Here's another Bryan Cranston interview about Batman: Year One:
Josh Wigler: "For myself, as well as for many other Batman fans, I imagine, Jim Gordon stands out as one of my favorite characters in the Gotham City side of DC. What attracted you to the role? What was it you saw in Gordon that made you want to spend some time with the guy?"
Bryan Cranston: "I think the biggest compliment that I can give [Batman: Year One] is that I
wasn't a huge animation fan. But I
am a big fan of well told
stories. My first experience with this was that I turned it down. I turned down the offer because I wasn't aware of the depth of where it was going. I didn't read [the Batman: Year One script], and I didn't think it was something I'd want to do at the time. A couple of agents at UTA [United Talent Agency] who knew where I wanted to go, and what I wanted to do as far as quality work, said, 'I don't know… you may want to read it. Just read this. It's not what you're thinking. It's not goofy, it's not silly, it's not cartoony. Read this.' So I read it and I called them back and said, 'You're right. It's not anything like that. It's actually interesting and thoughtful and dark and adult. Let's do it.' That's how it came about!
What I realized is that, and I've talked about this a bit at [the San Diego] Comic-Con, is that I think that's the distinction: this type of material is animated storytelling. It's not a cartoon. A cartoon is for kids. They have their place, and they're important for that age group, but this is completely different. You have characters in situations that adults can relate to: conflicting emotions, how it affects their job ability… I found it interesting, a story as anything. I was really taken aback by it. At that point, I was saying, I want to explore this. This is a guy with self doubts, concerns, he has a lovely wife but he has to commute into a town that is dangerous, and he's going to bring his wife into this situation and she's pregnant. 'What are we going to do?' Then he has this affair… oh my god, it was really multi-layered."
Josh Wigler: "Jim Gordon comes into this town [Gotham City], and as you've said, it's a dangerous town, especially for somebody in his position. For you, what do you see Jim Gordon's journey as? What is his arc, from where he begins in Batman: Year One to where he finishes up?"
Bryan Cranston: "Well, I think he comes into this [Gotham City] trying to regain his confidence and his stature as a police officer, which was lost to a degree [in Chicago before Batman: Year One]. He's going to do it the right way. He comes up against the typical kind of mind set that cops he's dealt with in the past… it's almost like he's become an internal affairs officer, hated by the police of the force because he's out to get the cops. But the truth is he's trying to find some kind of just world to live in. He's the arbiter of that in his mind. Then he comes into contact with Batman, who is a vigilante. That's not good either. That swings too far on the other side. But somewhere in the middle is where he lives: he's not the rogue dirty cop, and he's not the vigilante. He becomes the moral center of the story. It's needed. He realizes the value in the humanity of Batman."
Josh Wigler: "Jim Gordon isn't a completely cut and dry guy himself, of course. We see him brutally taking out [corrupt Detective Flass] in an amazing action sequence, showing him who's the boss in this dynamic. And as you've mentioned, Jim has this affair [with Detective Sarah Essen]. He has some weaknesses himself. There's this sense that despite his attempt to carve out a just space in Gotham, he's a bit lost himself."
Bryan Cranston: "Right. Right. And he's determined to make it right. But he's worried about if it's possible that he can even do that… which makes for a great character."
Josh Wigler: "Did you read the Batman: Year One comic book before getting to work on this?"
Bryan Cranston: "No. I wanted to take it [the Batman: Year One script], who this man is and what his struggles are, to try and convey that orally. That's all you've got, really."
Josh Wigler: "What was the working process like on this film? I know it can be an isolated experience, but were you able to interact with the other Batman: Year One actors, or was it just you in the booth?"
Bryan Cranston: "Nope, just you in the booth. You put a tremendous amount of trust in the creative team, and I did. They were terrific. Their interest in making the parts become a whole are keen as well, so it's not that you have to tremendously concern yourself with… I mean, it's just like any other acting piece. You go in there and do your role, and then the creative team puts it all together in post-production, to get the tone right, and the feel right and the tempo and pull it all together. In that sense, it's the same approach to the storytelling as it is to making a film."
Josh Wigler: "When you approach the voice of Jim Gordon, there are two different ways the audience gets to hear him: one is through his interactions with other characters, and the other is through the narration he gives throughout Batman: Year One. Was there a different approach for you in terms of Gordon speaking with other characters, and handling Gordon's monologues?"
Bryan Cranston: "The narration allows you to be very intimate. Because I took it that he's not doing a journal, but he's talking to himself, and in that regard, he was able to be free in what he said. There was only him listening. He's trying to convince himself, trying to encourage himself to do the right thing and the troubles that he's finding, trying to find a middle ground, the moral ground. That's what I found enticing about the character: he's a man who's troubled, conflicted, but trying to do the right thing."
