ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths star Elysia Rotaru about her role in the trilogy of animated movies. Rotaru discussed voicing Black Canary, Black Canary II, and Young Wonder Woman in the film, how it helped starring in Justice Society; World War II, and more. Part Three is available now digitally and is out on 4K and Blu-ray on July 23.
“Now fully revealed as the ultimate threat to existence, the ANTI-MONITOR wages an unrelenting attack on the surviving Earths that struggle for survival in a pocket universe. One-by-one, these worlds, and all their inhabitants are vaporized! On the planets that remain, even time itself is shattered, and heroes from the past join the Justice League and their rag-tag allies against the epitome of evil. But as they make their last stand, will the sacrifice of the superheroes be enough to save us all?” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: You previously played Black Canary in Justice Society: World War II. So how helpful was it getting that film in before this big blow-off here, which is such an event?
Elysia Rotaru: Oh man, it was a godsend ’cause I feel like figuring her out through World War II was the best thing ever. I think it was pretty well received with everybody as well. So having come back for these guys was just that much more fun because I had no idea. So it’s always a beautiful thing when you get a call.
In Crisis, you’re voicing two versions of Black Canary, and the one is much older. How is it finding these slight alterations in the character and finding that mother-daughter relationship?
Well, it was kind of trippy because I was like, “What does she look like? Am I haggard? Is she a smoker now? Like, what’s going on?” She still looked super hot, so I was like, okay, we don’t wanna put too much edge on her. But I think it wasn’t too farfetched from where I think Black Canary was emotionally sitting. We just wanted to put a little bit more texture into her voice.
Obviously, that scene where they’re kind of saying goodbye to each other just laid down the emo vibes. It wasn’t hard to do for me because I have a child now. Tapping into that energy was pretty swift. Yeah, it was just weird. I’ve never got to do that before, playing against yourself like that.
I was so curious about that because you have this very emotional moment, but you’re acting off yourself. That doesn’t happen that often.
I know, I know. I had to literally think of my kid, like I had to just put her in the position there and pretend that I was piecing out. But yeah, we did record it like voice print back to back, like character, back to back, I guess. That was a saving grace.
You’ve had this really cool relationship with a DC because you were in some Smallville episodes, you were on Arrow. How cool is it being in this many corners of DC’s legacy on, on TV and film? You’re always popping up.
You really creeped me deep. Good old Smallville from back in the day. Yeah. That’s awesome. That was one of my first credits, so that’s insane. I never really thought about it that way, so it’s kind of enlightening to have someone say that to me. Wow. Honestly, I’ve never really thought about it, so thank you for bringing that to the forefront of my brain. I guess it’s a really beautiful thing, and it makes me feel that much more grateful throughout the span of my career to be able to tap into all these characters in the same world. Thank you for that.
When you get a role like Black Canary, what does your prep kind of consist of? Were you reading a lot of comics? Because it’s so easy to go down these comic wiki rabbit holes, and there are just so many iterations of the characters. I could see there being almost an overload of information where it doesn’t become helpful. How do you find that balance?
Yes. I am a deep diver, so if I go too deep, I spiral into a form of nothing, and then nothing helps me. But what I do like to do is do my research and just see. For me, it’s the animation over the years; how are they being projected and drawn? What are the fans saying? Things like that. Then it makes me curious to see how my art will be. Then, of course, I like to look at the voice actors who have done that role in the past so that I know particularly… Like if I go into the booth and someone has a reference and if they’re like, “Do not sound like this actor,” I’ll be like, “Okay, copy.” I get that. But I also just like it to be organic on the day with the team. I like to be bossed around in person or just bestowed on my vision, and we collaborate in the booth. That’s always the fun part.
That’s very interesting that you do look up the prior versions because I’ve seen people talk about it both ways where they don’t wanna sound like they’re doing an impression of past people, so they stay away from it. So can you speak to that process?
Yeah. I’d just like to know, like, let’s say the last rendition of her. I’d like to know where it lived, if it was for a movie, if it was for TV live action, who is directing, and what’s the tone. For me, it’s always about finding the tone to create the play space. Sometimes, you don’t get to know the tone of the script when they send it to you. You get to figure out the tone when you’re in the room with the director live. But I like to understand the past just so that I know if there are more technical references. Because I’ve had experiences in my career where people would be like, “Oh yeah, and when this actress did this for this role…” I’m just like, “Oh. Like I didn’t do my research.”
I like to do my research just to be informed, not for performance, but just for my conversational cinephile-ness, you know what I mean? So that if there’s like a moment in the room, I’m not standing there like a moron. I like to know what’s happening because these people have been doing it for years and have been part of this for years probably. But it’s just nice to be on the same page of conversation with people, and then technically, like performance and creatively, I like to be pushed to the ranges that I have available, and the directors I think that I work with know that. So we just try to see what we can put out, and I like to give them different flavors of things until we kind of figure out what works, and then that’s that.
I was curious, being in the booth so much and focusing purely on your vocal performance, has that kind of helped your live-action performance and vice versa? Or are they kind of different sections for you?
You know what, it’s totally different lanes. If anything, they kind of have conflicts sometimes, if I’m being honest, because I filmed a movie last year, for example, and I’m very, very blessed to have the career I have. So it’s always a logistical thing, right? So it’s like, okay, I’m on set filming this. I have a 14-hour day. I can come home, and then I can jump in my studio and record afterward. But will that work for people? Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t.
I hate to say it, and I’m not saying this to be a negative Nancy, it’s not like the voiceover work that I put forward really spawns more on-camera work if that’s kind of where you’re angling. I feel it’s almost the other way around. I feel like if you have a more physical presence on screen live-action-wise, you might get more opportunities in the booth, perhaps.
Thanks to Elysia Rotaru for discussing her roles of Black Canary, Black Canary II, and Young Wonder Woman in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.
