Adam Baldwin

There’s something about Adam Baldwin’s presence that makes one realize that if you put the trademark spit-curl on his forehead, this guy’s a dead ringer for Curt Swan’s interpretation of the Last Son of Krypton. The height, the muscles, the posture and composure; it makes you think who the hell is that Brandon guy?

Then there’s the voice. It’s not the purple fields of grain soft Kansas tenor of George Newbern or Tim Daly. It’s more the gravelly baritone of Bud Collyer from the old Filmation days and the radio plays of the 1940s. Personally, and not to knock anyone else who’s donned the tights, it’s the way I always heard Big Blue in my head.

Well, as anyone going to San Diego this weekend knows, Bruce Timm’s much anticipated direct-to-DVD release of Superman/Doomsday will make its debut at the Comic Con. What many don’t know is Baldwin won’t be there because he’s hard at work on a new movie, entitled Gospel Hill, which is being directed by the truly underappreciated Giancarlo Esposito. It also stars the likes of Danny Glover, Angela Basset, Nia Long, Julia Styles, Samuel Jackson and RZA.

Baldwin spared us a few minutes between takes to talk about Superman/Doomsday though. This is what he had to say.

Newsarama: You seem to have more than a little bit of experience doing voiceovers, ranging from Invader Zim to Static Shock and, of course, Justice League. What do you like about doing voice work?

Adam Baldwin: The enticement of animated voiceovers is that you can come to work in your sweatpants and you get to do that work with great actors. There’s no pressure on what you look like, so you can just come and give it your all. There’s no make-up, no waiting for the cameras, no lighting issues or set changes. For me, it makes the work go much quicker. And the voice acting community is so strong, you’re always paired with a great team. So it’s fast-paced and it’s fun. The other thing that’s great is that you can sit there later and watch it with your kids, which isn’t often the case with live-action roles.

NRAMA: Is there any particular character (s) you enjoyed doing v.o. work on? Again, why?

AB: I really enjoyed voicing Superman, particularly in this role. There’s a lot of depth here, a lot to explore. And it’s fun to portray the more physical moments, too. All those action sequences, these epic battles, require a great deal of physicality in your acting. You really do have to act the physical scenes out – the grunts and groans and impact sounds – but you have to be constrained so you don’t bump into the microphone. You have to give it your all. The same goes for love scenes … you have to take it seriously. But it’s serious fun.

NRAMA: Professionally, how do you find the v.o. experience different from doing live acting and/or stage? Which sort of experience do you draw on most for your v.o. work?

AB: Ultimately, it’s all acting. It’s about focus, and seeing the character’s point of view. Either way, the key to playing bad guys, and good guys, is to always consider yourself the hero. It’s like James Mason said [doing his best James Mason impression, which was actually decent], “I’ve never played a villain.” I think we all look at ourselves as the hero, so whatever it is that your task is in the script, you need to play the positive of that – so you don’t become a caricature of the character. Just because he’s the bad guy and does evil things doesn’t mean that the character believes he’s evil, it’s just that this is what he’s doing. That makes him that much more scary.

NRAMA: Did/Do you read Superman comics?

AB: Not really. But this story is great. This is really a story with a lot of “more” – more intensity, more emotion, more action, more investigation into relationships. Ultimately we’re dealing with the death of Superman and the effect that event has on our primary characters and the world itself. So it’s arguably the darkest of all superman films. The character really afforded greater range of emotional investigation than your average animated film. Usually I’m playing lighter characters, you know the kind of quirky characters. Jane in Serenity/Firefly is a good example. But these three guys go through a really dark journey, and to keep that strength and consistency in the performance was a tremendous challenge.

NRAMA: Was there any version of Superman on film or TV (animated or live action) that you enjoyed? Are you applying any of that to your work on Doomsday?

AB: I remember watching George Reeves as Superman when I was a kid, and I thought that was cool. I’m not really a purist in the comic book sense of Superman, so the George Reeves version was pretty much my introduction to the character. And, of course, later seeing Christopher Reeve brilliantly portray Superman on film was a revelation. But that was the depth of my knowledge going into Superman Doomsday. Still, those didn’t influence my performance – mainly because this is a much different Superman than most people have seen. It’s darker, and it explores far more adult aspects of the character. This story doesn’t have that fly-in-and-save-the-day tone, so it didn’t really allow me to go to some of the acting styles of those two actors, particularly their comedic sides.

NRAMA: In your mind, what is so special about playing Superman?

AB: He’s an American icon – what’s not to like about playing him? Plus I get to play several versions of Superman – normal, dark and, of course, mild-mannered Clark Kent. Often I have been known to play the heavy, the bad guy. It might be because I’m tall and strong. But to play the ultimate superhero is quite a little turn of events for me, and I embrace that. It’s an honor.

NRAMA: If WB offered you a chance to do the big guy in a live action version, would you?

AB: Absolutely. Although I’m a little leery of wearing tights.

NRAMA: How were you approached about this project and why did you accept?

AB: I guess Andrea (Romano) and Bruce (Timm) wanted me, so they called – and I jumped at the chance. Like I said, it’s a great role, and it’s an honor to get to carry on the tradition of playing such an iconic character.

NRAMA: What’s it like working with James Marsters again?

AB: James and I have a great relationship – although our politics are completely different. But he’s a great actor, and he’s done a tremendous job voicing Lex Luthor. Every great hero needs an equally great villain, and James has lifted Lex to another level with his performance.

NRAMA: What do you think about Bruce’s version of Doomsday? What do you think the fans should understand about this in comparison to the comic?

AB: Again, this isn’t your typical Superman. It’s an animated film with tremendous depth and heart and emotion. It’s got there huge action sequences, but it’s not just superman coming in to save the day, hold up a building, and save Lois. This delves into the deeper relationship with Lois, and the death of Superman, and the pathos involved in that. So this was a very compelling story for me. NRAMA: You have a very strong relationship with the Science Fiction community through your work on films and TV projects like Independence Day, Angel, Serenity, Firefly, X-Files, etc. why do you keep going back to these kinds of roles?

AB: I am a fan of sci-fi because it gives you a chance to play these larger than life characters in these heightened reality situations, without the risk of injury. And I like the cartoony aspect of it – I like being goofy and dangerous at the same time. I’ve always enjoyed those roles. Well, that and being able to fly from planet to planet at lightspeed. That’s nice.

I feel very privileged and blessed in the way the science fiction genre and the animated world has embraced me as Jayne Cobb in Firefly/Serenity to Angel and on X-Files and some of the cartoons I’ve done. The fans are very energetic and very knowledgeable – way more knowledgeable than I am. So it kind of humbles me quite often when people ask me obscure questions that I have no clue to the answers … but I learn a lot.