Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden Speak For The First Time Since Becoming Rick And Morty

The new stars of the long-running Adult Swim series are no longer under strike orders to not promote

Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden won the jackpot, being cast as the title characters of Rick and Morty after Adult Swim cut ties with original voice and co-creator Justin Roiland following misconduct allegations in January. Domestic violence charges that occurred at the time were dropped in March. It was probably the biggest recast story of the year in non-reboot circumstances. But their casting was kept secret until the seventh season premiered five weeks ago, in the midst of a SAG-AFTRA strike that ordered them not to promote struck work. Now it’s over, and the tape is off in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Feeling just as much like superfans as the voices themselves having beat out thousands of potential candidates, Belden says “It’s been super surreal waking up every day. For the first month [after landing the role], I genuinely kept asking my girlfriend if that had really happened, if I was indeed the new Morty. So, to keep having that realization that, ‘Yes, this is real, that you are playing a character you’ve watched and loved for years and been a huge fan of,’ is indescribable, and brings such joy.” They go into their backgrounds, Belden highlighting his theater, commercial VO and One Chicago work, while Cardoni’s been acting since childhood and had done promo VO work more while character voices were more a hobby.

Belden jumped into auditioning for the roles immediately upon the news breaking, knowing his skills, knowing how common it was for these specific character impressions were to be, same for Cardoni. And as previously reported, they were given the roles separately than both to one in order to put less bearing on them, so they still went out for both at the start. Belden summarized the audition process for them both as “easily the longest and most intense” but also the most fun, having to endure plenty of curveballs that risked them falling out of character. Some of the described, which co-creator Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marden got visible kicks out of, included “What if Morty was just channeling Rick here?” “What if Morty wasn’t quite as submissive, but he was really dominating and angry here?” and “What if he was being a bit cold and calculated, much like a certain Morty who wears an eyepatch?”, the latter of which was definitely in preparation for last Sunday’s “Unmortricken”. The auditions were remote, but Belden and Cardoni still encouraged us to imagine everyone was dressed for the parts. Even if they hadn’t gotten the parts, they were proud to audition, and the excitement built the closer they got and were ecstatic upon clinching. They met Harmon during the summer and then again at the premiere.

The interview actually ended with Belden praising the season’s writing and expressing gratitude at the warm welcome by not only the production crew, but the fans and the online community, especially coming off their first episode as other Ricks and Mortys in the aforementioned “Unmortricken”. However, before that, they actually remarked that they don’t look at the comments. In fact, Belden’s girlfriend forbids it. They understand how change can be, especially for something so longstanding.

Sunday’s most recent episode of Rick and Morty, "Rickfending Your Mort", saw Rick surpass his existential crisis thanks to the Observers putting him through a very mindblowery mindblowing experience. Season seven has 4 episodes left, currently scheduled to wrap up on December 17, and will be followed by new episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force at least some of the way.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter