By Kenn Gold & Shaun Daily

 Will Friedle is perhaps best known for his comedic roles, most notably the underachieving older brother Eric Matthews on the long-running TV sitcom Boy Meets World. Friedle has voiced more iterations of Batman than any other actor, voicing Terry McGinnis, the lead character of Batman Beyond, Justice League, The Zeta Project and Static Shock. He created the voice for Ron Stoppable in the Kim Possible series and films. He has voiced characters for Ben 10: Alien Force, Teen Titans and Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and his video game credits include Kingdom Hearts II, American Wasteland, Chicken Little, Teen Titans, Rogue Galaxy, Advent Rising and Jade Empire.

In Batman: The Brave & The Bold, Friedle voices the Blue Beetle.  El Paso, Texas native Jaime Reyes thought the closest he would ever get to Batman was the posters adorning his walls, but when a mysterious alien technology turned him into the hero Blue Beetle, his wildest dreams became a reality. Jaime can’t help but tackle every mission with wide-eyed wonder and brings a youthful buoyancy to even the toughest fights. 

Will recently came on to TV Talk to talk about the new series and his previous voice work.

Will, it’s really great to have you.  So let me get this right, from your bio it says you’ve played the most Batman’s of anyone, or been a part of the most Batman adaptaions?

Is that right?  I might have been on more of the different incarnations of Batman, but I was only Batman once.  But I did Batman, then did Justice Leauge, then did The Batman.  But I only got the honor of playing Batman once.

How do you go from being relatively popular in live action, on camera to doing voice over work?  What is the process there?

For me it was luck.  I’d love to say it was something other than that, but it was pure and total luck in that they were casting the new show, which was called Batman Beyond.  I guess Bruce Tim, who was one of the creators and executive producers of the show, his wife was a big Boy Meets World fan, which was the show I was on at the time.  And they were casting for Batman and she said, you have to bring him in.  So that was kind of my in to the whole world.  I and I went in and was fortunate enough to get the show and the rest was history.  I had no idea of what it was like to work behind a microphone before that point.  So again, it was blind luck.

How different is it doing the live action if that’s what you’d call it compared to voice?

Yeah, VO and live camera.  It is very, very different.  In voice over, you have to get rid of a lot of the instincts you have as an actor.  First and foremost, when you are saying a line you want to be looking at the person.  You can’t do that when they are sitting next to you and the microphone is right in front of you.  There were many times when I’d be saying my line in the first couple of episodes, looking off microphone at the person next to me, and Andrea Romano, would very politely come in and say to me, “There’s no camera, you just have to talk into the microphone ahead of you.  That took a little bit to get used to, just not being able to visually reference the actors next to you. And the speed is the other thing.  On camera, you rehearse and rehearse then shoot it, but the way we were doing Batman, there were sometimes 20 people in the room all at a microphone, and you read it straight through just like a radio play.  If you screw up a line, you might stop and do it again, but for the most part, you are just buzzing right on through and you really have to be on your toes which is definitely a lot different than being on camera.

Do you have a headset on so you can hear what everyone else is doing?

Normally, we do the initial recording and there is not picture.  It’s just that you are recording the show.  So I usually don’t wear headphones then.  Then they send it away to be animated and it will come back in about seven or eight months, so you get to see what you’ve done.  Then you throw on the headphones and have to do what’s called an ADR session and it’s kind of filling in the oofs and the ughs and the getting punched in the stomachs, so for that you really need the headphones so you can synch it up to the lip flaps.  It’s an amazing process.  I had no idea what I was doing when I first got there.  So learning how intricate it actually was amazing, just seeing all the people it took to make a cartoon.  It was really quite incredible.

Of course you’re an actor, but I suppose you have to use your imagination a lot more with animation to imagine what’s there?

