ComingSoon spoke with DC Super Hero Girls star Will Friedle about the upcoming crossover film Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse ahead of its May 24 release, as well as his Boys Meet World past, and much more.
In Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, the Teen Titans and DC Super Hero Girls must team up to battle Lex Luthor and his Legion of Doom as they enact a plan that could defeat even the Justice League.
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Tyler Treese: DC Super Hero girls is pretty unique in your filmography because you don’t normally voice villains, but you’ve proven yourself as an excellent Lex Luthor. How refreshing has it been to show this range here?
Will Friedle: It’s funny you mention that because I always say that in the 25 years I’ve been a voiceover actor, I think I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times somebody’s let me be a villain, so this is very cool. He’s a much younger version of Lex and a more lighthearted of Luthor because obviously DC Super Hero Girls and Teen Titans Go! is a much more fun kind of version of the characters. It’s still a blast to get to play somebody bad though, I’ll be honest with you.
Why do you think you don’t get many villain roles? Are you just too nice of a guy in real life?
I think that’s part of it. I think it’s also the tenor of my voice, just kind of my range, lends itself to younger or even a lot of times younger superheroes. So normally they don’t say, “Hey we’re doing a big villain part. Let’s get Friedle. Hey Clancy Brown wasn’t available. Let’s get Will Friedle,” has never been said in the history of Hollywood. I’m normally the, “Hey, we’ve got a 19-year-old hero. Can you come play that?” Like, sure. That I can do no problem. So it’s nice to be able to occasionally get to play somebody bad.
You’re also Aquaman here. What do you like most about this version of Aquaman?
I think because he’s just such a bad, Matthew McConaughey impression. I think that’s what’s fun about him is that they’re kind of caricatures. The older Justice League are caricatures of themselves. You’ve got Batman just mumbling, and Superman is very much the boy scout, and Aquaman is very much the surfer dude. It just kind of came out as a bad Matthew McConaughey impression. For some reason, I think it worked! I think it works for the character.
Lex is a big force in this film. What was your favorite scene to record?
It’s for different reasons that there were different scenes that were fun to record. Anytime Lex Luther is standing in front of the Legion of Doom. It’s pretty cool, just because I grew up such a fan of DC. Going and recruiting the different villains, those scenes were a lot of fun to record, but just for crazy wackiness, the Aquaman stuff … because it was kind of like everybody knew what we were doing. We’re doing bad Matthew McConaughey. So everybody was just cracking up and we were having so much fun doing it. You normally do “oohs” and “ahs” where you get hit or something and you go “ugh,” whereas, when you’re doing this character, it’s “oh no, man,” you know? You get to kind of mess around with everything going on. So we just had so much fun.
I assume this crossover is even cooler for you since you’re so familiar with Go! You voiced Kid Flash and I believe you wrote some episodes as well?
I did, yeah. I wrote a few episodes of Teen Titans Go! and being Kid Flash. So [I’m] very familiar with the crew over there and the tone of that show. I know it’s a very divisive show for some people. I think it’s brilliant. Just in this film, the idea that they’re … the first part of the film is just them talking about how they’re in a crossover, the way they break the fourth wall. And the cast, Khary Payton and I don’t even have to name them all. Tara and everybody, they’re just so unbelievably good at what they do and just embody those characters now that, any time I get a chance to work with them, or better yet even write for them, I’m truly honored to do so.
You brought up the divisiveness. I feel like that’s gone down as the series gone on. I know you voiced Fang in Teen Titans, so you have been through both. Do you feel like the show has been accepted for just being this hilarious, goofy show and what it is over time?
I do. And I think it has been, I think you’re right. It was worse at the beginning. I always quote Bruce Timm, and he’s talking about, Batman where he said to me one time … We were talking about how Batman Beyond was very, very dark, and at the time the Batman films were very, very light. This was during the Arnold Schwarzenegger Batman and Robin films. He said to me, “Yeah because there always needs to be a Batman for everybody. So when the films are light, the animation’s dark. When the animation’s light, the films are dark.” I think that needs to apply to most superheroes. So, you’ve got Teen Titans Go!, and then you have Titans. There’s always the version you want to watch, but occasionally making just a lighthearted, fun show … I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Speaking of Batman Beyond, that’s such a unique show because Terry McGinnis was made for that. It’s very rare for one voice to be associated with a character, but you are Terry and that show has such a legacy. So how do you look back upon that?
