AP2HYC.