Backstage
- LeVar Burton Interview
LeVar
Burton is electric as Black Lightning in
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
Star Trek: The Next Generation
star adds sci-fi cache to all-star cast
of sixth DC Universe Animated
Original PG-13 Movie
As
the voice of Black Lightning, LeVar
Burton adds another level of fanboy
cache to a cast thick with legends of
the super hero genre in
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, the
next entry in the popular series of DC
Universe animated original PG-13 movies.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
boasts a cast headed by the definitive
voices of its three central characters –
Kevin Conroy (Batman), Tim Daly
(Superman) and Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor),
the original voices from the landmark
Superman: The Animated Series and
Batman: The Animated Series.
Burton is forever beloved by the sci-fi
crowd for his memorable performance as
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star
Trek: The Next Generation and its
feature film versions. However, Burton
has done far more than go “where no man
has gone before.”
In a career
that essentially launched with his
breakthrough performance in the landmark
miniseries Roots, Burton has
garnered seven Emmy Awards, three Image
Awards, a Peabody as well as a Grammy,
and in 1990 was permanently enshrined as
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Along the way, Burton has been a
virtual fixture on television screens –
from his 176 episodes of Next Gen
and 150 episodes of Reading Rainbow,
to another 41 episodes of The $10,000
Pyramid and 58 episodes as Kwame in
Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
Along the way, he has also directed
several episodes of the last four
Star Trek series (The Next
Generation, Deep Space Nine,
Voyager, Enterprise),
appeared in feature films (most notably
as Martin Luther King, Jr. in Ali),
and even spent some time in the
recording booth for Batman: The
Animated Series, Gargoyles
and Family Guy.
Warner
Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros.
Animation are set to release the all-new
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
on September 29, 2009 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 that same day.
Burton’s turn as Black Lightning
brought him back to the recording booth
– and while he was there, he took the
time to discuss the joys of playing a
super hero, his childhood comic book
memories on a military base in Germany,
the importance of reading, and the use
of sci-fi as an inspiration for our
future. Here’s LeVar …
QUESTION: Was it difficult to
settle on a voice for Black Lightning?
LEVAR BURTON: I think
everybody has a super hero that lives
inside of them, so I just went to that
place, that deep kind of super hero
voice.
QUESTION: What
were your comic book habits as a kid?
LEVAR BURTON: I grew up,
part time, in Germany. My father was in
the military, so we used to trade comic
books for entertainment. On Saturdays,
you took your box with all your comic
books and you went around from apartment
building to apartment building, trading
comic books with the other American kids
living on the base. Television was in
German (language), so we didn’t watch TV
– we read comics. But this was before
black super heroes came around – they
didn’t start appearing until the '70s.
So it's mildly exciting for me to
actually have a chance to play a black
super hero today.
QUESTION:
Choose one: Batman or Superman?
LEVAR BURTON: When I was a
kid, it was always Batman over Superman.
Batman had all the cool stuff, and he
just had a vibe. Superman was the
All-American guy but, with Batman,
there’s a little something going on.
Batman’s history was a little edgier,
and there was just something really
attractive to me about the cowl.
Superman is all out there, even though
he does the Clark Kent thing, but Batman
keeps his identity hidden. He has this
double life that’s very sexy, very
attractive for a kid. Not that I didn’t
like Superman – the whole kryptonite
thing is all well and good – but Batman
was my guy.
QUESTION:
What makes comic books great literature?
LEVAR BURTON: People ask
me all the time, because I did Reading
Rainbow on PBS for 25 years, “How do I
get my kids to read?” And I say, “Find
something that they’re passionate
about.” If it’s comic books that they
want to read, then buy them comic books,
for goodness sakes. Comic books are good
literature and, like science fiction,
they have a tendency to really draw
us toward that part of ourselves that
imagines that which we create.
I'm one of those people that believes
that there was some kid back in the
1960s watching Star Trek, and he
kept seeing Captain Kirk pull out this
communicator and flip it open – and that
kid grew up and became an engineer, a
designer of products, and we now have a
device that is more common than the
toaster. How many flip phones do you see
on a daily basis? That which we imagine
is what we tend to manifest in third
dimension – that’s what human beings do,
we are manifesting machines. The
metaphor of a man who has an external
electronic device, something man made
that serves him and somehow serves
humanity, and that he becomes so aligned
with that device, with the power of that
device, that at one point he can discard
it – I think that’s a real metaphor for
the human journey. One day we won’t need
a transporter device to get from one
place to another. And it begins with the
wheel and then migrates through
airplanes to some future technology that
we can’t produce yet but we can imagine.
Imagination is really the key part of
the human journey, it’s the key to the
process of manifesting what our heart's
desire is.
