Motion City Soundtrack’s Justin Pierre Leaps from Singing to Acting

By Mike Newford

Justin Pierre (singer Motion City Soundtrack) has made the leap from singing to acting with his starring voice role in the dark animated film Godkiller by award-winning filmmaker Matt Pizzolo (Threat). Pierre voices the protagonist, a teenage boy on a quest to find a new heart for his dying sister in a post-nuke wasteland of fallen gods, organ-stealing hookers, and sex-addicted technowizards., alongside an ensemble cast featuring fellow rocker Davey Havok (singer for AFI), sci-fi legend Lance Henriksen (Aliens), genre-stars Danielle Harris (Halloween 4, 5, I, II ), Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects), Nicki Clyne (Battlestar Galactica), Tiffany Shepis (Night of the Demons), and punk icon Lydia Lunch. Godkiller is currently on a nationwide theatrical tour, available via cable On Demand in 75 million homes, and came out on DVD/Blu-ray on July 20.

“Justin is a phenomenal actor, his performance blew away my greatest expectations,” said Pizzolo. “I contacted him out of the blue for the project, it just popped into my head that he could play this role. He warned me from the get-go that he has no acting training but he loves anime. I think his performance stunned both of us, and you’ll definitely see him acting more in the future.”

Pierre’s acting turn has already generated glowing reviews.

Popular horror blog Bloody Disgusting’s Theo Scheresky weighed in with, “A lot of the praise here has to go to Pierre, whose voice talents make Tommy a sympathetic lead, and at the same time an interesting hero. There is a certain vulnerability about the delivery of his lines that transcend what one has come to expect from a voice actor in an animated adventure such as this.”

Blogger Ryan Miller noted in the EuroCultAV blog, “I’m not sure how much voice acting Justin Pierre is going to continue to do, but I’d love to see more of his work in that industry. I’d never expected something like this from the singer of Motion City Soundtrack.”

The dark, unrated film pioneers a new style of animation called “illustrated-films,’” developed by Pizzolo with his producing partner, Emmy-winner Brian Giberson. Utilizing sequential art by illustrator Anna Muckcracker, the illustrated-film adds 3D CGI, motion graphics, elaborate sound design, and dramatic voice performances for an edgy, sophisticated, intricately detailed new form of animation. Danielle Harris told iF Magazine, “It’s more like moving art than animation, with very good writing.” Upcoming illustrated-films from Halo-8 include Tim Seeley’s Loaded Bible, Ben Templesmith’s Black Sky, and Pizzolo’s giallo-style The Long Knives.

Pizzolo explained, “People assume the voice performances and music are a secondary component to this, but the audio soundscape is the backbone of the entire illustrated-film format… the pace of the whole movie is driven by the audio. The first rough cut is totally black ~ no picture at all, it’s built solely as audio like a radio play. Only then do we add picture… cutting and animating it against the voice performances. That’s why this format works feature length, the pace is driven by the actors and musicians… and this project has really been blessed by some incredible talents in those departments.”

For more information on Godkiller:

You can see the trailer at halo8.tv/blog-index/?p=567, read the first review of the complete full length film at  www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/comics/680, and see more about the film’s story at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godkiller_%28series%29.