Don't ever let anyone tell you that being Batman is easy. According to voice actor Kevin Conroy—who lends his vocal talents to the Dark Knight in the upcoming "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies" animated feature, in addition to having played the role in other incarnations for nearly two decades—providing the right voice for Bruce Wayne's masked alter-ego is always a challenge, no matter how often he's played the role.
"For Batman, I think the biggest challenge is the timber of the voice that I established early on," Conroy said while promoting the upcoming animated film. "I just kind of improvised it and it stuck. It's very deep in my register—very throaty—and whenever it gets emotional, it's a difficult sound to create with a lot of volume technically without blowing your chords out."
Vocal pain aside, there are several ways in which Conroy relates to the Caped Crusader, not the least of which is their shared tendency to work alone.
"I am basically most comfortable when I'm alone," he explained. "I think Batman taps into that quality of me, because my initial take on the character was that Batman wasn't the performance. Bruce Wayne was the performance. Batman is where he's most comfortable. The cave is where he's most comfortable. And he puts on this persona of incredible sophistication to be able to deal with the world just like I think everybody puts on a mask to deal with the world. Everyone has a private self and a public self. With him, it's taken to a real extreme. And I think I related to that aspect of him."
Clearly, Conroy's own connection to Batman has extended outwards toward fandom, given the voice actor's several year stint at Bruce Wayne. Even now, Conroy still appreciates the opportunity.
"I don't ever take for granted how cool a job it is and how lucky I am to have landed in it," he said. "It was the first animation job I ever auditioned for—and it just happened to all come together so well.
Are you a fan of Kevin Conroy's take on the Caped Crusader? If not, what's the matter with you? Share your fondest memories of Conroy's voice acting in the comments section!