The Injustice animated film is out October 19 on digital, 4K, and Blu-ray. The film centers around the differing philosophies of Batman, who is voiced by Anson Mount, and Superman after the death of Lois Lane at the hands of Joker.
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Injustice star Anson Mount about portraying Batman, how he approaches voice acting, and his love of video games.
Tyler Treese: There have been so many iconic portrayals of Batman. How was it to put your own spin on the character and how long did it take for you to find your Batman voice?
Anson Mount: Oh man, it was amazing and obviously enormously flattering [to get the role] and I knew it would be fun because Wes Gleason was directing so I immediately said yes. In terms of the voice, I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted to do with it from the get-go and I have little vocal tricks that helped me to get there because it’s a voice that is pretty different from my own. And I tried not to compare and contrast myself with what I wanted to do with the role with any previous Batman, but I don’t think that you can really immediately discount what was done vocally and in the Chris Nolan films.
You’re mostly in the costume during this film, but we do get a lot of personal moments for Batman here. How was making that adjustment to playing the man under that costume and giving an emotional performance?
It’s just acting. And honestly, the challenges are different in the big action scenes, obviously, you’re stuck in this little black box trying to match what somebody is doing while they’re performing these incredible feats of athleticism. And then in the more intimate moments that demand more emotional connection or introspection, that’s just a matter of imagination and what we call “the magic if” in acting.
It really focuses on Batman’s strong morals and he doesn’t compromise. We see how that leads to conflict here with not just Superman, but also his son, Damian. Can you discuss that part of that character? Because that moral compass makes him a great hero but it is also a source of a lot of conflict.
You hit the nail on the head. It’s not even a question of whether or not he should compromise. There is a deep, deep moral self-knowledge in Batman that understands that he can’t go that direction. And the unfortunate reality of that is that he’s going to be going up against Superman. That’s the worst in the world, right? Who wants to go up against Superman? But it’s this deep-seated, moral, ethical self-knowledge that he has that answers the question for him.
Your Batman goes back and forth with Justin Hartley’s Superman. Did you ever get to play off his performance or was the final film the first time you got to hear the back and forth?
Yeah. I’m kind of used to it because I’m one of I’m one of those bozos who decided not to live in Los Angeles so I’m usually recording alone. [laughs] So it was just me and Wes and the engineers in New York.
You mentioned accepting this project pretty easily once Wes talked to you, but what about the script really grabbed you and made you excited?
It was the big “What if?” and what I think is an incredibly healthy practice in the comic book world that they’ve had for much longer than film industry and actually, I think the film industry has learned from them, is the ability to say, “In this iteration of this character’s story, this happens, and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match what came before because we’re playing a big ‘What if'” This multiverse idea that’s kind of connected to that is incredibly healthy for storytelling and for franchises, frankly. That “What if?” was a big one in this one. Obviously, you can probably tell from the trailer that it is a Superman that has fully gone off the rails and is in kind of a civil war within the Justice League.
You’ve got another voice acting role coming up with Dota’s Dragon’s Blood. Both that and this are based on video games. Do you play many video games now and have you played the games that kind of inspired these?
What’s funny is I am a very big video game fan, but I had played neither of those games when the roles came about. I’m not a PC gamer, which is why I don’t know Dota. And I just had never come across the Injustice games before I had this. But from my understanding, this is more based on the comic books that came out of the games.
What games do you like to play?
My PS4 broke down a while back and while I’ve been waiting to get my hands on a PS5, I’ve been using Google Stadia, which is I got primarily because I’m an actor who travels so much and it’s just this wafer that you hook into the back of your TV and it’s all streaming, which is amazing. But there are certain things I want to play that aren’t necessarily on my platform. I’m a big PlayStation fan so I’m very excited to get my hands on one if it ever happens. It has been impossible. [laughs]
Speaking of gaming, you got to star in The Evil Within as the protagonist Sebastian Castellanos. Is more video game work something you’d want to do in the future, especially with motion capture?
Oh, absolutely. I just love watching the technology and the development of story structure and video games. I think it is fascinating. I definitely want to do more of that in future.
Now that you’ve done a couple of voice acting roles, has anything changed in the way you approach it or does it just come naturally after all the live-action work?
That’s a good question. A lot of the experience that I’ve gotten in the booth has come from doing ADR, and I’ve done a tremendous amount of that in my work as an actor. So a lot of it probably was the skills I think I already had. But it has definitely taught me the importance of working with good directors. The director is everything in things like this and Wes Gleason is just one of the best.
Star Trek is such a big series and your character, Chris Pike, has just been well received by fans. What does it mean for you to not only be in that franchise but to be such a celebrated character in a resurgence for that series?
I’ve never had a fan response like this one. And I was already expecting it to be a different kind of community because of what Star Trek is. I certainly didn’t expect the level of support that I got for just doing the best job I could and not really knowing how it turned out myself. What the fans really did for me was not just a job. What the fans did for me was give me the means to finally start a family and it means the world to me and my wife.