You do.  The thing about that is that a lot of times you will imagine it one way, and then they’ll go and animate it in a different way.  For instance, you are yelling at another character, then they go and animate it and it’s an intimate scene where you are standing right next to each other.  And they are animating where you are a foot apart, but you are still screaming at each other, so that’s where you have to go back and that’s where the ADR comes in.  You’re like,”Yeah I was yelling and I guess I didn’t need to.”  So you go back in and whisper the scenes.  But yeah, you have to imagine quite a bit and that’s why the director is exceptionally important.  They come in and say, “Now you’re falling off a cliff so we need a long fall sound.”  It’s weird and it’s very very interesting and a whole style of acting that I was unprepared for.  But the second I got in there it was just addictive.

How did you feel about stepping into a completely different version of Batman with Terry McGinnis?  I don’t know if you were a Batman fan, but was it hard to get your mind around the fact that Batman wasn’t Bruce Wayne anymore?

You know, it was.  I was a huge Batman fan and have always been a huge Batman fan.  In a way, because I was such a huge Batman fan, I think it was almost easier because I didn’t have to be Bruce Wayne.  Being a Batman fan, the idea of stepping in and doing a version of Bruce Wayne or Batman, that’s a pretty tall order.  So knowing that I got a chance to be a totally new character was probably a little easier on me as a Batman fan, knowing that I didn’t have to step into  Bruce Wayne’s shoes.  Also, sitting next to Kevin Conroy, who is Bruce Wayne and Batman in most of the Batman cartoons you hear, at least the ones we did back then, he was like my mentor.  So that was very easy.  He made it very easy on me, and kind of showed me the ropes and it was great.  I felt like I had Bruce Wayne sitting next to me anyway.

One of the things that came up at Comic Con was that there were a lot of the original Blue Beetle fans in the audience.  There were a lot of questions about Ted Kord and his Blue Beattle.  Do you get any of that?

I don’t want to give too much away, but some of that might be answered in upcoming episodes.  Too be honest, I didn’t know much about the Blue Beetle when this started.  So I didn’t realize the following the character I had when I started.  But when they announced I was doing the voice, there were a whole bunch of questions about it.  So I went, “Oh wow, there’s a whole background to this guy that I need to study.”  It was interesting, but I love doing that.  I love learning new characters and the mythology behind them.  That’s all the fun I think.

Out of all the characters you’ve done so far, which have been the most enjoyable?

It’s kind of tough to be playing Batman.  I’ve gotten to do some great things.  I was the Green Lantern, and I’ve been villains.  Kim Possible was a lot of fun and doing Ron Stoppable was a lot of fun.  But the most enjoyable for me would have to be Batman.  You can’t really beat that, so that was the one, that getting to step into those shoes was really fun.

It’s got to be amazing to look back and say, “I was Batman.”  Adam West did the voice is some of the Superfriends episodes I think. 

It was also one of those things where I got to tell my nephews I was Batman and not be lying to them, which I think was pretty cool.  I remember when my oldest nephew was about six years old, he came out to Los Angels to stay with me, and he said, “Uncle Will, I’m six years old now, I think I’m old enough to see the Batcave.”  I thought that was the coolest thing in the world, he actually thinks I’m Batman.  Stuff like that, for me, was so cool.  Then of course he went into show and tell and told everyone that his uncle was Batman. 

How different was the experience doing Kim Possible with Disney, compared to doing Batman with Warner?  Is there a difference between how the studios do animation, or is it basically the same?

There are different styles everyplace you go.  With Disney, you are usually recording with one or two other people.  You’re not normally there with the whole cast, whereas with most of the Warner Bros. cartoons, you walk in and there are 15 or 20 people in the room and you just read it all the way through.  There are some differences in style, but its such a small business 90% of the people, whether in the booth or the actors, you’ve known for years.  It’s one of those things where it’s a very nice comfortable environment wherever you go, and it’s usually the best job in the world.  Being on camera is a lot of fun, but I haven’t done it for three years.  But I’m having so much more fun doing the animation, it’s really where I wanted to go.  It’s an amazing job to have and it’s a blast.

