Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Andrea Romano talks about Bat-projects

Andrea Romano, voice director for "Batman: The Animated Series," "Batman Beyond" and beyond, recently spoke with John Siuntres of Word Balloon about her many various projects and about the fun of working with celebrity voice talent.

Romano touched on the surprising interest of various megawatt celebrities in doing animated voices, of folks like Gene Simmons calling up and asking to do a role on a show. She says it's often because their kids want them to do it, and the role will make them the "hero" of the house. She's happy to accommodate, but, "I am of the mind, and have always been of the mind, that it really should be the right voice, whether they're a celebrity or a noncelebrity. I don't cast celebrities just for celebrity's sake."

She said, "I have a much bigger talent pool to pull from now than I did, let's say 20 years ago when I was casting for Hanna-Barbera."

In talking about the choices for this year's new animated feature "Justice League: The New Frontier," Romano said, "I never cast in a vacuum. It's never just me. I've done so much work with Bruce Timm, the producer, that he and I have a very good shorthand conversation that we can speak in. ... We've known each other for a really long time. ... He's the first person that I talk to."

On Brooke Shields, whom she had voicing a role for the TV show "The Batman" : "She was terrific and she so enjoyed it." Romano said she then thought of Shields when she was casting for the "JL" feature. Through many scheduling conflicts, Shields bent over backward to make it happen. "She was my heroine, and she truly wanted to be a part of it, and moved her life around."

Romano does a little voicework, herself, including the part of Martha Wayne in the new "Batman: Gotham Knight" feature. "I was an actress for a long time before I got into casting and directing. I never take a role away from a voiceover actress who would normally get paid ... Every once in a while when there's a gap, I'll step in and do it."

Listen to the whole interview at http://cdn1.libsyn.com/wordballoon/WBandrearomano.mp3.

BRBTV News Blog Blip (and really, we should just make a daily feature out of the John Schneider update!): Pa Kent is making another appearance on the CW's "Smallville," according to the network's press materials released this week. In the May 1 episode, titled "Apocalypse," Clark sees how the world would have been if he had not come to Earth. It's a scenario that also means Pa Kent never died, and Schneider is listed in the credits. See the official word at KryptonSite.com (click on "Spoilers").

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