When I was a kid, it
was comic books that pointed me in that
direction and from comic books I went to
science fiction literature, which is
still one of my most favorite genres of
literature to read. Don’t underestimate
the power of comics and what they
represent for us and how they inform us
on the journey of being human – because
it’s powerful. It’s very powerful. They
give us permission to contemplate what’s
possible. And in this world, in this
universe, there's nothing that is not
possible. If you can dream it, you can
do it.
QUESTION: Can
you appreciate the passion of the sci-fi
fan?
LEVAR BURTON: Oh
yeah. Because I am one. When I was a
kid, I read a lot of science fiction
books and it was rare for me to see
heroes of color in the pages of those
novels. Gene Roddenberry had a vision of
the future, and Star Trek was one
that said to me, as a kid growing up in
Sacramento, California, “When the future
comes, there’s a place for you.” I’ve
said this many times, and Whoopi
(Goldberg) feels the same way – seeing
Nichelle Nichols on the bridge of the
Enterprise meant that we are a part of
the future. So I was a huge fan of the
original series and to have grown up and
become of that mythos, a part of that
family, and to represent people dealing
with physical challenges, much like what
Nichelle Nichols represented for people
like Whoopi and myself, I can’t even
begin to share with you what that means
to me. It was just beyond the beyond. So
I get Star Trek fans, I get science
fiction fans because, again, science
fiction literature is that body of
literature that causes us to ask what I
feel are two of the most of the most
powerful words – in sequence, in
language – “what if?” And that’s an open
door, that’s an open door to use your
imagination to dream and to dream the
big dream. As an actor, I dress up for a
living and I get paid for it so, to see
a guy come to a convention in his
costume that he’s made – it’s a good
thing, you know. This guy isn’t out
there beating his wife or kicking his
dog, he’s engaging in a healthy fantasy
role-play. I think too many grown ups
forget how important that part of our
lives are, the ability to imagine and to
dream. So it’s all good.
QUESTION: You’re Black Lightning
for this film. If you could play any
super hero role, do you have a role you
covet?
LEVAR BURTON:
Well,
I’ll start with Black Lightning. That
ain’t a bad place to start. I mean, come
on, if you’re going to play a super
hero, why not play the first real black
super hero in the pantheon? I'm good
with that.
QUESTION:
Does voiceover work have any special
appeal for you?
LEVAR BURTON:
I love voiceovers because, and I’m sure
you hear this from actors all the time,
but it’s kind of pure acting. For many
years on Next Gen, I wore this
visor over my eyes and one of the things
that I discovered was that it’s really
difficult to communicate, or it’s harder
to communicate, when you can’t see
someone’s eyes. As a result of playing
Geordi, I really do recognize how
important the voice is – and what a
facile tool for communication the voice
can be. When I was kid, we listened to
radio a lot for entertainment and I
remember how vivid that was for me. To
this day, I listen to NPR and I love
doing audio books – because it’s like
it’s pure storytelling. It’s sitting
around the fire and sharing stories,
really engaging your imagination. So, as
an actor, sitting in front of a
microphone and creating is just so much
fun because it really does break it down
to its most pure and elemental level.
It’s just you and the voice and the
character telling a story.
QUESTION: Does it ever feel odd
to be acting all alone?
LEVAR
BURTON: Well, during the physical
parts of the voiceover, when you’re
doing all the action scenes, I think if
you were an alien and dropped into a
recording studio and were observing a
session, you would really wonder about
the sanity of the beings that you are
observing. But it’s fun and it feels a
little silly, but that’s what gets it
done. When they’re in that mode, I think
actors are just big kids – and we like
playing in the sandbox.
For
more information, images and updates,
please visit the film’s official website
at www.SupermanBatmanDVD.com.
Suggested captions for attached images:
IMG_7506.jpg
LeVar
Burton, the voice of Black Lightning,
poses with casting/dialogue director
Andrea Romano and executive producer
Bruce Timm following a recording session
for Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
The DCU Universe animated original movie
is set for distribution September 29,
2009 by Warner Home Video.
BL_02.jpg Black Lightning unleashes
his electric power on Batman as super
heroes battle super heroes in the next
DC Universe animated original movie,
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies,
which is set for distribution September
29, 2009 by Warner Home Video. LeVar
Burton provides the voice of Black
Lightning.
BL_03.jpg Black
Lightning and Power Girl square for
battle during a key scene in the next DC
Universe animated original movie,
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies,
which is set for distribution September
29, 2009 by Warner Home Video. LeVar
Burton provides the voice of Black
Lightning, and Allison Mack voices Power
Girl.
SB_02.jpg A conversation
in the Batcave between two super heroes,
Superman and the ever-analytical Batman,
during the early stages of the next DC
Universe animated original movie,
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies,
which is set for distribution September
29, 2009 by Warner Home Video.
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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