Animated Shorts Interviews Kevin Conroy / BATMAN

[The Caped Knight]

BATMAN: I am the night! I am vengeance! I am Batman!​

Batman: The Animated Series celebrates its 15th Anniversary this September 5th.


REFLECTIONS ON THE BAT – AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN CONROY
by Steve Fritz

His natural voice has a slightly higher pitch and smoother delivery, and it’s admittedly a little bizarre to hear it so happy, but it’s still undeniable. Even with the yapping labs, it’s Kevin Conroy. The guy who has thrilled fans and adults alike as the Dark Knight.

Born in Connecticut, Conroy studied drama at Julliard under the legendary John Houseman. His fellow students, who he expounded on in the course of the interview, are amazing. He moved to L.A. in the 80s to do the series Dynasty. The TV shows he worked on before voicing a certain DC superhero probably would have eventually led to one heck of a TV career, minimum. Then he answered a call for an animation voice job that would turn into his longest-running gig, at least so far.

In 2003 Conroy sold his California home and moved permanently back to NYC. Of course, he knows everyone here is really interested in what happened during the 12 years he voiced one singular animated character in particular, and was more than gracious enough to answer just about any question that popped into my head about it.


Here’s what he had to say:

Newsarama: So what have you been doing with yourself these days?

Kevin Conroy: Since I moved back to New York a few years ago, I’ve mainly been doing lots of voice over work for commercials and MTV and lots of off-Broadway shows. I still do animation for Warner Bros. by phone patch.

I was raised in New York, and theatre is my background. I was just anxious to get back. I’m an East Coast Guy.

NRAMA: Obviously, everybody knows you as the voice of Batman.

KC: You know, it’s the oddest thing. I graduated from Julliard. I’ve done a lot of work off-Broadway. I really have a strong base in classical and regional theater. Then I move out to L.A. to do a series, Dynasty. So while I was there, I had a voice over agent who said they were going to be casting for a new animated show, one about Batman. He thought I should give it a shot.

Now I had never done any animated work before. I had just done commercial voices. I didn’t come to L.A. to do animation. So it was a total fluke. I think it was the fact I was so naïve that got me the part. I went in with no pre-conceived ideas. I went in just as an actor.

When I went in there, they asked me if I was familiar with the show and I said I was familiar with the (Adam West-Burt Ward) TV show. They told me theirs was nothing like that. This is the Dark Knight series. I told them I knew nothing about that, they were speaking Greek to me. They sort of laughed about that.

NRAMA: Now when you say you talking to “them,” were you talking about Andrea…

KC: Andrea Romano, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett. The original creative team. We were discussing this in the middle of the sound booth at Warner Brothers. They told me this wasn’t the 60s campy version at all. This was very dark, very noir, and then started describing the character to me. From what they told me I said that they were talking about Hamlet. They laughed and said that no one had ever called Batman that before.

What a lot of people don’t realize is all of this goes back to archetypes. There are certain kinds of archetypes in classical literature, so I just went to a very dark, brooding place in my head and came up with this sound. When I did it, there was no movement in the booth, then they all started running around. So I thought I really hit a nerve or they were calling security to get me out of there. Pretty soon, I realized just through creative instinct I hit on something that they liked.

Later, they told me that because I had no pre-conceived notions it really helped. They liked the idea that I came on it as an actor. It worked. It just plain worked. Of course it evolved over the years to the point where they would ask me what I thought Batman would say…I was the person who was Batman now.

NRAMA: Yeah. By the end it was you, Bruce and Andrea as the last ones still there.

KC: True, but it was really wonderful, unusual, once-in-a-lifetime experience for me that lasted for 12 years.

NRAMA: What was it like working with the original team? After all, they were all fine artists in their own right.

KC: I was really naïve to all of that. I really didn’t know who I was dealing with when I got the job. It was good because I wasn’t intimidated by any of their resumes because I didn’t know what those resumes were.

