Backstage
- Clancy Brown Interview
Ultimate Villain Clancy Brown
Reprises Lex Luthor Role for
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Fans’ favorite Luthor voice reunites
with Tim Daly & Kevin Conroy as seminal
roles in all-new DC Universe
Animated Original PG-13 Movie for
distribution Sept. 29
As
villains go, Clancy Brown has covered
the gamut of wicked characters across
every medium with sinister perfection –
but never is his evil expertise so
evident as when he steps behind the
microphone as the voice of
Lex Luthor. Brown reprises his benchmark
role as the focal point of
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, the
next entry in the popular series of DC
Universe animated original movies.
Warner Premiere, DC Comics and
Warner Bros. Animation will present the
all-new Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
on Sept. 29 in a Blu-Ray™ Hi-Def
edition, a special edition 2-disc DVD,
and a single disc DVD. Warner Home Video
will distribute the action-packed movie,
which will also be available OnDemand
and Pay-Per-View as well as available
for download on Sept. 29.
The
film may be called Superman/Batman:
Public Enemies, but this is a tour de
force for Lex Luthor – and Brown’s
intonations captivate during every
moment Luthor is on screen. In the film,
Luthor has been elected President of the
United States, and he uses the oncoming
trajectory of a Kryptonite asteroid to
frame Superman and declare a $1 billion
bounty on the heads of the Man of Steel
and his “partner in crime,” Batman.
Superman and Batman must unite to stave
off the pursuit of heroes and villains
alike, stop the asteroid, and uncover
Luthor’s devious plot to take command of
far more than North America.
Voicing Lex isn’t Brown’s only upcoming
starring role. Fans will get a healthy
dose of Brown on large and small screens
in the coming months as he appears in
both the remake of A Nightmare on Elm
Street and in the Matt Damon vehicle The
Informant!, as well as starring in
ABC’s primetime law office drama, The
Deep End.
Brown was cast as a
villain in his very first theatrical
role opposite Sean Penn in Bad Boys, and
then forever sealed his place in fantasy
villainy as The Kurgan in Highlander.
Before playing an immortal, though,
Brown etched his name in cult classic
history as Rawhide in The Adventures of
Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th
Dimension.
Beyond Highlander,
Brown is regularly recognized from his
standout performance as Captain Hadley
in The Shawshank Redemption, as the
centerpiece of HBO’s Carnivale as
Brother Justin Crowe, and to fanboys
across the planet as gung-ho Sgt. Zim in
Starship Troopers.
While he has
voiced nearly 500 animated episodes and
films, Brown is best known by the
younger audience as Mr. Krabs in
SpongeBob SquarePants. He is widely
recognized as the quintessential Lex
Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series
and Justice League/Justice League
Unlimited, and he has scored kudos for
his voicing of Mr. Freeze in The Batman,
George Stacy/Rhino in The Spectacular
Spider-Man, Long Feng in Avatar: The
Last Airbender, Captain Black in Jackie
Chan Adventures, and Mister Sinister in
Wolverine and the X-Men. His voice
credits, to list just a few, include
roles in Phineaus and Ferb, Ben 10:
Alien Force, Kim Possible, Duck Dodgers,
Teen Titans, Buzz Lightyear of Star
Command and Gargoyles.
Brown made
his TV debut in an episode of the The
Dukes of Hazzard, and has since been
seen in primetime guest appearances and
recurring roles on series as varied as
Law & Order, ER, Lost, Star Trek:
Enterprise, The Practice, The Outer
Limits, Tales from the Crypt and China
Beach.
Want a treat? Pause for a
moment to recall Clancy Brown’s patented
voice for Lex Luthor. Suave. Smooth.
Villainous. Now, as you read the Q&A,
imagine that voicing uttering each of
the answers. And enjoy …
QUESTION: After nearly two decades
voicing Lex Luthor, are there any
challenges to creating this character?
CLANCY BROWN: I'm pretty
comfortable doing the voice of Lex, so
the only challenges come from the script
– and the Public Enemies script is
tremendous. I think it suits everybody
involved. It suits Kevin (Conroy). It
suits Tim (Daly). It suits me and the
voice characterizations that we created,
you know, back right before the Civil
War. I think that was when we started
doing this. So there's not really much
challenge to it anymore – it’s just a
lot of fun now, and especially when you
get to do it with Kevin and Tim and
Andrea (Romano) and Bruce (Timm).
QUESTION: Can you remember
your initial audition for the role of
Lex Luthor?
