Kevin Conroy Remembered The Madness Of Recording Batman: The Killing Joke With Mark Hamill
The following article contains spoilers for "Batman: The Killing Joke."
Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill were the Dynamic Duo. Yes, that usually refers to Batman and Robin, but in this case, it's the two actors that have been responsible for so many animated TV series and films as Batman and his nemesis, the Joker. Conroy, the definitive voice of Batman, passed away at the age of 66 at the end of 2022, and many fans, myself included, have been rewatching some of the duo's work as a tribute. One of the later projects the two of them did together was the animated film "Batman: The Killing Joke."
The 2016 title was based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, and was the 26th of the DC Universe animated original movies. In the film, the Joker (voice of Hamill) attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon (voice of Ray Wise) insane while Batman (voice of Conroy) tries to save him. It also features a controversial scene between Batman and Batgirl (voice of Tara Strong), who is later shot in the stomach and paralyzed from the waist down. It gives us a look at a tragic Joker origin story. (He's got quite a few).
In a 2018 interview with The Natural Aristocrat, Conroy was asked about the final scene in the story and talked about the experience of being in the booth with Hamill as they recorded it.
'I was just really proud of it'
Conroy said of that infamous final scene:
"Isn't it crazy? I was really proud of that ... because when you get into a scene like that, it's not about making voices. It's about really living the scene ... you're acting; voice acting is acting. And so Mark and I are in there together, and the madness that took over that room when we were both laughing so — and the laughing grew and grew, and then Batman's laughter takes over. I was just really proud of it. I love that aspect of that. There's a similar thing that happens at the end of Arkham Knight, the last of the games. It ends in a similar world psychologically for me as Batman. And I was just really proud of it."
In the scene, Batman has beaten the Joker but offers him help. The Joker refuses but says it reminds him of a joke about two escaping asylum patients who try to jump from one roof to the next. The first one gets across, but the second is scared. The first says he'll shine a flashlight between the building so the second can cross a beam and not fall. The second says, "What do you think I am, crazy? You'll just turn it off when I'm halfway across." The Joker laughs, and Batman joins him.
It's chilling, and yet it's clear that these two enemies cannot exist without the other. They cannot kill each other because, in the end, without Batman, the Joker ceases to exist fully, and vice versa. They're a team, just as Conroy and Hamill were. There may have been madness in the booth, but it's because the two actors worked so perfectly together and, as Conroy said, lived that scene.
"Batman: The Killing Joke" is streaming on HBO Max.