It is a different world. The personality types are different. They’re very creative, but everyone in the performing arts is creative. Animation people though, they’re personalities are more like musicians. They are very inward.

NRAMA: I think animators are much more team players than just about any other form of the arts outside of theatre.

KC: Yeah. They are very collaborative. This can get awkward because although they are very collaborative, they also have the egos of other visual artists. This tends to make them very temperamental people who are also good collaborators. It’s a very unusual, unique group.

NRAMA: Did they make you familiar with the animation process outside of the isolation booth?

KC: The first thing I really remember was when they sent the stuff off to South Korea and then six months later it comes back so we can start the ADR process. Now Mark Hammill and I were really the two principle characters in the first season. So we were among the first two to see the film that came back.

Now the ADR process was done in the Warner Bros. lot in a real state-of-the-art sound studio. It had everything. It had a full screen. It was beautiful. So Mark and I are sitting in this amazing view room and the first footage comes up…and we were both blown out of our chairs!

I mean I remember I looked at Mark and said “Did you have any idea this was what we were working on?”

All he could say was “Un-@#$%ing believable.”

Imagine seeing this incredibly lush, obviously very expensive footage with this incredible soundtrack. I think no one really knew except maybe Paul, Bruce and Alan what quality they had created and how elevated it was going to be.

I remember I had some friends who were working at Disney and they called when it started airing. All of them kept on saying “You B#!@$S!. Now you’ve raised the standards for everyone. Now we have to match up to it.” The other studios were not happy.

NRAMA: From what I’m hearing, it actually sounds like you and Mark worked together radio style.

KC: Oh yeah. That was the Warner Brothers technique of the day. Most studios like to put their actors in isolation booths and work separately. Warners like to set things up like a radio play. They really go to great lengths not to record people individually; to the point where when I moved back to New York, I had to promise them that I would fly back frequently and promise to do as many sessions that I could in L.A. I would only do any phone patching for looping and ADR. They really insist on actors being there. The performance quality is better for it, dramatically better.

NRAMA: Then what was it like working with a guy who at that time was mainly known as Luke Skywalker and hearing what came out of his mouth?

KC: Let me tell you, people would be shocked to see him working in the sound studio. People have this image of him as Luke Skywalker, teen hero, a very traditional leading man character. When he does voice work, he can’t sit down. He’s totally energized. He has to stand. He also practically devours the microphone. His face transforms and he becomes a wild man. It’s wonderful to watch.

I think it was incredibly frustrating to be so identified as Luke for so long. Yes, it made his career but it kind of, kind of…

NRAMA: Shatner syndrome.

KC: Exactly.

NRAMA: So was it a shock to see the voice of the Joker coming out of Luke Skywalker’s face?

KC: Yeah, it really was. It was also real bittersweet.

That was because Mark was a last minute replacement for the part. Originally, Tim Curry was cast to be the voice of the Joker, who is also a wonderful actor.

NRAMA: Curry is a great v.o. artist in his own right.

KC: He’s a great v.o. guy. He was the original Joker for the first few episodes. I was shocked when I was told that they were going to replace him with Mark because he and I really hit it off when we recorded the initial episodes. Tim was incredibly good, but it was determined that he was too dark and it scared people, especially little kids.

Mark does this wonderful thing where he goes into that insane other world but you can still laugh at it. It’s not as scary. It makes you say “this guy is just out of his mind.” Tim’s performance also made you say this guy is out of his mind…we better lock the kids up and keep them as far away from him as possible.

So working with Mark at first was a little bittersweet because I thought Tim was incredible. But Mark also proved to be incredible.

NRAMA: One thing you have to consider is over those 12 years we did wind up with a complete history of Batman and Bruce Wayne.

KC: The later stuff was really incredible, wasn’t it? It was really wild to see the older Bruce Wayne and then look back at the stuff I did in 1992.

