Paul Wight is back for another round with the Fast family.
Paul Wight recently spoke with WrestleZone about his role as Palindrome in the Netflix animated series Fast & Furious: Spy Racers. The fifth season (subtitled “South Pacific”) premieres on August 13, and Wight explained how it was flattering to get invited back for the show, noting that “if you get a callback, that means you did something right.”
Last season, Palindrome debuted as a mysterious character, and his intentions weren’t immediately known. Speaking in wrestling terms, it appeared as if Palindrome had a babyface turn towards the end of season four. Wight poked fun at his own wrestling work and quipped that he couldn’t imagine his character turning, then teased a bit of what fans can expect from his character this time.
“What? Me having a turn? No! Never!” [laughs] “What’s great is this character actually got a chance to grow a lot. Originally, Palindrome was a very driven character, one-goal oriented, getting the bad guys and putting them back in jail. That’s what he does and that’s him, and he went [from that] to expanding and finding the family environment. Spy Racers, just like the main franchise is driven by family,” Wight explained, “and I think Palindrome found a lot [of that belief] in the kids in the Spy Racers world like Tony Torretto [the main character in Spy Racers and Dom Torretto’s cousin] and being a mentor for them.
“And also, he’s developing a little bit of a thing with Ms. Nowhere, so that’s interesting for Palindrome, who’s very set in his ways in doing things. I think Ms. Nowhere really drives him insane because she really changes everything on the drop of a dime. She’s smart and very good at what she does, so she really keeps Palindrome on his toes and that’s been a great character arc for him,” Wight said, “to become more dimensional in the mentor role and having a bit of a crush on Ms. Nowhere. It’s been fun to explore that.”
Wight added that speaking Russian has been the most fun part of the role for him so far. During an interview with WrestleZone while promoting season 4, Wight revealed he was learning the dialect for the role, and now says it’s enjoyable because it really sounds like a different person.
“Even in my own mind, it doesn’t sound like me. You never sound like you sound, like when you do a recording, you hear your voice back and go, ‘That’s what I sound like?’ But doing the Russian part, I was like, ‘Wow! That sounds really cool, that’s a cool-sounding character. It’s like a flip within a flip,” he said. “It’s been fun doing it.”
Wight has also been very proud of the fact that the animators gave Palindrome a beautiful head of hair, and said he teased them for some really luxurious hair and they delivered.
“They went above and beyond to make one of the coolest animation series out there with the technology that they put into it,” Wight said. “I’ve got to say that Palindrome has beautiful, beautiful hair. Palindrome should have his own shampoo endorsement because his hair is so good. Just saying, personal opinion.” [laughs]
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