Hamish Linklater is undeniably a fantastic actor. From his stand-out role as Father Paul in Netflix’s Midnight Mass to playing Clark Debussy on Legion, it’s always a great surprise when Linklater is on screen. But when it comes to his take on the dual role of Batman and Bruce Wayne on Batman: Caped Crusader? Well, let’s say some choices were made.
Let’s talk about Batman first, because that’s a little more reasonable to understand. Linklater has the growl down, and it’s complimentary to what Kevin Conroy did for decades starting with Batman: The Animated Series. It’s not the breathy, scratchy shout Christian Bale employed, nor is it the mechanized, filtered take Batfleck had in the Snyder movies. It’s also not quite as perfect as Linklater’s castmate Diedrich Bader employs on the Harley Quinn animated series, mind you. Bader is the voice of Harvey Dent/Two-Face on Caped Crusader, and while the shows may not have wanted to cross the streams as it were, it’s extra weird that a really good Batman voice is right there on the side, when Linklater’s is at about 75%.
The other half of the Batman voice is Bruce Wayne, and one thing that is neatly conveyed by Linklater, through the script, is Caped Crusader‘s core theory that Batman is the main personality. Bruce Wayne, meanwhile, is the mask. You can see that portrayed whenever the character gets out of an event and starts talking to Alfred (Jason Watkins)… He immediately switches to the Batman voice when in the car, and out of hearing of other folks. Linklater’s voice switches from Wayne to Batman instantly. And while that might be a trick of editing, I prefer to think it’s Linklater turning on a dime in the recording booth.
Sorry For Ruining Caped Crusader, But The Voice Hamish Linklater Uses For Bruce Wayne Sounds Like Sterling Archer
That brings us to Bruce Wayne. To delineate between the “two characters,” Linklater raises the pitch of his voice and adds a bit of a stammer and a chirp that recalls his character from Midnight Mass. If you haven’t watched that show… Well, first of all, you missed out, go watch it. Second, some episodes are almost entirely monologues from Linklater’s Father Paul where he off-handedly opines on faith and that sense of riffing comes through in Bruce Wayne, too.
However, there’s another character I couldn’t stop thinking of when watching Caped Crusader: Sterling Archer, from the FX series Archer. It isn’t helped by the fact that both characters are square-chinned, black-haired playboys who often have wide-eyed, innocent stares, with piercing blue eyes. Mind you, Linklater and H. Jon Benjamin (who plays the voice of Archer) are two very different actors. But once the idea of Archer as Bruce Wayne got in my head, it was impossible to unsee — and unhear — that in Hamish Linklater’s voice.
Is Linklater channeling Archer for Bruce Wayne? Probably not? And the show doesn’t mean Bruce to be nearly as dim, nor as jokey as Archer. The animation style is also vastly different, with Archer‘s thick black lines and more sedentary movements. But there are scenes particularly later in the season of Caped Crusader where Bruce Wayne is standing there, drink in hand, with Linklater stammering and the character staring where you could have plucked him out of one show and put him in the other. And a lot of that is down to the voice.
So yeah, sorry for ruining Caped Crusader for you by theorizing it’s a stealth Archer spinoff. Will Linklater tweak the voice for the in-the-works Season 2? Given Batman has a major evolution in the Season 1 finale… Maybe? But if not, here’s hoping, just once, Bruce Wayne says, “phrasing!”
Never heard of sterling archer. What’s that?
From the FX TV show Archer!
You’ve ruined nothing. I am loving Linkleter’s Batman and always had problem with Bader’s, and at no time during this wonderful moody show do my thoughts wander to Archer. To each their own but I am so happy we got Hamish for this. It’s his performance that settled all my worries about how a show too close but not quite a continuation of the original Animated Series would turn out. And once I trusted Batman and Bruce the rest of the world opened up into a dark noir kaleidoscope I can’t, and don’t want to, leave.
Glad you liked it! And thanks for reading.