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Neil Patrick Harris
“The Flash”
Justice League: The New Frontier
Somewhere
between the Emmy Award nominations and the critically-acclaimed stage
performances from Broadway to Los Angeles, Neil Patrick Harris still
finds room in his busy schedule for his guilty pleasure: comic books and
the super heroes within.
Harris is now back on the set of “How I Met Your Mother,” but he had
time during the industry’s recent “vacation” to enjoy the transition
from comic book reader to super hero actor as the voice as The Flash in
the DC Universe original, animated direct-to-DVD release, “Justice
League: The New Frontier.” In its first week of release, reviews and
sales of the new film from Warner Home Video, Warner Premiere, Warner
Bros. Animation and DC Comics have been equally stellar, and Harris has
been particularly well received in his key role.
“To voice a super hero is phenomenal,” Harris said. “I could’ve been the
sixth-super-hero-on-the-right and I’d have been happy, but Flash
actually gets to help save the day, so this is great.”
Harris continues to peruse his local comics stores, even taking a moment
during a recent interview to voice his dismay when he thought Los
Angeles standard Golden Apple Comics had closed – and relief when he
discovered the store had simply moved from its location of nearly three
decades.
“I like the impressive art designs of comics,” Harris said. “I’m not so
keen on outer worlds and strange proper nouns, but I like Alex Ross and
some of the artists like that, so I find myself at the comics store
every three or four months doing some shopping. I have a secret comic
that I love, a historical comic called Super Magician Comics that Harry
Blackstone actually did. I believe they made 12 or 14 of them. But once
you start collecting comics, it’s not enough to say ‘Oh, I found issue
#8’ – you have to find issue #8 in mint condition, etc. It’s a bad
habit.”
Harris
started his career quickly in film at age 15 and, within a year, was
starring as the title character in “Doogie Howser, M.D.” He has managed
to avoid any strict pattern in his roles, bouncing from sitcom to drama,
television to film to stage, live action to voiceover. He’s had roles in
numerous animation series, including the lead in MTV’s incarnation of
Spider-Man. Voicing The Flash presents new challenges.
“This medium isn’t entirely technical – they hire you because they like
the flavor and color you provide to the pallet,” Harris said. “Actually
I find recording the script is very inflection based, so you have to
sort of leave your individuality and ego at the door and do what they
tell you to do. You do a great grunt that’s supposed to start with an
“o” and you say “raaaar” and they say ‘yes, but you started with an “r”
so do it this way.’ It’s very interesting because you have to be very
specific to whatever the script calls for.
“When you’re acting on stage or film, it’s your interpretation of the
notes that are given to you, so they can get as specific as they want in
the direction, but if they get too specific then you feel like you’re
not even acting. But in animation, we record the voices much earlier
then they animate the characters, so they have to be very specific in
their direction – and then when you come back for pick-ups, they’ve
already animated the characters and there’s no room for interpretation.
You do a two-second ugh or a four-second ugh, depending on how the
character has already been animated.”
Still, voicing a character for an animated film offers Harris a measure
of enjoyment he isn’t afforded in live-action roles.
“For me, the most exciting part of being a voice in an animated
character in anything is that the lag time is so long that by the time
you see it, you’re an audience member like everybody else,” Harris
explained. “When I finally get to see the animation, I barely remember
what the lines were – which is great because not only do I get to be in
it, but I get the fan perspective on it, too. “
Animation isn’t the only voiceover gig for Harris. He’s also very
popular on the books-on-tape casting circuit.
“Voicing Flash was fun – animation is fun – but books on tape are hard,”
he said. “It’s just you in a booth with a manuscript, and you have to be
technically perfect. You can’t pop a “p,” you have to have every word
spot-on, and after about 45 pages your eyes are just crossing. You have
to come up with characters and have everyone stay interested. Some of
them take 30-40 hours or recording, and there’s not a lot of visual
stimulation in those experiences.”
Harris has spent his time dabbling in science fiction, guest starring in
TV series like “Quantum Leap” and “The Outer Limits” as well as his
best-known role in the genre as Colonel Carl Jenkins in “Starship
Troopers.” For his part, he knows his roles in the science fiction world
might be limited by his physique, but he still enjoys a good Sci-Fi film
– whether he’s acting in it or just watching.
“I’m the agile, young, exuberant guy – I can’t ever expect to play
Batman,” he said. “Batman has that dark, gravelly voice. (Jeremy) Sisto
is a great Batman voice. I guess I could be the Robin to Sisto’s Batman.
Someday I think I’d like to play some really iconic science fiction guy
– you know, like (David) Boreanaz does. That’d be cool.”
Interview and images provided by Warner Bros. Animation.
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