Are you watching the final product on the Cartoon Network, or do they give you the DVDs ahead of time?

I don’t like to have the DVDs ahead of time.  I like to watch it when it’s on.  I’ve always been like that, I don’t know why.  There’s something about having the commercial breaks and the voice overs coming in saying, “Next on Batman!” To me, that’s what makes it a real show and I sit down and watch it straight through.  I get the DVDs after everything comes out.  But I like to watch it when it airs. To me, that just makes it a real television show and I’m a television junkie.  I have been my entire life pretty much.  So that, to me, says it’s a real television show. 

I think in my market you’re on up against Ghost Whisperer.  Do you TiVO that show and watch it?

I have to say, and no offense to Love, I’m not a Ghost Whisperer fan, so I’m not really watching it on Friday nights. 

How did you go in your mind from being Batman to being this new guy, the Blue Beetle?

When I first heard they were doing The Brave and the Bold, the first question I had was who is Batman?  I knew it wasn’t going to be me because it wasn’t a young Batman.  When they said Diedrich, I was thrilled, because we also worked together on another show, The Secret Saturdays.  We were both working on that when he found out he got Batman, then I got it the next day. If you want a Batman who can do both Bruce Wayne and Batman, and have that comedy roll, you couldn’t do better than Diedrich.  So that jazzed me more than anything, then it was just a matter of how young is the character?  What am I doing, that kind of thing.  We got to play with the voice a little bit when we got in there.  Just hearing that Diedrich was Batman was the thing that really sealed the deal for me. 

What other shows do you watch?

The shows that I grew up watching, I still watch all the time.  I was a huge M*A*S*H fan and always have been.  To me, that’s just about the best show that’s ever been on.  It’s a perfect show.  I’m still a big Cheers fan.  As for new stuff, I don’t really find a lot of new stuff that I’m impressed by.  I usually find things in syndication.  But this year, I stumbled on The Mentalist, and that’s a pretty good show.  I don’t normally get into the new stuff, but it kind of sucked me in, and I like the stories.  I find it enjoyable, so I’ve been watching that quite a bit.  I’m a foodie as well, if you want to use that term.  So The Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen kind of shows I’ll watch.  I’m not really a reality guy.  But for some reason, those absolutely sucked me in.  There’s something about people in a house fighting all the time that also have knives, that brings me right to the show and I can’t explain why.

What about Smallville?  You did the voice of Batman, so do you stay away from Superman?

I wouldn’t say stayed away from Superman, it was just one of those things where most of the time Superman is an older character.  I tend to do the higher register voices, a little bit younger.  The people that I’ve worked with that were Superman, the George Newburns were wonderful. They were perfect.  Tim Daly on the show was perfect.  That’s the thing where the casting really comes into play.  They cast these things so amazingly well, that I just love sitting there just watching the old Supermans, the old Batmans, the old Justice Leagues.  They are just so good they still suck me in.  I guess every few months I’ll still pop in an old Superman DVD and can sit there for hours and just have a blast.  I was also a huge Johnny Quest fan, and a huge G.I. Joe Fan.  Every episode Duke would end up in a coma.  I don’t know how they did that every episode, but they did.  And nobody got hurt.  There are these massive battle scenes where no one gets hurt and everyone comes out fine in the end.  And they come out with a good message, like “Don’t play with electricity.” G.I. Joe was the greatest thing ever.  When I was a kid, I think my generation was the first to really put the toys and cartoons together perfectly.  Animation has been a part of my life forever.

Will Blue Beetle come back on the show?

I don’t want to give away too much, but I can definitely say that Blue Beetle will be back on the show. 

One thing about this show is that it’s very light, whereas the current movies are very dark.

