Bruce Timm and Kevin Conroy appeared on the Popcorn and Shield show in 2021 to discuss the lasting impact of “Batman: TAS,” during which Timm recalled Conroy’s audition, saying “He kind of nailed it, the minute he started speaking in the Batman voice everybody in the control room just kind of [said] ‘Ooh I think we got it.’ It was instant.”
But that didn’t mean the actor was always perfect. Timm said he always appreciated Conroy’s ability to, “take direction,” and revealed the, “one note” he had for Conroy after 30 years of him voicing the character:
“My one note is: less. It’s because actors want to act, and Batman we typically play him pretty stoic and pretty even-keeled. And so a lot of the lines are — you know, and he has some really great lines and you kind of want to play them, but it’s just like, ‘Nah, less is more.’ Just, like, less. You know, flat.”
Conroy seemed receptive to the feedback, which he’d no doubt heard numerous times over the course of his tenure as Batman:
“No he’s right, your impulse as an actor is always to kind of push it a little bit, showboat it a little bit […] The difficult thing about doing the Batman voice is you’re very constrained, it’s a very limited range that you have to work in. How do you show joy in that voice, you know? So it’s all very confined […] I would think I’d have to do more to make it read because it’s all so confined, and Bruce would always say, ‘No, no. You don’t have to do more. Just a little tiny bit here and there, that’s fine.'”