It’s a bird… It’s a plane… No, it’s Wes Gleason from “Justice League Action”!
GeekRockTV got the chance to speak to Wes Gleason, the voice director of “Justice League Action,” at WonderCon 2017. Gleason spoke very enthusiastically about the future for the show, stating, “I’m really excited about the characters we get to introduce in “Justice League Action” because there’s a lot of characters I think that are unknown to the mass audience, some deep in the archives in the DC Comic world.” (3:05)
Gleason was also shared that he got to work with celebrity voice guest actors, including Jon Cryer as Felix Faust and Mark Hamill as the Swamp Thing. Additionally, Gleason was thrilled to add Space Cabbie, voiced by Patton Oswalt, to the Justice League Action cast, as it is the first time Space Cabbie’s voice will be heard. Gleason emphasized that each directing voice actors is a collaborative effort amongst the team, crediting the actor for taking liberty with their role. While Gleason is enthusiastic about the new characters to the show, he also mentions the importance of recurring main characters by paying tribute to Batman, describing Batman’s critical role with maintaining humor throughout the show with his one-line dry humor quips.
Even though “Justice League Action” comes upon their third year on Cartoon Network, the cartoon’s excitement does not seem to be dead, unlike Batman’s parents. (Sorry, too soon?)
Host: Okay, so you’re here for Justice League Action. Can you give us a tease about what you all have been talking about on the panel today?
Wes: Yeah, I mean, I’m excited about the episodes they are gonna show everyone. There’s an episode of Booster Gold who gets a key to the watch tower into his own tour business to make a few dollars, so he brings some unexpected visitors… granny goodness, toy man and Joker makes an appearance. A lot of episodes we have are yet to be announced and they’re so many heroes and villains people haven’t heard yet so I’m excited about everything’s that yet to come.
Host: When I saw plastic man, I was like, “yes, finally…”
Wes: Dana Snider, I have to just bow and say thank you to him for I think…just because his exuberance in his performance, he’s just a talent.
Host: Are there any surprise special guest stars you can tell us that will be in the upcoming episodes?
Wes: Yeah, absolutely, we have our character, Mister Terrific, known hero in the Justice League… we’re also lucky to have Hannibal Buress voice in a couple episodes. The Riddler will be making an appearance in an episode, not too far from now… is Riddler trying to mend his ways and maybe falling back into old habits by the end of the episode.
Host: It seems like Riddler is having a good year, especially on Gotham – it’s just his year. Okay, so we hear about the 18-hour days on set but what’s it like in the Voice Over sessions?
Wes: Oh, wow, really good question. You know, it varies from episode to episode. We try to record as an ensemble for the most part so we can get all the actors together and more or less reacting to each other… but for any 11 minutes, we can spend around 2 hours on any given episode reading it over a couple times. But at that point, animation goes back to the team, even gets sent overseas, then gets sent back to us and it’s usually a nine-month process for that to happen. And we might have to bring the actors back for possible pick-ups and stuff like that so it’s very much a long process and to break it down to one show is very hard to define.
Host: Interesting. What advice do you have for people who want to go into voice over acting and want to pursue this as a profession? Is there anything in the meantime they should consider doing? Classes in the meantime?
Wes: Acting classes… first and foremost it’s about your acting chops and I think the techniques that are involved with Voice Over can be learned over time. But I would recommend you start your foundation as an actor and to obtain those skills first.
Host: Now, do they get brownie points if they’re like comic book nerds?
Wes: Well, brownie points… I mean I don’t know if it’s like that… As far as the familiarity with the characters that are in an episode, those things do carry some weight, sure.
San Diego 2017 | Cartoon Network | Justice League Action |
Host: Machelle Noel | Writer: Ariel Wei | Transcriber: Anissa Morgan
Date: Thursday – July 20, 2017 | Location: San Diego Convention Center
Ariel Wei | Writing Contributor
B.A | Communications | University of San Francisco
Yes, Ariel was named after the mermaid. And, no that is not her favorite princess (it’s Mulan, but Ariel is a close second). Other than liking most things Disney, Ariel also likes reading Young Adult novels (despite being way above the recommended reading age), eating the non-smelly type of papaya, Oxford Commas, and watching bad movies on Netflix with her friends. She is currently going into her third year of university as a Communication Studies major. Find her on LinkedIn @arielnwei | View My Blogs
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