Casting Kevin Conroy As Batman

Andrea Romano is responsible for anyone who thinks of Kevin Conroy’s voice as Batman

Andrea Romano is probably one of the guiding forces of your childhood and you’ve never even heard of her. An animation casting director for over 30 years, she’s been responsible for picking the voice cast of shows like Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Teen Titans, and Avatar: The Last Airbender just to name a few. But her most important casting decision may have been when she found Kevin Conroy to be the voice of Batman for the seminal Batman: The Animated Series. It’s a role that Kevin Conroy is still performing in various capacities to this day decades later, and one that many fans consider the definitive Batman. Romano talked about the process of finding just the right voice for the Caped Crusader:

"I listened to well over 500 auditions for that voice. Just listened. Then I brought in, I think, about 150 actors and auditioned them personally because I wanted to see how directable they were, and then I narrowed that down to about five or six actors, and Bruce Timm and I listened to them, and we went, “Well, this guy could work, and this guy could work…” But we really didn’t have that “ah-ha/eureka” moment.And so I spoke to my dear friend Anthony Barnao, who is a casting director, and I said “Can you think of any stage actors or on-camera actors that I haven’t already seen,” and I showed him my enormous list of actors I had read. And he said, ‘You know, there’s this guy Kevin Conroy and he’s been on a couple of nighttime soaps, he’s got a lot of stage experience…” and he gave me his credits. And he said ‘You should at least give him a try.” And so I think it was one of the last days of callbacks when we brought Kevin in, and Kevin opened his mouth and Bruce and I looked at each other and it was the “eureka” moment when we went, “Oh, my Lord – we found him!”And Kevin told me the story many years later that when he looked at “Batman” and Bruce Wayne he said, really, this is the story of “Hamlet” because he’s a Julliard-trained actor, and he said this is “Hamlet,” this is parents killed, father killed, this is vengeance, revenge, this is – I thought what an interesting way to look at “Batman.” And so he gave it that gravitas and that’s what it needed to ground that series. Without a good Batman that series wasn’t going to make it. It didn’t matter how good the artwork was, it didn’t matter how good the supporting cast was, it needed Kevin Conroy.And now you read a review for a live-action feature and they all say why don’t they listen to the voice of Kevin Conroy? Why do they have these people trying to do these deep voices that are so fake-sounding, and they often reference Kevin – and I’m so flattered, and Kevin is so flattered, that our “Batman” series is referenced as one of the top “Batman” productions ever."

Next: Susan Eisenberg Talks Batman & Wonder Woman

You should really take a few minutes and read the whole lengthy interview with Andrea Romano at CBR, it’s a fascinating look into what goes into finding the right voice for a role. And I’m pretty sure everyone should be eternally grateful for Andrea Romano finding so many iconic voices over the last thirty years for all of us to enjoy.