I’ve been so lucky with this. The guys really grew to trust me and understand that I was very flexible. Like when they did that episode “Perchance To Dream,” when Bruce has flashbacks to his childhood. His father is in it. He has been drugged by the Mad Hatter. I got to play a young Bruce Wayne, Wayne Senior, Batman and more.

NRAMA: That was the one where the Hatter made Batman think his family was still alive.

KC: Yeah. It was an amazing episode for playing all those variations on this theme and making them all sound relate-able, but distinct, and they really trusted me on it. It was really a lot of fun. That was really great.

NRAMA: What was it like when you did the one with Grey Ghost and you were working with Adam West?

KC: That was the one time I felt a little nervous going in. I’m really respectful of other actors’ boundaries. Batman was something Adam West had created early in his career and I didn’t want to disrespect him, but I also gotta do what I gotta do.

He couldn’t have been more gracious. He was so professional and complementing me on what I had done, respecting my boundaries. He was a real gentlemen and a pleasure to work with.

NRAMA: One thing to think about is could you believe all the major actors you got to work with?

KC: We had everyone from Dean Stockwell to Ice T even came in. The people who would show up were just wild. After we did our 100th episode or some similar anniversary, Warner Bros. took out a two page ad in Variety and listed all the actors who had been on the show, and the list was amazing. I had lost track myself.

NRAMA: Any actors you had fond memories of?

KC: Many. You know who was fun and also went through the Shatner syndrome? Adrienne Barbeau. She is outrageous! She was a great Catwoman. She could be very sexy and seductive yet look over at me this huge smile and wink at me at the same time. She knew exactly what she was doing and loved being outrageous.

Andrea (Romano) was just great at casting. She not only would find talented people, but people who could work well off of each other. Anyone who was an ***hole didn’t work with us. She screened them out. Now I had worked at other studios and there are casting directors who don’t do that. They are just too concerned about getting the voice down. They don’t think about how the actors are going to interact. Andrea takes that into consideration.

NRAMA: What was it like working with George Newburn as Superman? The relationship between Batman and Superman was important from the fan point of view, so how was it from acting together?

KC: He was also a lot of fun because he was new to voice acting when he came in. A lot of that was due to Andrea, too. But she did a great job of putting the two of us together in Justice League. Andrea put a lot of good actors in that show, like Carl Lumley, Clancy Brown. I knew Clancy for years because we used to have the same agent for years.

It’s real funny how things go around. I mean John Glover, who plays Luthor’s father on Smallville, he and I go back to our early days in New York. I also knew Tim Daly from New York theater. Our paths crossed so many times.

NRAMA: Would you say you saw a distinct evolution of the character of Batman as the various series went on?

KC: With Justice League, it’s kind of hard to pinpoint Batman on that series. He really was the outsider there. I went through a really distinct arc between Batman, Batman & Robin and then Batman Beyond. That was a really wonderful arc.

With Justice League, because there were seven principles and so many guest stars, I really didn’t get to do a lot. Batman was kind of interesting to play as he was not a team player. He’s always been an isolated guy, a singular guy, and there really wasn’t any other character to play that off to.

NRAMA: But he did have one of the funniest episodes, the one where you had to sing “Am I Blue?”

KC: (Laughs) Andrea was behind that one. I really think it was her. They were the ones who picked “Am I Blue” and it was the perfect choice. I think Alan Burnett was involved in that one, too. They had the whole thing written and ready to go before they told me what they were up to.

NRAMA: That’s interesting. The one time I interviewed Keith David was when he was singing at a piano bar. In my crazed animation mind I wondered what it would have been like to see Batman and Goliath doing duets.

KC: Mind you, we went to school together, at Julliard. He’s a very talented actor.

NRAMA: Did you ever work together on the animation front?

KC: No, unfortunately. Julliard was a very interesting time, when I was there in the 70s. I was just 17 at the time when I started and I was the youngest one there. Kelsey Grammar was in my class. Robin Williams was my roommate for my first two years. Chris Reeves has a year ahead of me. Mandy Patankin and Kevin Kline were just about to graduate. There was so much talent and we were just kids!

