Posted in: Comedy Central, TV, Warner Animation Group | Tagged: harley quinn, tara strong

Tara Strong on Harley Quinn Crossover, Appealing to All Audiences

Tara Strong (Teen Titans GO!) spoke with us about appealing to different audiences, the idea of crossing over "Harley Quinns," and more.

It should come as no surprise that Tara Strong takes pride in all the work she's amassed across her 660+ projects, mostly in animated projects from films, TV, and video games. As much as the actress likes to take ownership of her roles, it's also out of her control when a studio like Warner Bros goes in another direction – as was the case with Max's original series Harley Quinn starring Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory, Based on a True Story). While promoting her work on Teen Titans Go! and the long-running animated series' milestone 400th episode, the actress spoke with Bleeding Cool on a wide range of topics. For this go around, those included if she feels Warner Bros. Discovery/DC Studios would do a crossover between the younger audience-targeted series like Teen Titans GO! and a more adult-oriented animated series like Harley Quinn or its spinoff Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, if she could see her Harley interacting with Cuoco's version, playing opposite herself on characters, if she has different approaches depending on demographic, and what type of projects might be the most grueling.

Tara Strong on Adult vs General Humor, Entertaining Harley Quinn Crossover, and Challenges of Video Game Scripts

Bleeding Cool: You've been doing animation projects for children and adults. Have you guys ever like talked about a crossover for a cameo/crossover between DC's Harley Quinn and the 'Teen Titans' or perhaps having your incarnation meeting with Kaley's version?

We had a movie with 'DC Girls,' which was fun. I'm playing Raven, Harley, and Batgirl at the same time. Maybe in season six, that would be fun. They're certainly all part of the same universe. There's nothing we as a cast will say "No" to. We would do 'Teen Titans on Ice' like we would. We love playing these parts. Hopefully, we will get to play them till we die. It's just the most fun and joyful. I'm pretty much open to all crossovers…and [as Harley] heck Puddin', why not two Harley Quinns?!!

I know it's second nature to you, but when you act opposite yourself, when it's like, say, Batgirl and Harley Quinn versus, like Toot and Princess Clara in 'Drawn Together,' how does that get done? Do they play like a clip of yourself, and you act from it? Do you voice both characters interchangeably?

Most of the time, especially if it's a larger part, we will go all the way through as one character and then go all the way through as the next. If a character has a small part, we'll flip for some scenes. When you establish a character as being symbiotic or tied with you, it's like, for me, they live in my brain, and when it's their turn to come into play, they take over and do that. There's never a time when I'm mixing Raven, Harley, or Batgirl. They all have their own way of speaking because they all have their personalities, which comes through me when I'm portraying them. I can see that action in my third eye or however, I imagine what's going on. Typically, we go first, and then they animate to our voice. It's fun to be able to do that. There's never a moment when I confuse them because they're all their separate entities.

Do you have different approaches when you do more adult projects like 'Drawn Together' or compared to when you like doing the more general ones like 'Teen Titans?'

The process for animation, whether it's geared towards preschool, 7 to 14, or adults, the process for the animation is largely the same. We, as voice actors, are becoming this character. We go into a studio, envision what's happening, and we try to portray these moments authentically with our voices so that the audience feels like they're with us on these adventures. Certainly, your headspace is in a different space when you're doing a kid's show as compared to something with adult humor, and they both are super fun for me.

'Gabby's Dollhouse' is a huge hit and it's one of the cutest shows I've ever seen in its entirety, also I loved doing 'Drawn Together.' When I was doing 'Drawn Together,' I was doing 'Rugrats' at the same time, and I remember my friend who was visiting with me. I brought her to both tapings, and we went to 'Rugrats' first, and I was like, "Just so you know, the next show is NOT 'Rugrats'" [laughs]. I had to prewarn her that ['Drawn Together'] was a little more adult humor. I love doing it all. It's so fun to have a variety, and if you are doing just one character for the rest of your life, I'm sure that be fun, but I'm fortunate I get to play a lot of different characters.

What was the biggest challenge for a character that took you the longest time to develop and find your voice on?

I don't know if there was one that took a long time to develop, but a long time to do maybe like Riku from Final Fantasy X. Those were huge scripts. A lot of times, game scripts are like this: You must do lines for every possible scenario. Those can take a long time, and some DC games, too. Although I had a tremendous amount of fun working on [Batman:] 'Arkham Shadow' as the first CG Batman game and we got to be on a soundstage suited up. It felt like you were working on an on-camera project because we were interacting with each other, and that was fun.

In terms of picking a voice for a show, when you have your first audition, you give one to three choices for something, and then production picks one, and they tweak it on the day. Then, you stick to that voice, although over time, it can grow and change as you do. When I watch the first episodes of 'The Fairly OddParents' to season eight, it sounds different. Sounds like they've grown, same happens for anything on camera. If you watched the first season of 'Seinfeld' to the ninth season, there's always going to be some growth, because the characters are part of you, and they grow along with you.

Teen Titans Go! airs weekly on Cartoon Network and is also available to stream on Max.

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