Posted in: Amazon Studios, TV, Warner Animation Group | Tagged: Bat-Fam

Bat-Fam: Michael Benyaer on Offering Different Take on Ra's Al Ghul

Michael Benyaer (Curses!) spoke with us about his role as Ra's Al Ghul in Prime Video's animated series Bat-Fam, voiceovers, family, and more.

Bat-Fam isn't the atypical Batman, because at its core, it's about Batman, Alfred, and the horde of Gotham City's criminal underworld, filled with supervillains with a similar flair for the dramatics as Bruce Wayne, but with far more sinister intentions. In the Prime Video animated series from Mike Roth and Jase Ricci, Bruce Wayne (voiced by Luke Wilson) spends just as much time being a father as he does being insecure about the task and battling crime. Matching his ambitions is the young Damien Wayne (voice of Yonas Kibreab), who takes after his father and is looked over by his father's one-time archnemesis, Ra's Al Ghul (voice of Michael Benyaer). Bruce also takes in fostering Claire Selton (voice of Haley Tju), who was once the supervillain Volcana, before getting de-aged to 12 years old. As Bat-Fam explores the eccentric personality of the occupants of Wayne Manor, Batman and little Batman still have to deal with the dark forces of Gotham and their kids to save the day. Benyaer spoke to Bleeding Cool about how Ra's became a dream role before a certain Christopher Nolan film temporarily derailed those plans, working with Roth and Ricci, and imagining his Ra's home life similarly to a certain Star Wars character.

Bat-Fam Star Michael Benyaer on His Long Journey to Be Ra's Al Ghul

When you signed up for Bat-Fam, were there any Batman comics, TV shows, or films from the canon that you were told to look into to get into your roles, Ra's Al Ghul?

I've told this story a couple of times today. I'm going to tell you, too. About 15 years ago, out of the blue, one of my best buddies we were hanging out with, said, out of nowhere, "You're going to play Ra's Al Ghul one day." I didn't know who he was. He says, "You don't know?" I said, "No." I was familiar with the show as a kid, the repeats from the 60s Batman, and Ra's wasn't created until 1971, so he wasn't in that show. I guess I hadn't read any of the comic books that he was in, and my buddy explained who he was, and then I looked it up. I'm like, "Lo and behold, he's a character I could play on camera." When they made the movie a couple of years later (in 2005's Batman Begins), Liam Neeson played him. I was like, "Oh, I guess that's gone. I'm not going to be able to do it." A couple of years ago, I got this audition for this, and I read it and said, "I'm going to play this part," and at that point, I did a deeper dive. I decided not to listen to or watch any of the other people playing as him, so that I could give it my own voice, as it were.

What's it like working with Mike and Jace as creatives?

Mike Roth is in the booth every time I do it. He's great. He has a vision, which we saw in the movie (Merry Little Batman) originally, which was amazing. He is a very funny guy, so he did the normal show and all that. He definitely has the ear and the eye for what is funny, and I love his approval when I get a thumbs up or he says, "That's what we want."

Did you record your lines solo, or did your castmates join you at all at any point?

No, unfortunately, everything was done by me. A couple of times, I would pass people in the hallway as we were punching in and punching out. I met Bobby Moynihan, and I met Yonas a couple of times, but everything was done by myself. Every interaction you're listening to is spliced together from different days, etc.

Aside from Yonas and Bobby, did you meet with anyone else, like London or James, during production?

I haven't met anybody yet, and I'm going to meet everybody. There's a big wrap party, and I'm looking forward to it.

Do you receive the lines from recordings of your castmates or from the director?

In the original recording, when I go in by myself, the voice director, Kristi Reed, would read in the lines before so that I could have something to react to. She's not doing the voice of Batman, or she's not trying to change her voice. She's reading it normally, and then I would do it. Later, when we go in to do what's called ADR, which is additional dialog recording, sometimes you can hear what the other person has done in the scene, and you're basically adding something or cleaning up something you've done already. Other times, they have got what's called a scratch track. Somebody, an animator or a writer, is making a version of my voice, and they've timed it to that person's performance. At that point, I must go over what they've done with the same timing.

You've done both in the live action and the voiceover roles. Are there things playing in that voiceover sandbox that allow you to do the things that you wouldn't normally do in live action?

Yes, I love voiceover because it allows me to play a 600-year-old supervillain who's now a ghost. I remember my first voice job; I was Ken for Barbie and Ken. Everything for that, and sometimes I get to do multiple characters in a series, like in this show, I play the teacher as well, and voiceover is so free and fun that it allows you to do that. Yeah, I love it.

As far as being able to play up the comedic side, I mean, I used to look at Ra's as such a serious character, and what I think of your version that pops up, he reminds me of that vampire character, Count Bloodcount, from like the Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes cartoons. I'm not sure if you noticed that.

Yes.

Hearing that accent, too.

Right. Mel Blanc, I was going to say, "The inimitable," but people imitate him a lot. Mel is the grandfather of cartoon voiceover for sure. Obviously, that's somewhere in the recesses of my mind, such an influence growing up, but I wanted to do Ra's as a vague Middle Eastern, North African accent, but also, he's been around through the eras, through the ages. He has a British education quality to him, so there's that. It comes off sometimes, like you're saying, "I was listening to it." I was like, "I see what they're saying, kind of vampire-like, but definitely it's not Bela Lugosi." It's not, "I want to take your blood." It's not that, but it's definitely in a similar tone range at times.

Instead of being a rival to Batman, you're more of a grandfather figure to Claire, serving as an influential presence in her life. What's it like playing that role?

I love the juxtaposition, which is not only that he is a retired supervillain, but he still wants to be a supervillain; he's also a grandfather figure, whether it's to Damien, his actual grandfather, or to Claire. Supervillains have children and grandchildren, and they love those beings. I love the reality of that, which is, "What's Darth Vader like at home?" Right? We all know Darth Vader's son. Yes, we know that, but he's loving in a sense. Yeah, for sure.

Bat-Fam, which also features the voices of Bobby Moynihan, Reid Scott, Kevin Michael Richardson, Diedrich Bader, and Natasha Leggero, premieres November 10th on Prime Video.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!