The world of animated superhero films is a vast and interesting machine. Batman, especially, has seen a lot of action in recent years and the new film Batman: Bad Blood is certainly no exception. It is a high octane and intense crime actioner, animated and presented in a way that will probably attract more adults than kids. I caught actor Travis Willingham (The Heretic) on the red carpet at the premiere of the film and he dished on working on the project. Here’s how that conversation went:

What fascinates you about animation?

I mean, for me from an acting side, it’s always a challenge choosing your voice to convey all the emotion. From an artistic side, you’re not limited by, it means the ability of these artists to convey – the fight sequences in this film are just incredible. They’re getting so precise. I think even martial arts fans or MMA fans might see moves and techniques that are being used in animation sequences that are just amazing. Arm bars and chokes and all sorts of moves. To me, that’s something that’s really been elevated over the last few years and I find very impressive.

What is it about voice acting – do you prefer voice acting to being in front of a camera or…?

You know, they’re two different things. It’s nice to, in the voiceover world, it’s nice to focus just solely on voices, doing nothing about your face, nothing about your posture and nothing about what you’re wearing or where the lights are or where your mark is. You know, on camera, there are a million different things that you’re having to keep track of, you know. Are you being blocked by another actor? Are you in your light? Did you hit your mark? And in voice over, you know, it can almost be a one line at a time thing, so it becomes very Zen, trying to focus on one singular thing. If you get to record in a radio play style with the other actors in the room, that creates this amazing environment. If you’re doing it solo, one actor at a time, a partnership between the director and actor really becomes vital.

Growing up, did you play with the action figures?

All the time! Oh, man.

Big Batman fan?

Superman was my guy. I had a giant red cape blanket that I used to jump off the bed with. I think there was a store that had a catalog, and Superman and Batman were sold out, so I bought the Robin one and just ran around, thought I was the Boy Wonder.

Still in the universe!

Totally, yeah. Same world. Keeping it in the family, of course.

What do you have coming up in the pipeline? What can you talk about?

Well, there’s not a lot. They love to keep it under wraps until the moment they release it. Stay tuned, it will be a busy 2016 for sure.

Now, do I see The Tick in your future?

(laughs)

For some reason, I see it!

I’ll take that as a very warm compliment. I appreciate that.

Well, thank you so much for your time.

Appreciate it, thank you.