I like to tell myself that I’m, by far, the best Terry McGinness there’s ever been. That’s how I make myself feel good about it. For so many reasons that show is important to me. It was the first animated show I’d ever done. Some of my closest friends — Andrea Romano, Kevin Conroy — all came out of that series. Getting to work with some of the greatest writers [and] producers from Bruce Timm to Paul Dini, to Glen Murakami, Stan Berkowitz, Hilary Bader … getting to work with all these people that are just legends in the industry … to have that be your entrance into the animation world was mindboggling to me and still is. So that show will always hold a very, very special place in my heart.
Before you got into voice acting, you had the success of Boy Meets World. I’m a big pro wrestling fan, so I have to ask, how was getting physical with Big Van Vader on the set? “The Thrilla’ in Phila” is such an iconic episode and I’m sure it’s even more special now that he has passed away.
He was one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your life. We would have some incredible conversations. He gave me a wonderful compliment one day when we were rehearsing and he lifts me up, benches me twice, and then throws me over his shoulder. Afterward, he said, “You know, you do that better than some of the pros I’ve worked with.” I think he was probably saying it tongue-in-cheek, but it was still such a wonderful compliment. Couldn’t have met a nicer guy. Wonderful man. Another person we had on the show a couple of times was Mick Foley, who again, could not be a nicer human being. I still have my Socko. Mick is another great guy and we’ll run into each other at conventions and he still comes over and puts me in the headlock. But two incredible men and God rest Vader. He was a great guy.
It’s sort of wild how Mick Foley and Vader, they do these deathmatches and like bloody things, but then they’re so nice. The contrast is incredible.
It also just shows how wonderful they are and were as entertainers. Like any method actor out there, they would snap into their character and give 110%. Some of these matches that they wrestled, these weren’t some of the WWE half-hour matches. These were matches that lasted hours. So these were incredible athletes, incredible entertainers, and Mick, to this day, turns it on at the conventions and instantly becomes that character again. They’re amazing at what they do.
Your I Hear Voices podcast is incredible, and it’s been great hearing you be open about anxiety as well. What has been most rewarding about interviewing your other voice actors?
My favorite thing. It’s not just about interviewing them. It’s about what’s kind of happening in the industry right now, and that finally, voiceover actors are starting to become rock stars. As well they should, because there are women and men in this industry that are some of the best actors in the industry, period. I don’t care what medium you’re talking about, they are the best, and going to these conventions now and seeing that some of the longest lines are for anime actors, are for video game actors, are for animation actors. It really validates what we’ve all been doing for decades now. So to be able to shine a little bit of a spotlight on them for I Hear Voices is great. And coming off of Rob Paulsen’s incredible show “Talking Toons,” we wanted to kind of pick up the torch if we could because he did so much to put the spotlight on voiceover actors and we just wanted to keep that going.
You probably don’t get asked a ton about Rogue Galaxy, but you voiced the main character in that and that’s become a cult favorite over time, it’s still available to download. What stood out about recording that game?
It was one of those things, you get an audition and then you go in, and you never know what it’s going to be, and playing Jaster was a ton of fun and [I] just wasn’t expecting it to sustain as much as it has. We worked hard on that game. We did … I think it was like 20 sessions to get that finished, and we were really putting our all into it. So, you know, very exciting, and again, I’ll be at these conventions and I’ll be signing. People will come up and have copies of Rogue Galaxy. So it’s cool to see something that has the longevity.
My last question, I wanted to end on a fun one. When you’re making a big decision, who are you more likely to hear as your shoulder angel of your consciousness? Is it Feeny or is it Kevin Conroy’s Bruce?
Wow, great question! The actual answer is my wife, but honestly, it would depend on what we’re talking about. Just because I started at 16 years old, I’m hard-pressed not to hear Bill Daniels in my head. So Mr. Feeny kind of gets stuck in there, as opposed to Kevin Conroy is in my head when I’m walking around and I just hear, “you can clean up the city.” I know that I can’t, so yeah, it’s Bill Daniels who tends to my conscious.