That’s one of the things that’s so great about this project, and I’ve said this before because I’m such a Batman fan.  You kind of notice when the movies get really dark, the television shows tend to get very light.  And when the movies get very light, the TV shows get very dark.  I think that’s the perfect balance because Batman should be for everybody.  At the time, you could take your kids to go see Batman and Robin with George Clooney, and that was a very light kind of thing.  But that was around the same time that Batman Beyond was on, which was very dark.  So there’s always been that balance between the TV shows and the movies.  That lends itself to the character, because Batman really does lend itself to everybody.  And now we’re back to this place animation wise where I have no problem sitting my seven year old nephew down in front of it and he’s going to love it.  You don’t have the gore or any of that stuff which is great.

Do you see yourself doing the voice over work going forward, or will you get back to on camera at some point?

I’m definitely done with the on camera stuff.  I started at 10  on stage, and by 11 I was on my first show.  I was on television from 11 to 30.  I just said to myself that this has been great and amazing.  But it’s time to do something else.  So I hit 30 and said, “I’m pretty much done with the on-camera stuff.”  And the voice over stuff is so much fun.  This is the only choice because it really ends itself to the acting.  You go sit in on a voice over session and everyone is having a blast.  You’ve usually known the people for years and you’re joking and you’re laughing, and it’s a great atmosphere.  So that’s where I see myself. 

What has been your most fun experience doing these shows?

I’ve gotta say, one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in my life was after the toys came out.  It was one that I’d actually done the voice for; the first Batman doll.  There’s this huge thing that says Batman toys, and I’m talking out of a doll.  That was about the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life, sitting there in aisle six of a Toys R U, holding a doll that’s got my voice coming out of it.

You’ve done voice over work for video games too.  How do these things all play together?  That’s got to be very different isn’t it?  And for the dolls, do they usually just sample that from the shows?

Sometimes.  I remember one session I had to do, they were doing a Batman Beyond watch, and you have to say every time.  I was saying, “One, Two, Three, One oh Three.”  And it just takes forever.  Video games are very difficult to voice actually.  Video games now days, and I’m a big gamer myself, are complex.  You press one button and get one story, you press another, and go down a different hallway and get an entirely different story.  So you’ve got to voice everything that’s going to happen.  I remember one time, it was for Medal of Honor, Pacific Assault, and the booklet that they gave us had tiny little writing and was like 90 pages long.  I think it must have taken us three weeks of solid recording to get every little thing down.  I press  B I throw a grenade and make one sound.  If I press A, something entirely different happens and I have to record that sound.  That takes a very long time and is a lot different than doing animation.  It’s always kind of cool to play the Tony Hawk game and know I’m the character I’m playing.  That was pretty neat. 

Is there any chance for a spin off of the Blue Beetle?

I haven’t heard anything about that, but who knows?  That would be nice.  I’d love to do it, so if you guys want to set that up, give me a call.

Is there any one character that you’d love to play?

Having started with Batman, had I played any other character, my answer would have always been Batman.  So I really got to play my dream character.  I think I pretty much got to start with my dream character, and then everything on top of that has just been gravy. 

Do you know how many episodes of Brave and the Bold were filmed?

I want to say 26.  But I could be wrong, it might be 22.  I’m not sure.

Do you have any concerns that this character might be too light?

No, I wasn’t at all.  Because right off the bat I heard Diedrich was playing Batman, because to me, there are two characters, Batman and Bruce Wayne.  And he’s got this lilt to his voice that not many people can pull off.  I think the writing and the comedy line is perfect with him as Batman.  When we got our first episode back and were doing our ADR session, and both of us were sitting there with headphones on, we both missed our first cue because we were staring at the cartoon.  It was so vibrant and it looked like the characters were drawn from the 1950’s.  The background was very bold, and we both kind of sat there.  The director Andrea came on and said, “You both missed your cue!”  And we said, “But yeah, look at it, it’s so gorgeous!”  Seeing the final result we were…. I think thrilled would be the right word.  We were really ecstatic when we saw it.