CLANCY BROWN:
Warner Bros. had been doing Batman and
it was very successful, so they were
gearing up this new iteration of
Superman. They decided to sort of go
outside the box as far as talent was
concerned, and I had made it known that
I wanted to do more voice work. I wasn't
very good at it, but I wanted to get
better. I enjoy cartoons and animation,
and comic books were part of my life
growing up. So they said “Come on in,
We're trying to cast Superman.” So I
went in and just blew them all away with
my Superman. And then they said “Here's
an idea (he laughs) nobody has ever
thought of: What if Clancy played the
bad guy?” (he laughs harder) So I rolled
my eyes and said, “Can I, just one time,
play the good guy?” And Andrea said,
“No, you can play Lex.” So I said,
“Fine, I'll play Lex.” Honestly, Lex is
fun. I'm very happy to be Lex. It's a
lot more interesting than Superman to
me.
QUESTION: Your
counterparts in this film both say you
have the glory role with Lex. How do you
respond?
CLANCY BROWN: That's
because they always play good guys! They
always play the heroes. Nobody knows
what it’s like to be the bad man …
behind blue eyes (he laughs). But I
know. All too well.
QUESTION:
What exactly is it that makes you the
definitive voice of the character for
the fans?
CLANCY BROWN: What I
do with Lex, to me, is no different than
how I always viewed Lex. I thought the
early Super Friends animation of Lex was
kind of lacking in many aspects. It's
fun to watch – it’s campy and all – but
Lex wasn’t quite what I thought Lex
should be. So when this started, you had
this accident of everybody kind of being
on the same page about what the story
was and who the characters were. I just
went in and did what I've thought Lex
always should sound like. I totally
enjoyed Gene Hackman's portrayal of Lex
Luthor, but it wasn’t a Lex that I was
ever afraid of. I enjoyed Kevin Spacey
in the newest film, but again, that
wasn’t the Lex that I thought made a
good opposition to Superman. Lex is the
bad guy. He's the archetype. He's
everything that's ugly about who we are
as people. But he is also what is
seductive about that side, which is the
wealth and the power. He's Darth Vader.
Oh man, there’s the one I should've
played – Darth Vader. Darn. Missed
opportunity. Okay, so what do I bring to
Lex? I don’t know. I'm just lucky enough
to have a low voice and the highfalutin
idea to play Lex where I think he should
be. After that, it’s all about the
quality of the scripts.
QUESTION: Where did you get that idea
of what Lex should be?
CLANCY
BROWN: The vision was so clear in the
original comic books and throughout the
'40s and '50s and '60s, as you saw him
develop and become what is frightening
about all the things that we want, and
the sins that we have to commit in order
to achieve that money and power. Of
course, Lex has no problem with any of
those sins – he’s quite at ease with
running a corporation that has no
conscience. What is seductive about Lex
is that he is unremorseful. He is simply
doing what he thinks is best. Does he
think he's a bad guy? No, of course not.
But he doesn’t pretend to be a good guy.
To him, it's an immoral world anyway,
and that people try to lay morality and
ethics over the human action is just
foolish. You can't accomplish anything
that way. The only way you accomplish
something is to jettison all of that
spirituality, all of those morals and
ethics, and get on with business.
QUESTION: Like Bruce Wayne,
Lex is wealthy beyond means, has
unparalleled intelligence, and no
superpowers. Does that make Lex the
anti-Batman?
CLANCY BROWN:
What does Kevin (Conroy) always say
about the duality of Batman? There's a
real dark side of the Dark Knight. Maybe
Lex is a day bat. It would be more
interesting to have Lex in Batman’s
world, wouldn't it? I hadn't actually
put that together because I don’t care
about the bat world – it’s all
Metropolis for me (he laughs). Boy, when
you think about it, super powers are
kind of a cop out. They’re not real.
What’s real is what Batman does,
although he dresses funny. So what’s
really real is what Lex does, thought he
doesn't go to the gym as much, you know?
That’s probably why both of them are
attractive – because you can conceivably
become Batman or Lex Luthor, but you
can't really be from Krypton.
QUESTION: The title is
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, but
that’s not what this film is all about,
is it?
CLANCY BROWN: It’s the
Lex Luthor story. It’s always the Lex
Luthor story. Superman would have
nothing to do if Lex wasn't out there
stirring it up. And you never know what
Lex is up to – he doesn’t ever really go
through a character arc. You can depend
on the fact that he's self-serving, that
he's got his own agenda, and you really
can't trust anything he says. It's
always interesting to see how he
manipulates everybody around him and how
he's reinvented himself this next time.
