Netflix's biggest original movie of all time Red Notice launched just in time for the holidays, boasting a star-studded cast led by Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds. Following the capers of international art thieves and cat burglars around the world, Gadot's character targets a wealthy socialite named Sotto Voce. Portrayed by fan-favorite actor Chris Diamantopoulos, Sotto gave Diamantopoulos the opportunity to flex his acting muscles (in more ways than one) while offering a sharp contrast to his recent Netflix role in True Story.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, Diamantopoulos detailed the painstaking lengths he went to bring Sotto Voce to full-bodied life. He also shared what it was like playing off his iconic co-stars in Red Notice and reflected on his prolific voiceover career in animation.

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Chris, you're bookending the month of November with major Netflix releases, especially with how successful Red Notice has been. How was it joining that project and working with the three biggest movie stars in the world?

Chris Diamantopoulos: It's such a great time.

I love what I do so much and I've done it for so long. I've been professionally acting for over 35 years and I love everything about it. There are highs and lows and times when things aren't necessarily moving and shaking and then there are times when you're involved in projects like these where you get to work with people who are the best at what they do. When I got the script for Red Notice, I got so excited because I've been a longtime fan of Rawson Thurber, who is the writer and director. I was a huge fan of [Dwayne Johnson] and Gal and Ryan. Sometimes when I'm really, really moved by a project to audition for it, when you want something so badly, you can get in your own way and that didn't happen in this instance.

I set out to get the role, got it, and was thrilled that I did because the collaboration moving forward was everything that I hoped it would be. I thought the movie turned out just exactly right: it's what we need right now during this holiday season and with the pandemic -- for people to just sit back and be entertained by something. I'll really to be a part of that.

The last time we spoke, you mentioned finding a character starts with their voice, and your Red Notice character Sotto Voce has a voice distinctly different from your own. How did you find it?

Originally the character was written as a South American character and I don't speak any Spanish and didn't want to play him that way. I thought I'd play him as a Greek since I speak fluent Greek, but it turned out the director wanted to try something different. He wasn't quite sure what he wanted so we, together, settled in on this notion of making him mysteriously European, ambiguously from a Baltic region, but the reason we can't place his accent is that something tragic mechanically happened to his voice when he was a young boy.

[Sotto's] dad strangled him and tried to kill him but he inadvertently killed his father and that left a vocal scar. Once we came up with that backstory, then I had to find out what that would sound like. I had a great time figuring out voices, trying voices I hadn't done before, and challenging myself to find a voice that maybe hasn't necessarily been heard before, or creating a voice for a character that you might not normally do. That was great fun!

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One of the most bananas things about this production is you went from gaining weight for the role to getting as jacked as the leads. How was that transformation and how did that help you find your performance?

It was interesting because when I first got it, it was supposed to be a pudgy, balding billionaire and I thought, "Great, I get to eat pizza and donuts." I did. It's what I always wanted. And then a few weeks before we started, once we decided to shift the character, Rawson said, "Let's make him a killing machine, like a viper!" I said "Yes!... How are we going to do this?" He said "I want you to be in the best shape ever! I want to see sinew, muscle, and veins!" I asked when we were going to start and he said in two and a half weeks. [laughs]

The truth of the matter is I'm lucky because my brother Gus runs a strength training facility that's second to none. It's in Toronto so I wasn't able to train with him but I did get his tutelage, in terms of diet and exercise, with some very simple but challenging changes. I was able to get into fighting shape and it really was just fasting, eating red meat, and exercising super intensely but frequently.

Your character is kind of like a Bond villain or the guy that gets dunked on by Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, but also has this sinister side with all these torture devices. How was it balancing that?

Every chance I get on set is a chance for me to play and to go back to who I was when I was nine or ten years old, wanting to do this for a living. That was the perfect combination for me, Bondian and suave but there's also something buffoonish about him. He doesn't realize he's a buffoon. He's not played like a buffoon, but he's the butt of so many of Ryan's jokes, who is unbelievably hilarious. Calling him a muscular toddler is one of the best lines. [laughs]

Rawson wanted me to get into great shape and I did. I'm there and starving but feeling good about myself and then when we get to that scene [where I take my shirt off], the way the staging and camera was, Rawson didn't want to have me shirtless like we talked about, because they had to change the beginning and end of the scene, but said I looked good and it'll show through my shirt. I was like, "What?!" He said we could go ahead and lay down a take and we started the scene and I took my shirt off and Ryan improvised, "Why is he taking his shirt off?" It was literally just one of those things where I was like, "Fuck it, we're doing this. If I worked for this, you're getting it on camera!" [laughs]

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You've got scenes performing with all three of the leads in Red Notice. How was it interacting with and playing off them?

It was a real opportunity for me as a cinephile and lover of the entertainment business. I got to work with three cultural icons and see how they jive with each other and with me. Ryan is fiercely intelligent and it's that intelligence that allows him to be so facile in his improv. I love learning from everyone that I work with and that was like a masterclass between Ryan, [Dwayne], and Gal in terms of poise, charisma, talent, improvisation, and even just basic set manners, watching these three. The best-behaved actors that I've worked with are the biggest actors that I've worked with. You might think that, when you reach a certain level, the manners go away, but I watched them and took notes on that's how you want to be and got to be.