NRAMA: I would have loved to have seen some of those play.

KC: Yeah. Can you imagine? And Keith was one of the real shining lights.

NRAMA: Did you ever work with some of the great old timers like June Foray or Daws Butler?

KC: No. Back here in New York I get to meet the grand old timers of this world, but not the animation world.

NRAMA: What would you say is the main thing to get voice work in the animation world? You have a very distinct voice and it’s gotten you far. Others are like Mel Blanc, who had so many characters.

KC: There are some people in the animation world who are frighteningly talented. They can come up with an incredible range of voices and noises. I think more and more, animation has moved away from those kind of actors. They aren’t doing as many cartoony sounds and gone more dramatic.

Directors tend to cast the voices they want to hear in terms of the actor. There are just a few people these days who specialize in doing dogs, cats or funny stuff. They call them stunt voices. Right now there isn’t much for demand for that.

The biggest demand, or at least the most common, is the sound they want to hear. The trick is to tell the story in a dramatic way without being cartoony. Keep it simple, you can only tell the story with your voice, but don’t guild the lily, if you know what I mean. Don’t oversell it. It’s real easy to go over that line.

NRAMA: What is it like working for Bruce Timm? After all, you’ve had one of the longest relations possible with him.

KC: We get along really well. Bruce really has the personality of an artist. He’s enormously creative. I work well with him, but I’m not sure if everybody does because he does have the temperament of an artist. Then again, I have the same temperament, so I loved working with him.

NRAMA: Alan Burnett seems like the calmest of the three.

KC: He is. He is the father figure. The real steady hand and a very easy guy to go to when there is a problem. He’s a terrific guy to work with.

NRAMA: What about Paul Dini?

KC: I wish Paul had remained involved with all the shows. I thought he and Bruce were an incredible team. They complemented each other and were wonderful together, but I think they both felt it was time to move on.

NRAMA: Paul seemed the more lighthearted of the two.

KC: Very much so. Bruce has a real dark side and more of a tortured artist personality (laughs). I think they worked well together because of that.

NRAMA: They still call you?

KC: Not as frequently, but that’s only because we aren’t in production of anything that involves me as much. I still get calls from them though and we are in communications.

NRAMA: Any talk about the direct-to-DVD projects? I admit none have needed Batman as much yet.

KC: No, not yet. I haven’t been involved in that stuff.

NRAMA: This was a 15 year gig for you. How do you look back on it?

KC: The fact that it went on so long was extraordinary. I mean everyone would like jobs to go on forever but that doesn’t happen. But the fact that it went on for so long was just fantastic.

I’m still doing voice work. I haven’t done a play in about a year now. It’s mainly commercial work but I’m doing it every day.

NRAMA: Do you like meeting your fans?

KC: I do, very much so. They’ve been very good to me, actually. I never lose the perspective about who it is that keeps me employed. It’s not the studio. It’s the fans.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=117640

 

[blind_fury]

Give this guy a cameo in a Batman movie.

 

[gqxsensazn]

=( He needs to come back and do Batman again. I wish he would do the anime style movie they plan on releasing before The Dark Knight.

 

[JTStarkiller]

What I wouldn't give to meet Kevin Conroy or Bruce Timm.

 

[Rockbottom]

Cool interview thanks for posting that. I'd sing lots of praise about Conroy now, but theres nothing else to say that hasn't already been said. He is just the best cast voice over ever imo. But David Hayter as Snake is up there too.

 

[blind_fury]

The craziest part of the interview was when Conroy divulged that other studios where pissed because Batman TAS was raising the audiences standards.

No wonder most entertainment is crap. They want to keep our standards as low as possible. Giving our children Brawndo instead of water. (see the movie "Idiocracy" to get the reference)

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

What I wouldn't give to meet Kevin Conroy or Bruce Timm.

I met Dini earlier this year at NYC ComicCon.

He was very cool.