Will Arnett
"A More Colorful 'Dark Knight'"
Will Arnett is best known for his roles in TV series like Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Up All Night, and The Millers. Now the 43 year-old Canadian actor’s latest role is as Batman in The Lego Movie. The film tells the tale of ordinary Lego citizen Emmett, played by Chris Pratt, who is a chosen one known as ‘The Special’ who must save the world from the villainous Lord Business, played by Will Ferrell.
Batman is one of the Master Builders that Emmett encounters in the film. Arnett talks about how they took advantage of spoofing such a world famous character, which is from DC Comics, which is owned by Warner Bros., the studio that made the film, and how he prepared to play him.
“Well, sure, I read the Old Testament repeatedly,” Will says, “Phil [Lord], Chris [Miller], and I talked early on about the idea of looking at all the Batman actors that have come before, even the original one before the dinosaurs.”
“We were trying to see what would make us laugh,” he adds, “And what we liked about all the variations of Batman, so the first couple of sessions, we spent a lot of time finding that voice and was working, what wasn’t, and we kept hitting on the more serious Batman took himself, the funnier he was, and that’s where we ended up.”
Will was asked if he had any kids that were excited about The Lego Movie.
“I have a three-year-old and a five-year-old and they’re both extremely excited,” Arnett says, “My youngest keeps referring to it as ‘The Lego Batman Movie’. I love that.”
Arnett was asked about how he got into a backstory for Batman.
“For me, I had the easiest job in the sense that everybody knows who Batman is,” Will says, “But what was fun was taking that iconic character that is such a part of the fabric of popular culture and changing the rules to him a little bit.”
“That
Will Arnett
"A More Colorful 'Dark Knight'"
Will had already tackled voice acting before just recently playing the squirrel Surly in the animated movie The Nut Job. He was asked why he likes to do voice acting.
“I had spent many years paying my rent in New York as a voiceover guy,” Arnett explains, “And once I started working much more as an actor, I guess it logically made sense that I would do much more animated fare.”
“Like everything in my life, I had zero plan and stuff just happened,” he continues, “And then, I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah! I meant to do that!’ And so, it’s just very fortuitous. I see myself very lucky to have been able to do it.”
Arnett talks about what it was like to do a film alongside Morgan Freeman, who is considered by many to have Hollywood’s greatest speaking voice.
“It should be noted that Mr. Morgan Freeman has one of the greatest voices of all time,” Will says of him, “So it’s a thrill for me as a voiceover guy to be a part of this vocally with him, I got to say.”
Will was asked if it was his idea to sing in the film as Batman.
“Well, that was Phil and Chris,” Arnett answers, “We just decided that Batman again had this character that you all think you know, actually has this crazy dark side where he has all this other stuff going on around that you don’t really know about. That was a treat to do that, it was kind of rough, but it turns out that it was
Will Arnett
"A More Colorful 'Dark Knight'"
