Kevin Conroy, known for being the voice of the Leather Patch in, among other things, Batman: The Animated Series and in the Arkham games, passed away last November.
Now an older interview has gained the spotlight, where he and Bruce Timm go over different experiences throughout their careers. Conroy talks warmly about his experiences with Batman: The Animated Series. There, all the voice actors had gathered in place and recorded their dialogue together. With it, they could adjust their own lines and tones depending on how the person had previously delivered their line and have a lively dialogue.
But when it comes to the games, it wasn’t as much fun. Unlike a series or movie, dialogue in a game can be affected by external factors in the game. So all the sounds have to be recorded by itself and then can be played back together. So Conroy had to be alone in a recording booth for eight hours a day, recording lines. Without context about how the environment reacts to the lines.
…alone, in a booth, in a vacuum, creating the character, keeping the character’s voice alive, and then creating the situation for each line. Then they want it three times, you know. Give it to us angry! Oh, keep that anger and give it to us with a little irony! Oh, we love the anger and we love the irony, now just sweeten it with a little bit of love. By the time you get out of there you’re pulling out your hair and you’re going, what the fuck do they want me to say!
For two years he was involved in Batman Arkham Knight and recorded around 37,000 lines. See the full interview here.
