Michael Ironside Felt A Sense Of Freedom Voicing DC Villain Darkseid In Superman: The Animated Series
Despite being one of the more versatile character actors out there, Michael Ironside has been typecast as a villain for most of his career. But that's never really seemed like too much of a problem for the actor, who has consistently delivered memorable performances in such classics as "Top Gun" and "Total Recall." If he's going to play the villain, he's going to own it, and that's exactly what he's done ever since his first major role as the villainous Darryl Revok in David Cronenberg's "Scanners" back in 1981.
Since then, he's gone on to prove his talent not only on-screen but as a voice actor, perhaps most notably as ruler of the fictional planet Apokolips, Darkseid, in "Superman: The Animated Series." For many a '90s kid, Ironside is the quintessential Darkseid in almost the same way as Mark Hamill is the quintessential Joker. Debuting in season 1, episode 12 all the way back in 1997, Ironside's Darkseid has since been brought back numerous times over the course of the DC Animated Universe, appearing in "Justice League" and "Justice League" unlimited.
Originally introduced to solve an ongoing problem with "Superman: TAS", namely Superman's lack of colorful rogues, Darkseid was a genuinely menacing villain who provided a suitably formidable adversary for Supes. And according to Ironside, who had to adapt from live-action to voice acting, playing the New God turned out to be a uniquely freeing experience.
The freedom of not being watched
Michael Ironside has always sought out multi-layered and unique projects, bringing a sophisticated approach to each role he's played — just don't call him a fan of method acting. The Toronto native told /Film's own Steven Prokopy, that what he looks for in a script is, "depth, something that has more than one layer or one message." And when it comes to voiceover work, he's applied that same approach, explaining how he breaks down a character to find "six to eight levels of emotion." Speaking about the "Splinter Cell" video games, in which he voices protagonist Sam Fisher, Ironside said, "If they're violent characters I base them on fear."
That approach is evident in his performances as Darkseid, who he plays with a palpable air of menace. But behind the scenes, it turns out he was actually having a ball. As he told Collider:
"It is kind of fun to get in a room with a bunch of other actors and have the freedom of not being watched so you can sort of take risks with a character like Darkseid or the Sam Fisher character in those 'Splinter Cell' things. It's fun to work. It really is. It's not all just hit your mark, take your money, and go home. It's fun. It's creative. It's challenging. You get to meet great people."
It's becoming more and more evident that not all actors can make the switch from physical performance to voice acting, and often trying to shoehorn celebrities into films by having them do voice work is a terrible idea. But for Ironside, it was just another challenge to overcome, and he proved the extent of his talent by not just delivering affecting performances over multiple years of the DCAU's run.
Voice acting ain't easy
While voice acting may seem simpler than performing on-screen, where you have to take your physicality and blocking into account, increasingly we're hearing about the specific challenges and unique considerations that come with voiceover work. Following James Gunn's recent announcement that he plans to streamline the DC Universe to use the same actors for the same roles across live action and animation, some within the industry expressed their dismay.
As former Rocksteady and Batman Arkham video game series developer, Del Walker, tweeted: "These writers and voice actors do 100 versions of everything. They are in the booth doing 600 lines of dialogue just to end up with 20 of the best in the game. You think you're going to get Robert Pattinson to outwork a VA actor? And for a budget that makes sense?" Mark Hamill echoed a similar sentiment when he told NPR that, "The actors in voice over are some of the best [he's] ever worked with: on screen, on television, on Broadway, off Broadway — they're just incredibly talented."
In Ironside's case, it's a testament to his talent that he was able to make the switch from live-action to voice acting so seamlessly, and bring his thoughtful approach to the craft along with him. While he's not the only actor to voice Darkseid in animation, he is for many the definitive voice of the character. To learn he not only adapted to the format but found it "freeing" and "fun" is even more impressive.