Ben Affleck is the latest among a number of actors who have played Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, in movies and on television. Kevin Conroy, who voiced the character in dozens of animated projects, thinks Affleck balances the alter-egos – the wealthy playboy/philanthropist/business owner and the crime-fighting vigilante – better than all the rest.
At San Diego Comic-Con International, an interviewer from CBR asked Conroy whether he kept up with the other depictions of Batman. In response, he joked that if there were “other Batmen”, he wasn’t aware of them. Humor aside, he added that he’d watched all of the other versions of the character and loved the different interpretations:
You know, I thought it was weird when Warner Bros. didn't give the franchise to one actor when they first started doing the films. You just assumed they were going to cast a Batman, and he was going to carry the whole franchise. But then when I saw the different ones – Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, [George Clooney], and Christian Bale – all the different takes, this was really smart, because each actor does it so differently. And I love seeing all the different takes.
At this point, Conroy explained that certain actors played the Bruce Wayne alter-ego more effectively, and others played the Batman alter-ego more effectively. He had this to say about Affleck:
I think some of them get Bruce Wayne more than they get Batman, and some of them get Batman more than they get Bruce Wayne. I think Ben Affleck has probably gotten the best balance of the two. He's a really good Bruce Wayne and a really good Batman.
There's been a lot of drama recently over Affleck's future as the Caped Crusader in the DC Extended Universe. But for now, it's safe to assume that the actor is going nowhere, at least until Matt Reeves' The Batman, in which we would love to see a cameo from Conroy. The actor had previously expressed interest in the possibility.