He’s benevolent, he’s a humanitarian or,
like in this film, he’s an experienced
politician and the right man for the
right job. He tends to fool most of the
people most of the time, but he doesn't
ever fool Superman … (he laughs) or me.
QUESTION: Tell us about this
voice cast reunion.
CLANCY BROWN:
Working with Tim and Kevin is so much
fun. Tim's got a day job (ABC’s Private
Practice) and so he couldn't be there
when we started recording. I don’t think
I've seen Kevin for 10 years because he
lives in New York and Lex and Batman
didn’t do much together anyway. But I
always enjoyed it when Kevin was in town
because I kind of knew him from even
before Batman. He's a great guy and I
love him, so I'm always glad to see him.
Kevin has a terrific energy, and I
always loved what he did with Batman. I
always enjoyed the times that we've
actually been able to mix the worlds.
Tim is a different story. We had a few
years together doing this material, and
there was a rapport there that kind of
instantaneously came back.
What
was interesting is that Kevin and I were
there early and we recorded most of the
script. And then Tim came in later, and
we ran through the script for some
filmed publicity materials. We sort of
pretended to do a rehearsal for the
camera. And as I'm sitting there
listening to Tim and Kevin, I'm
thinking, “Wow, they're better. (he
laughs) Kevin's actually doing it even
better. And I'm listening to myself and
I'm thinking, “Wow, I'm actually better
because Tim's in the room.” The energy
of having everybody there from so long
ago was tremendous – we had this
wonderful performance rapport with each
other. So we ended up staying and
recording the whole thing again. And
I’ll tell you what – anytime Tim Daly or
Kevin Conroy wants to join me for any
job, I'll be happy to have them on the
set, behind the mic, whatever. I've got
to read some stories to my son's
kindergarten class and I’m thinking I
may have to call up Tim or Kevin and see
if they want to come in because I know,
just because they're in the room, that
I'll do a better job than if I tried to
do it alone.
QUESTION:
What does Tim Daly bring to Superman?
CLANCY BROWN: I don’t want to
imply anything about the other guys that
have played Superman, but for me, Tim
was the guy that started it. So he's
always the voice of Superman. I know
George (Newbern) well, and I love George
and I think he did a terrific job. But
Tim's Superman sort of set the standard
for this generation.
What I get
from Tim's performance is that it's very
grounded. It's very real. We can imagine
ourselves as Batman or, in an absurd
world, we could be Batman or Lex. But
even in an absurd world, nobody can be
Superman. So you need somebody that's
actually going to humanize Superman, and
Tim manages to do that. Maybe it’s in
the timber of his voice or the choices
he makes in inflecting, or the
intelligence that comes across or just
the ease of his delivery. It’s probably
a combination of all of that and a lot
of stuff I haven't mentioned. But he was
a real good choice from the get-go, and
he still has it. He still carries it
with him. Plus, I think he’s still only
about 28 years old – he hasn’t aged a
bit. He said he has a 19-year-old son,
but I don’t believe it.
QUESTION: And what makes Kevin Conroy
the definitive voice of Batman?
CLANCY BROWN: It’s hard to imagine
any other voice coming out of that cowl.
The live action guys sounded like who
they are. They didn't sound like Batman.
What’s interesting is that Kevin is not
like this personally at all, so I don't
really know where it comes from. But his
voice carries this dryness and sadness
and, I would say, humorlessness. But
it's not humorless. It's like it's been
ripped out of him. There's kind of a
fatalistic thing that's communicated
just in the sound of his voice. That's
why it’s always is a little weird when
this Batman says anything that has humor
or is pithy. Kevin's voice actually
manages to take the pith out of the
pithy. Kevin has the same thing in his
voice that William Holden had on screen.
It’s this kind of don't-mess-with-me
gravitas, I’ve been there, I've seen it,
I've been happy-go-lucky, I've been
drunk in the streets, and I've seen it
all. So when I talk, you listen. Kevin
just holds you that way, and he does it
with his voice. I never heard anybody
like that. It’s like the perfect match
of voice to character with Kevin in
Batman. You can't get better than that.
QUESTION: Can you explain the
genius of Bruce Timm?
CLANCY
BROWN: I can't explain the genius of
Bruce Timm. I can't explain the genius
of Steve Hillenburg (creator of
SpongeBob SquarePants). I can't explain
how these guys just seem to create and
continue to refine and then recreate and
build and define a cultural icon and
these worlds that capture the
imagination. They're just completely in
their head. There's not a lot of ego –
or it’s not offensive ego. That's one
thing I know for sure. And it isn’t an
ugly obsession. There's an ease with it.
