STACK NZ March 2017 Issue 82

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12 MARCH 2017
visit CINEMA FEATURE
A fter Will Arnett debuted his gravelly Batman
voice in 2014’s The LEGO Movie, he left
both fans and filmmakers wanting more.
“What was so special about Batman in the
first movie is that he was selfish and egotistical,
but still loveable in his own way,” says returning
LEGO producer Dan Lin. “He has zero self-
awareness; a total subversion of the superhero
genre. We wanted to give him his own movie.”
If Will Arnett’s spot-on delivery came as a
surprise to many, then he argues that it’s all in
the family.
“My dad had a pretty deep
voice so he’s always claimed
that if anything happens to
me, he could take over my
career. By the way, I’m like:
'Thanks a lot! I’m your son!
Your son is dead! Are you not
worried about that!?” laughs
Arnett when STACK meets
with him in Beverly Hills.
“But ever since I hit
puberty, my voice started to drop –
along with everything else.”
His inspiration, he says, is Michael
Keaton’s Batman. “His growl wasn’t so
deep or as dark as Christian Bale’s but
it was very fresh. Keaton and Tim Burton
started the idea that Batman talks like this,”
says Arnett, slipping into his Batman voice.
“That’s Michael Keaton man! And that’s what
we’ve come to take for granted as The Batman.
He came up with it. And at the same time, while
he was Bruce Wayne, he was kind of playful and
a bon vivant playboy. Michael Keaton is obviously
an amazing actor and doesn’t get enough credit.”
Arnett is joined by Zach Galifianakis, who
voices Batman’s wannabe arch nemesis The
Joker, and is likewise fascinated by Arnett’s voice,
suggesting his throat must be a weird shape.
“I don’t know. It's just always been raspy and
deep,” Arnett replies as his co-star persists,
“Did your parents feed you tarmac when you
were a kid?”
Arnett hits back with: “No, but for vitamins, we
always had a steaming cup of crushed glass in
the morning.”
It’s little surprise they have an easy banter,
given that Batman and The Joker share what
can only be described as a bromance in the film,
which, according to Galifianakis, was “conceived
on that day. And then we continued having sex
throughout the recording session.”
Even if the Dark Knight
prefers to go it alone, he is
reluctantly joined by Rosario
Dawson’s Police Commissioner
Barbara Gordon/Batgirl and
adopted son Dick Grayson/Robin,
voiced by Michael Cera.
The LEGO Batman Movie also
features an insane number of
superheroes and villains, from
Superman, The Riddler, Two-
Face, Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley
Quinn, to lesser known and downright
unknown baddies such as Calendar Man
and The Condiment King.
Look out, too, for villains from Harry
Potter and The Lord of the Rings alongside
the Gremlins, Godzilla and even the Daleks
– the latter referred to in the movie as “British
robots”; Galifianakis claiming he’d never heard of
Doctor Who prior to LEGO Batman.
If either actor imagined that the film would
earn them brownie points with their young kids,
then think again.
“When they hear me do the voice, they
say: 'Can I have my iPad?'” offers
Arnett, who has two young sons
with ex-wife Amy Poehler.
“I usually just get: 'You’re not
my real dad,'” adds Galifianakis.
“But I will say this: The other day, because I
have this TV show, Baskets, my picture is on the
side of a bus and my kid is at eye-level so he
could see it from the back of the car, so I look in
the rearview mirror to see what he’s doing, and
he just looks at it, and he looks straight ahead
and makes a long sighing noise. That’s all he did.
No dialogue. He knew it was me and he just
sighed like, ‘How long is this going to go on?’”
Working closely with Animal Logic in
Australia, Arnett often found himself Skyping
with director Chris McKay in Sydney.
“One day I was doing the Batman voice on
a Saturday and they didn’t have school so they
came with me, and McKay said they needed
some kid voices and he’s like, 'Let’s record
them'. And so I’m like, 'OK, do you guys want
to do it?' And my 8-year-old doesn’t want the
attention but my Abel, just as I’m asking him if
he wants to do it, passes me and goes: 'Yeah
just tell me what to say', and he got up on the
seat and just waited.
“So now they’re the voices of the orphans
when Batman visits the orphanage, going ‘We
love you!’.”
Unimpressed, Galifianakis shrugs. “So there’s
no nepotism in Hollywood…”
The LEGO Batman filmmakers took their time
choosing their BatGirl, with McKay saying he
was drawn to Rosario Dawson because of her
activism and girl power.
Chatting with Dawson, she tells STACK
how she dealt with bizarre social media hate
following her casting.
“People were like, she’s Latina, wait a
second, Barbara Gordon’s supposed to have red
hair! And I was like, guys, this is an animated
movie voice-over, you’re going to be really
shocked to see all the people who voice your
favourite characters, they’re black, brown, Asian,
you know. A woman does Bart’s voice, sorry to
break it down for you! Get used to it.”
None of the cast even had a glimpse at the
vast scope of LEGO Batman’s universe while
voicing their roles. “Some of the stuff they
put in it isn’t fully emphasised,” says Dawson.
“It’s more Where’s Waldo-ish. It’s there in the
background, and the more you watch it – and
parents are going to have to watch it over
and over again – you'll definitely catch more,
like you’ll see Wonder Woman in it next time,
dancing in Superman’s lair.”
Ask Galifianakis if there’s a dream superhero
he’d like to play, and he’s all over it. “If it had
nothing to do with the Batman world, then
Jesus Christ, for sure.”
And which villain? “Same answer. Also Jesus
Christ," he laughs, "depending on your preferred
point of view.
"The Joker is fun and villains are fun to play,"
he adds. "I’ve never played a bad guy before
– not that I think this guy is a traditional
bad guy, but I don’t think you can get any
better than The Joker as far as a villain is
concerned. But as far as a good guy goes
– yeah, Jesus.”
BATMAN
BLOCK BUSTER
STACK talks Batman's trademark growl, bromance with
The Joker and bizarre social media backlash with The
LEGO Batman Movie's Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis
and Rosario Dawson. Words Gill Pringle
• The LEGO
Batman Movie
is in cinemas on
April 6
I don't think you can
get any better than
The Joker as far as a
villain is concerned