Tony Hale on Voicing The Joker for ‘Batman Ninja’

Ninja Batman brings a unique take on the iconic characters of Batman and with a unique take, you have to bring a unique cast along with it. One of the newest additions to the Warner Bros. Animation casting is Arrested Development‘s Tony Hale. We caught up with Hale earlier this year during a roundtable at the premiere of Batman Ninja.

Q: What was it like jumping into the Joker’s shoes?

Tony Hale: Well I typically, I played more passive and quirky stuff, this guy is quirky but it’s fun to play dark and get really crazy. In “Veep”, the show I do there’s always this understanding of like lets get as real as possible, lets get subtle kind of comedy, this you can just goes nuts.

Q: What iteration of joker did you find yourself finding inspiration from?

Tony Hale: I wish I had a better answer about that but a lot of it comes… I got a call saying “do you want to play this?” show then I showed up and they were very kind and I showed up and I saw the images, I’ve heard the Japanese recording of it, his was much more very very intense. Mine’s a little more kind of spastic a little bit. And so I just kind of dove in and you hope for the best and hope they like it. I was allowed to show up the next day and they kept me for the job.

Q: How much did you kind of play with that voice?

Tony Hale: Yeah that’s interesting. You go in there and they say let’s try something and then they say let’s try this and you kind of spent a good 15-20 minutes just trying to find the guy. And then  you just kind of go for it. I remember that I lost my voice because I was screaming the entire time, screaming the entire time and laughing the entire time and it’s just maniacal just crazy and then I just like go home to my wife  and child.

Q: Do you go home with that voice and annoy your wife?

Tony Hale: [Laughs] Yeah. It’s kind of nice though to…when you do it, you kind of check out and  then you go home. It’s the same thing with all my other characters like I remember when I was doing Buster on Arrested [Development] he’s so emasculated and so passive and you have to shake it off to go home. I didn’t take Buster home with me.

How does it feel going from live-action to doing voiceover work?

Tony Hale: I love it. I’m working on something now and I did a show called “Sanjay and Craig”, it’s just kind it’s just fun to like…it’s so different than “Veep” or “Arrested”. Arrested is very almost animated, like the characters are very broad and very weird but typically it’s very kind of real and subtle but coming in here you just kind of lose yourself a little bit and just scream. I just..I just screamed all the time.

Q: Before coming into Batman Ninja, were you pretty familiar with that brand?  What was your engagement with Batman and the Joker?

Tony Hale: I knew Mark Hamill did the Joker voice and his is such a great take on it and obviously Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson and all that stuff, but I tried not to compare myself when I do it. I actually didn’t listen to much of their stuff. I just kind of just tried coming in fresh because when you try and do it differently, it can almost become what you don’t want it to become, too close, rather than doing your own take. So I just kind of jumped in. I learned a lot about the franchise with this. When we came in there was no script, they didn’t give us the script, they had pieces of animation and they would guide you through it. And this story is so out there it is crazy and anything you expect to happen like turns this way. There’s one time when when Joker loses his memory and he becomes like a farmer and they way they did it looks like a painting, just beautifully and artistic and they switch back to the anime. It really throws you a lot.

Q: Going into it, you said you just kind of played around with voices and went in fresh, how many different voices do you think you did before settling for what’s on screen?

Tony Hale: I don’t know how many voices but you kind of go darker, I go low or when I just keep him very…’cause he has this…especially in this he has this kind of clown, I mean he’s the Joker like with the clothing they gave him, it’s very kind of like a circus ringleader and so he has this kind of energy to him that’s an erratic energy and so that’s kind of what I, what we, stuck with.

Q: Was it hard to do the laugh?

Tony Hale: Whoa! that laugh! I don’t know. Sometimes I’m sure it came out forced but just kept laughing. I just didn’t stop and they just cut it up and stuff.

Q: What’s ahead for you?

Tony Hale: In this business, I think a goal in this business for me is you’re always thinking about what’s next and the challenge is staying in the present, and this was fun, I love playing dark, I don’t get to play dark a lot. I kind of get to play wide-eyed dumb [laughs] and I love getting into the dark, so maybe some more of that but I’m thankful for the gig. Always thankful for the gig.

About Chris Salce

I'm a pop culture fanatic based out of Southern California. My collection of comics and pop culture memorabilia would even impress The Collector. When I'm not busy writing about pop culture news, doing film reviews or interviewing celebs, my brother and I work on a comic book called Blood-RED (And yes, that was a cheap plug). I have a certificate of completion for a children’s storybook writing program.

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