STILL BATS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman, on his 25th anniversary
KEVIN CONROY RECENTLY had an unusual experience whilst out walking in New York. “A cop car put its siren on as I was crossing the street,” recalls the actor. “I thought, ‘Oh man, am I going to get a jaywalking ticket?’ Then a cop leans out the window and goes, ‘We want a picture of Batman! Come on, Batman!’ Did I do the voice?” He breaks into a booming baritone. “‘Please, officer, don’t give me a ticket!’”
Conroy has been doing that voice for 25 years, playing Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter-ego first in Batman: The Animated Series, then through numerous follow-up shows, video games, and the odd feature-length movie such as the new Batman And Harley Quinn. He’s played the role for longer than the tenures of Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck combined and, for many, his silky smooth version is the definitive take on the Caped Crusader. Yet until recently, most people couldn’t have picked him out of a Batline-up. “But because of the internet, everybody now recognises everybody,” he says. “Faces are no longer anonymous.”
With that face, long and handsome, Conroy could certainly have played the live-action Bat. But it was his voice that was his passport, even though he freely admits that when he showed up for the audition in 1992, he was virtually clueless about the Caped Crusader. “I was a New York stage actor,” he explains. “I only knew the Adam West show. ‘Zap! Pow! Bam!’ Bruce Timm [co-creator of The Animated Series] told me that Batman’s parents were murdered in front of him. That changed everything. I approached it as a classic, tragic character and went to the deepest, darkest place I could find in my voice. I’ve continued to approach it that way.”
There’s no sense that Conroy is ready to hang up his Batmicrophone just yet, even as he enters his early sixties, nor that Batman
And Harley Quinn is the culmination of his work with Timm. The new movie teams a reluctant Bats with Harley, a character who has become a mighty oak after her humble debut in The Animated Series, most recently with her film-stealing appearance in Suicide
Squad. “They really balance each other well,” says Conroy of the pairing which, crucially, still sees Batman come first in the title. “Oh, keep the billing,” he laughs. “For now at least…”