Josh Wigler: "You were apprehensive about Batman: Year One going into this project at first, but now that you've walked in Jim's shoes, is he someone you'd like to spend more time with? Do you want to dive back into this Universe in some way?"
Bryan Cranston: "I actually do. There hasn't been any conversation about extending it beyond what we've done, but I would be very interested in seeing if this is possible. I'm four years into a unique story in Breaking Bad, and I didn't think that it was possible for us to do that series, you know? [Laughs] Because of the nature and the construction of it, how it all came together. Now I realize that there is.
I look at this [Batman: Year One] project and I go, there are more stories that could be mined from here. You would normally think the Batman character, he's the one calling the shots and leading the thing. Certainly it is that way in the films and it was that way in the old [Adam West Batman] TV series. But what's refreshing about this is there's a different perspective, and I think it's the correct one. Whether I was playing Jim Gordon or not, I think it was the correct one, because you have Batman as an extreme, and it's almost more interesting to take a step back and take a look at Batman from a more objective standpoint than being in his skin, the subjectivity of it. To wonder if he's bad, if he's good… what's his agenda? What's going on here? Some people fear him, some people root for him. Others hate him and want to see his demise. That crosses over into many different things. You've got rogue cops, bad guys… it's confusing in that sense, in a good way. You have to filter through to see who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. It makes an audience invest better, and I think it's great."
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/10/11...ryan-cranston/
Here's another Ben McKenzie interview about Batman: Year One:
Russ Burlingame: "What was your initial reaction to being offered the role of Batman?"
Ben McKenzie: "When I got the offer for Batman: Year One, I was very excited because I really like this particular take on Batman. It's a darker take - a Frank Miller take on the origin story. And I think it's fun to play the character in a way that it is more reminiscent of his being a real vigilante. He's a tough, tortured soul who is exacting revenge upon a criminal element that took something very important away from him. As an actor, this role gives you a little bit more backstory, so you have the chance to play him as a real person, albeit a person who is a little bit mentally unstable, perhaps, but heroic nonetheless. It's exciting to get to play a character who is so specifically intense and unusual."
Russ Burlingame: "And how many times in the last weeks since you've known you got the role have you said to anyone, 'I'm Batman'?"
Ben McKenzie: "[Laughs] I usually wake up in the morning, go to the mirror and say, 'I'm Batman.' I'll say it to my dog, and he gives a very confused look, which he always does because he doesn't speak English. I've tried to use the 'I'm Batman' line on everyone from the valet to the guy washing my car. You know, anyone who will listen. No one seems to pay any attention. But I know. [Laughs]"
Russ Burlingame: "Did you do any research or prep work going into the recording session?"
Ben McKenzie: "I did actually read the Batman: Year One comic again, and it was exactly how I remembered it. Really cool and dark and gritty and very bold in how it approached the source material, which has been carved out into such a revered piece of comic book fiction. It is impressive that someone would do a new take on the story, summoning the courage to just throw away a lot of that traditional stuff and really focus on some of the darker elements, which is what Frank Miller did. I think it's great. It's cool, it's bold, and I think the film lives up to that."
Russ Burlingame: "As this was your first animated voice-over project, what were you expecting and how did find the experience?"
Ben McKenzie: "It's always fun to do something that you're not particularly experienced in, something that's a little bit of a new skill to learn. Regina King has done a lot of voice-over stuff for The Boondocks - with [voice director] Andrea Romano - and she loves it. So it was really nice to feel like I was in good hands and that I'd be well treated. I think any job where you can stay indoors, work a couple of hours, say a few things and get paid is a good job to have. It beats Southland, where you're out in the streets and the heat in the wool uniforms. Nobody needs that. [Laughs]"
Russ Burlingame: "Were there any outside influences on your performance before working on the booth?"
Ben McKenzie: "I'd like to say I was influenced mainly by Adam West's performance as Batman more than anyone else, but it's not
quite the same. There's something in the way that Frank Miller wrote the comics that lends itself to a darker gravelly-voiced kind of intensity. You can't help but go there. So maybe it's sort of similar to the live-action version that Christian Bale is doing, but maybe not quite as much in that direction."
Russ Burlingame: "How did your familiarity with the original Frank Miller comics help formulate your approach to the acting?"
Ben McKenzie: "This Frank Miller world is an amazing place with a wonderfully dark aesthetic - it has the kind of noir-ish world of moral ambiguity that I really respond to. And I think if you're going to play it sincerely, you have to realize that it's written like a piece of noir with real characters and real emotional takes. This isn't some fantasy. Bruce Wayne is damaged, he's emotionally scarred, and he's trying to make sense of justice in the world. So he creates an alter ego to keep some normalcy in his daily life. That's the way he tries to make some sense of the world. He's battered and scarred, but that sort of makes him stronger, because he's ultimately unafraid of putting it all on the line. He's very human. That's the great thing about Batman - he has no super powers. He is a flawed man."