In a complete tonal shift, your other Netflix project is the drama miniseries True Story. How is it taking on a more gritty role opposite Kevin Hart?

He did a marvelous job, what a great collaborator and excellent scene partner. He's just so professional and genial. Talk about a top movie star, there's absolutely no question in my mind as to why Kevin Hart is as successful as he is because he's all-in. And let's not forget to talk about Wesley Snipes because he is just velvet on-screen and he has this remarkable access to his vulnerabilities. The camera rolls and you could read manuscripts on his face. It's so impressive. I'm an actor, not a comedian, I simply try to service the material that I'm lucky enough to get.

For years, before I did Silicon Valley, I was doing dramatic stuff. When Silicon Valley hit, people saw me as a funny guy and that's great because comedy isn't easy to do but doing something like True Story really is in my original wheelhouse because that's pure drama. I like that the character didn't have as much to say as many characters that I play. I tend to play characters who are pretty verbose just because I have a facility with words and dialogue but it was nice to focus all that energy into physicality. It was fun playing a little bit of a badass, completely out-of-character.

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With such an extensive voice career, how is it playing a bit against type as a character that conveys so much menace just with his physical, nonverbal presence?

I like to think that I play against type with everything that I've done so far because that's the challenge for me. Right when someone thinks they've zeroed in on my type, then it's this or that type. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning. I feel like, over the last fifteen years especially, I've really run the gamut going from the alpha to the omega of different character traits, voices, and personalities. What I'm starting to hone in on in the next chapter that I'm super excited about is really stripping away as much of that as I can and going to a place of a leading man.

Becoming the Cary Grant of whatever today's project is, going more towards Chris Diamantopoulos, and really digging deep into the emotional and psychological elements of playing a character unfettered by any vocal differences or physical changes, just stripping it all away. I think it would be fun to find the right role or right series with the right collaborator and play a version of me.

As a bit of a shift, you were the one that bust open the fourth wall on The Office in that last season. I was wondering if you could speak to that experience?

It was a unique experience, singular. Something like that will probably never happen again. I was a massive fan of the show and watched the first two or three seasons with great aplomb but I lost touch with the show because I became a father around Season 4 and stopped watching TV altogether because my life turned upside-down. When that role came to me, it was an audition with a wonderful casting director named Allison Jones who has been so generous with opportunities that she's sent my way. The audition was one that I really cared about because I loved the show.

Brian the Sound Guy on The Office

[Series creator] Greg Daniels and Jenna Fischer were there and I remember thinking that they loved and cared about this show as much in its last season as they did in its first season -- if not more because the stakes were so much higher. They have to make sure they service these characters that they've created and we've all fallen in love with, and they really do what's right by them. I felt a tremendous amount of responsibility to the show. With most projects, there's a ping-pong collaboration and, with this one, it wasn't that it wasn't collaborative but they rightfully had such ownership over what they created that my point-of-view wasn't necessarily on the forefront.

They had big stories to tell and wrap up so I was really more of a passenger in that than a driver. I wasn't necessarily offering opinions. We shot a bunch and we actually shot a bunch of scenes that didn't end up in the show because there was a disparity between what Greg, Jenna, and John Krasinski wanted to try. I understand that they each had very valid points but I loved that they were all so passionate in the points that they were making and the points that they were making were in service of the characters and all that they had built over those many years. It was fascinating being on that set, just as an audience member for the show. It was like a weird, trippy moment to be in the eponymous office.

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I'd be remiss if I didn't mention all your recent voiceover roles, from the unhinged Doc Seismic in Invincible to subverting the My Little Pony fantasy trope with Centaurworld.

Being able to record all these roles during a pandemic -- I just recorded a new show called Pantheon for AMC and I did Inside Job for Netflix all remotely. The fact that we were able to do the work and not stop production, was huge and a testament to all the creators of these marvelous shows. The last couple of years have been really big animation years for me. I think that's mostly by virtue of a lot of kindness that's come my way from showrunners and casting directors who are really generous with opportunities and giving me the chance to throw my hat in the ring. I love doing animation. Growing up, Saturday mornings were my favorite. They were the greatest.

When I'm watching Succession with my wife on the couch and she falls asleep, I'll pause Succession, put on live TV, and find a Family Guy. Animation means as much to me now as it did then for the very same reason that it's full of escape. It feels wonderful to be able to stretch my voice and go to places that on-camera won't necessarily allow me to go to. In Skylanders, I got to be this marvelous, ancient wizard. In Centaurworld, I get to be this tiny, little bird centaur. It's all of these changes that keep me engaged and happy doing what I really think I was put on Earth to do: entertain, shape-shift, and carry on.

Produced, written, and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, Red Notice is available to stream now on Netflix.

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