Borderlands Creator Randy Pitchford Pitched Jack Black on Playing Claptrap Back In 2012

It’s been a long road for the Borderlands movie to see the light of day–it was filmed in 2021, and then underwent reshoots in 2023, and now, another year later, it’s finally hitting theaters. It hasn’t been the smoothest ride, but for Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford, whose company made the video game franchise on which the film is based, it’s been worth the struggle to finally get this film out.

“It’s amazing, you know? There were moments that, regardless of what happens from here on out, are already worth it,” Pitchford told me during a joint interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays Tannis in the film.

“There was a scene that Jamie [Lee Curtis] and Cate [Blanchett] shot in the caves when Jamie’s character Tannis, activated the map of Pandora. And to watch Jamie and Cate perform that as Dr. Tannis and Lilith and become the characters and bring them to life–we’ve only worked with these characters digitally and virtually, and Cate and Jamie and all the cast brought these characters to life. But when I watched Jamie like getting into the lore that my buddies and I built for this universe we’ve created, like, it could have ended there, and I would have died happy.”

“You needed to see the whole thing come together, and you have,” Curtis said, “and you’ve been a great, great collaborator.”

While some details always change when a story is adapted to a new medium, that goes extra when it’s a video game being turned into a movie–these are characters whose voices we know very well, and it always takes a little adjusting to deal with. But with the Borderlands movie in particular there’s one character whose voice is more iconic than others: Claptrap. Originally voiced by Gearbox employee David Eddings before being replaced with a soundalike after Eddings left the company, Claptrap is Borderlands’ most iconic character, and an unmistakable voice. But in the movie, Claptrap is voiced by Jack Black–and that’s a very different vibe from the Claptrap we’re used to.

Pitchford doesn’t mind, though–he says he first casually pitched Black on doing the part all the way back in 2012, before there were any serious plans for a movie.

“I remember when Jack came in 2012 when I was demonstrating Borderlands 2 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, and Jack came with his kid, because they’re fans,” Pitchford told me. “And I did a demo for Jack, and I said, ‘Jack, you know, if we ever make a movie out of this, you got to play Claptrap.’ And he’s like, ‘I’m in! Let’s do it!'”

Despite the differences from the game version of the character, Pitchford always thought Black was a great fit for Claptrap.

“When I first conceived of the character, Jack Black is absolutely in the wheelhouse of what I imagined. Because the character to me…we had no plans for that [character] in the game. It was just some crazy sketch. And I’m like, if we’re gonna put, like, a robot in this story, I need it to be the most human character of all, which means the most flawed character of all. And you need a personality that could swing from being insanely cocky when they’re on top, but almost pathetic and pitiful when they’re down low. And you want to swing back and forth between those extremes as much as possible.”

Curtis, meanwhile, had not played Borderlands before she signed on, so it wasn’t a love of the video games that got her on board. Instead, Curtis said, she joined up for Cate Blanchett.

“I’ve been unabashed in my devotion, bowing at the temple that is Cate Blanchett. I’m 66 years old, and I don’t imagine a world where I’m going to be offered a movie when my agent says, ‘The movie stars Cate Blanchett.’ And I said, ‘Wait, ah, does the character interact with Cate Blanchett?’ ‘Oh, yes, you’re very close to her. You were best friends with her mother, and you are the closest thing she has to a mother.’ And then I went, ‘And I’m going to be in scenes with Cate Blanchett?’ And they said yes. “

That made the decision easy, despite the fact that the movie would film at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic

“I will happily go to Budapest in the middle of COVID with no vaccines, and I will act in a movie with Cate Blanchett, because that is what God wants for me, apparently. And so I did.”

But after that, it didn’t take long for Curtis to be sucked into the Borderlands universe–on the flight to Budapest, she met Kristy Pitchford, a longtime writer at Gearbox and Randy’s wife.

“Basically from Germany to Hungary, I had basically the author of the story tell me the history of the story, which I didn’t know. And it changed everything, of course, and it was illuminating to me who Tannis was, why she existed in the story, and what my job was. And it was just very clear from then on.”

Borderlands hits movie theaters everywhere on August 9.