They dig it. And they have the talent
and brainpower to pull it off. I don’t
know how Bruce does it. He always
astounds me. He’s one of the real deals.
It's great that he's with Andrea
(Romano) because they enable and support
each other. That’s greater than the sum
of its parts every single time.
QUESTION: The fans call you the
quintessential voice of Lex Luthor. Do
you feel some sense of ownership for the
role?
CLANCY BROWN: I respect
it, but I think it goes like this: when
I was growing up, the greatest
basketball player was Julius Erving or
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. For my daughter, it
was Michael Jordan. And now, for my son,
it's going to be Kobe Bryant or Lebron
James. Whatever comes next for this
generation, that's going to be the
greatest voice. I think it's the
greatest iteration of this cartoon, and
I'm immensely grateful and feel very
fortunate that I'm part of it. I think
it's going to be tough to top this
version of Superman, even by any other
medium. I don’t think you'll get a live
action version that could be as good as
this world.
QUESTION: How
did comics fit into your childhood?
CLANCY BROWN: I would go down to
Main News and flip through the comic
book rack. It was always fun -- a nice
little escape. Because I could never
bring them home. I would buy them, and
actually sit there and read them until
Mr. Miller would say, “You know, (he
laughs) I don't run a library.” I'd try
to figure out if I wanted to spend my
nickel on a candy bar or a comic. And I
would be a rich man today if I had all
those comics. I read Superman. I didn’t
read Batman. I liked DC Action Comics. I
read Marvel, too, but I was not a
Spider-Man guy. I did like Iron Man a
lot.
QUESTION: Why
couldn't you bring comics home?
CLANCY BROWN: Because serious people
didn’t read that stuff. (he laughs) I
had homework to do. I had piano to
practice. I had chores around the house.
I couldn't waste my brainpower reading
that stuff. It would rot my brain.
Everybody knows that (he laughs hard).
QUESTION: How do you get into
voice acting, and what made you stay?
CLANCY BROWN: Getting into voice
acting was a completely practical
decision on my part. My daughter had
just been born. I wanted to stay in
town. It was something that I hadn’t
done before and I had a little bit of a
presence in film and television that I
could actually use as leverage to break
through some of the barriers to doing
voices. So I did that.
What I
love about voice acting is really that
the people involved are just so much
fun. They're all good guys – there's
nobody I don’t like. Whenever I walk
into a room, I'm happy to see whoever is
directing, whoever is producing,
whoever's acting. And it's usually a lot
of fun. I remember when I was the new
person in the cast, I was just
overwhelmed by the talent that was in
the room and all I could think was “Man,
I hope they invite me back because this
is just too much fun.” And so they kept
inviting me back. I can’t imagine every
getting tired of it.
For more
information, images and updates, please
visit the film’s official website at
www.SupermanBatmanDVD.com.
Suggested captions for attached images:
Clancy Brown1.jpg Clancy Brown,
the voice of Lex Luthor, during the
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies panel at
Comic-Con International.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, the
next DC Universe animated original
movie, will be distributed September 29,
2009 by Warner Home Video. (Photo
courtesy of Gary Miereanu)
Clancy
Brown2.jpg Clancy Brown is the voice
of Lex Luthor in Superman/Batman: Public
Enemies, the next DC Universe animated
original movie, which will be
distributed September 29, 2009 by Warner
Home Video. (Photo courtesy of Gary
Miereanu)
Lex_06.jpg Lex
Luthor is President of the United States
in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, the
next DC Universe animated original
movie, which will be distributed
September 29, 2009 by Warner Home Video.
Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption)
provides the voice of Lex Luthor.
Lex_22.jpg U.S. President Lex
Luthor recruits super heroes to help
keep America safe, and that includes
hunting down the Man of Steel and the
Dark Knight in Superman/Batman: Public
Enemies, the next DC Universe animated
original movie. Warner Home Video will
distribute the film on September 29.
Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption)
provides the voice of Lex Luthor.
Lex_26.jpg United States
President Lex Luthor takes matter into
his own hands in the pursuit of the Man
of Steel and the Dark Knight in
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, the
next DC Universe animated original
movie. Warner Home Video will distribute
the film on September 29, 2009. Clancy
Brown (The Shawshank Redemption)
provides the voice of Lex Luthor.
Trademark information for the
images: SUPERMAN © Warner Bros. Ent
Inc. BATMAN © Warner Bros. Ent Inc.
"SUPERMAN" and “BATMAN” and all related
characters and elements are trademarks
of and © DC Comics. © Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.[ Back to Backstage ]
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