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Kyle
MacLachlan Faces The New Frontier
Credit
voice casting director Andrea Romano for impeccable and
uncanny taste in matching actors to animated characters.
For Superman the Animated Series, she made us believe Tim
Daly should have played the Last Son of Krypton. For Superman
Doomsday, she placed Adam Baldwin in the role of a Man of
Steel facing his own death. And for The New Frontier, she
brings us another perfect Superman for the era of Father
Knows Best -- Kyle MacLachlan.
This
actually isn't the first time the cult favorite actor had
a shot at playing the 1950's Superman. Though the piece
below doesn't mention it, MacLachlan had been in the running
to play George Reeves in the film that would eventually
be Hollywoodland. It's nice to see he finally got his shot,
and we're anxious to hear the results.
From
Warner Home Video:
From his head-turning debuts in “Dune”
and “Blue Velvet” to his iconic Special Agent
Dale Cooper in “Twin Peaks” and his current
plum primetime role on “Desperate Housewives,”
Kyle MacLachlan has had a memorable career.
Now you can add a new benchmark for the
actor: MacLachlan makes his animation debut as the voice
of Superman in the highly-anticipated direct-to-DVD film,
“Justice League: The New Frontier.”
“Superman stands for so many things
that I believe in – strength, justice, fighting for
what’s right,” said MacLachlan. “You just
can’t turn down the opportunity to play a guy like
Superman.”
MacLachlan is an integral part of an all-star
cast that includes Neil Patrick Harris, David Boreanaz,
Brooke Shields, Miguel Ferrer, Jeremy Sisto, Kyra Sedgwick
and Phil Morris. Casting for the film focused on finding
actors that could channel the tones of the Korean war era
of the mid-1950s without sounding corny or old-fashioned.
“Kyle MacLachlan is the perfect example
– he sounds exactly like what you’d think a
‘50s era Superman would sound like,” explains
executive producer Bruce Timm. “He’s very righteous
and good, but still very natural. We didn’t want the
sound of Superman in 2008, and Kyle gave such a great, stylized
performance in capturing that mid-50s feel.”
MacLachlan doesn’t claim any specific
talent for a ‘50s super hero – he just tried
to echo the Superman in his psyche.
“There’s a sort of moral imperative
that Superman has, and I think the language he uses is a
little more proper -- he’s just not a guy who uses
his words casually,” MacLachlan said. “So maybe,
unconsciously, that 1950s tone just creeps in there for
me.”
MacLachlan enjoyed his first voiceover experience
in animation, though it was not without challenges. As usual,
the cast recorded the script before the animation began,
then the cast returned to the booth about 10 months later
to add and tweak the dialogue and effects. While MacLachlan
is accustomed to live-action looping, the animation equivalent
proved more challenging.
“When I’m synching to myself
in live action, which is what I usually do, my mouth moves
the same way and I can see it visually and it somehow connects,”
MacLachlan said. “This is a little more difficult
because the animated mouth moves a little differently --
the animation doesn’t quite have the same amount of
detail that you would see in a real-life performance. Like
the word “strategy” – we were having trouble
in the booth getting that one right because I couldn’t
really see how it was formed in my animated mouth. But we
made it all work.”
MacLachlan found particular amusement in
the voicing the action sequences within the film, particularly
those moments that called for going beyond even the far-reaching
imagination of his roles in David Lynch films.
“The physical performance is fun –
you have to use your imagination a lot more,” he said.
“It’s a lot of grunts and oomphs and ughs, which
you just can’t help but act out physically. I’m
sure it looks funny from the other side of the glass. Like
in one scene, it was about getting hit with a pterodactyl
wing versus getting punched by a super villain. There’s
apparently a difference in that sound. So you have to shade
it a bit and use the imagination.”
MacLachlan admits it will be tough to accept
another super hero role after his performance in “Justice
League: The New Frontier.”
“Once
you’ve done Superman, it’s hard to go anywhere
else,” MacLachlan said. “So I think I’ve
reached the zenith of my super hero experience.”
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