Russ Burlingame: "How did you differentiate the voice or the attitude for Batman versus Bruce Wayne?"
Ben McKenzie: "We worked on distinguishing between Bruce, who is an introvert perhaps, but is forced through his position in society to be affable to a certain degree, and then Batman himself, who is really sort of the devil within. He can really take on a whole other vocal inflection and demeanor. So we sort of wanted to play with that and make Bruce almost overcompensate in order to hide his identity, to be even more affable and agreeable than he would otherwise in order to hide the fact that he is Batman. It's hard to do because when you're going through the script in the sessions, you'll just jump back and forth. One page, you'll be doing Bruce Wayne, and the next page, you'll be doing Batman. So it is hard to kind of keep them separate in your mind. It requires a few takes to sort of relax into it and to switch it up. I'm sure tonight I'll be dreaming of being Batman. [Laughs]"
Russ Burlingame: "Was there a focal point for you to stay on target throughout the recording session?"
Ben McKenzie: "I think the acting is really just trying to imagine being twelve again and seeing Batman in this animated form and thinking 'What would you like to see? What would you really geek out on?' If you can bring that passion across on the screen, then that's your job. I think if you were going to do anything acting-wise that got any methody, you'd be a little scary. I think it's better to just try and have fun with it."
Russ Burlingame: "Do you have a favorite line or scene?"
Ben McKenzie: "Yeah, there's a fun scene with one of the young thuggish guys where he [Batman] says something like 'I know pain. Sometimes I like to share it, maybe with somebody like you.' And I like that. Just like, 'grrr.' The adrenaline and the testosterone really flows through you. It's fun. It's really fun, it's really fun. If you were ever picked on in high school and you just wanted to grab the bully and say, 'I'm gonna beat the living heck out of you,' that's exactly what you get to do as Batman."
Russ Burlingame: "Did this experience give you a new perspective on Batman?"
Ben McKenzie: "Yes, absolutely. This experience has definitely reinvigorated my interest again for Batman. I've seen the Christopher Nolan films, and I think they're great. When you get a chance to actually be a part of something based on the same source material, it's really exciting. It allows you to sort of experience what that character is experiencing, which is a darkly fun take on what it would be like if you could actually fight crime, if you could actually get revenge on all of the people that you think are bad people in this world, if you could exact justice out of an unjust world. It's kind of thrilling even to be an actor playing that part."
Russ Burlingame: "Do you see any parallels to your character on Southland?"
Ben McKenzie: "I think there is sort of a broad parallel between Bruce Wayne/Batman and my character on Southland in the sense that they're both wealthy and they're both fighting crime - in the broadest sense. Bruce Wayne and, really, Batman is just the extreme version. Instead of becoming a patrol officer, he spends his money creating an alter ego and going out and doing it himself. So Bruce Wayne/Batman is just the fantastical version of what Ben Sherman is doing on Southland. He's just doing it to a more extreme level. So, yeah, there's definitely a comparison to be made for sure."
http://www.theouthousers.com/index.p...-year-one.html
Here's another clip officially released from Batman: Year One of James Gordon and his wife Barbara Gordon visiting Bruce Wayne at Wayne Manor, because James Gordon suspects that Bruce is Batman. Bruce is doing his humorous playboy routine in an attempt to make the Gordon's think that he couldn't possibly be Batman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NMtu_x-ItQ
Impressively faithful to the book with Bruce Wayne wearing nothing but a robe, holding a champagne bottle and with some woman who doesn't even speak English, and I love the voice acting. Jeff Bennett is perfect as Alfred, Bryan Cranston is perfect as James Gordon, Ben McKenzie is appropriately sleazy as young Bruce Wayne acting like a lazy, pleasure-loving playboy with a woman who's name he doesn't even know. Grey DeLisle as James Gordon's wife Barbara Gordon is appropriately disgusted by Bruce Wayne's behavior. All very faithful to the comic. Director Lauren Montgomery also added Bruce Wayne flashing Gordon's wife.
The Catwoman short also directed by Lauren Montgomery also is groundbreaking for a DC film showing a stripper and Catwoman practically nude. Batman: Year One and the Catwoman short are definitely not kiddie-fair cartoons. I like seeing DC animation breaking further away from censored kiddie-fair rather than sheepishly cowering from uncensored content aimed more at adults.
[YT]60-2mXkPhM4[/YT]
