Borderlands stars Ariana Greenblatt and Florian Munteanu had their own ways of making the iconic video game characters their own.
"I read the sides like I just read them through kind of cold read, and the first thing that came to mind was Margot Robbie's rendition of Harley Quinn and Suicide Squad," Greenblatt, who plays Tiny Tina, tells 12DOVE.
Tiny Tina was first introduced in Borderlands 2 as a fast-talking, absolutely unhinged 13-year-old demolitions expert. The fan-favorite character is known for her unusual dialogue (including some cutely vulgar quips) and vocal inflections as well as her unique weapons that consist of a teapot, cobra, and a pink camouflage assault rifle she calls her Boom Puppy.
"I immediately was just studying how she prepped for that, especially since obviously Harley Quinn is such a beloved character, and there's comic books and movies and so much material on her that. I wanted to see how she prepped for something that already existed. I kind of followed in her footsteps with that, and I kind of read everything and watched everything and played everything I could for Tina. And yeah, there's definitely little looks that Harley does and little smiles that she does, that I definitely kind of got inspired by. And that's the first thing I told Margot when I met her."
Munteanu plays Krieg, who, in the games, is a playable member of the otherwise unplayable Psycho class. Psychos are shirtless, wield axe, emit creepy laughter whenever possible, and have no other goals other than homicide. Krieg, however, hasn't fully lost himself to madness. In the film, he becomes Tiny Tina's protector of sorts – and the two are quite the deadly duo.
"This role is so insane, and so crazy. He's a complete lunatic once to get once you get to know him better and get to know more of his background story," Florian tells 12DOVE. "So I was prepping more in terms of the fighting style, you know, than having an actual idol or something that I could look up to what he does, because I wanted to be my own self with this one, and I wanted to go in raw, but fighting-wise. I tried to adapt as much as possible, because this one was very different from the things that I did so far. His movements are everything but controlled. It's complete insanity."
Borderlands hits theaters on August 9. For more, check out our ever-growing list of upcoming video game adaptations, or, check out our chat with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford about the Borderlands Cinematic Universe.
