DC FanDome: Harley Quinn Recap

Drop the kiddies off at the DC KidsVerse and head over to the Harley Quinn panel. The hilarious voice cast of Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Ron Funches, Matt Oberg, and Alan Tudyk will join executive producers Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, Dean Lorey, and supervising producer Jennifer Coyle to break down the most f@#king outrageous moments of the show. #Harlivy Forever!

First off, host Shea Sherrano asks the voice actors how they got involved with the series.

Kaley Cuoco:

Cuoco: Um… So, this all started for me when I started my production company. Once I saw the first script, I couldn’t believe, it was so funny. I thought, “Oh, my God, this could be live action.” When I met with the guys, they were kind of telling me how they wanna do it and their vision for it. And I thought right away, This is gonna be the start of something huge.

Lake Bell:

Bell: When I first heard about the project, I was really jazzed. I had been aware of Poison Ivy and… In general, I tend to be obsessed. I mean, like, categorically obsessed
with the idea of doing voice-over work. I mean, it’s the most sort of freeing medium for an actor. And, so, I’ve always been, you know… But being drawn towards an idea… I like the idea of making her, you know, the tone that these guys had presented. What the [bleeping] nuts with the can? Oh, my God, I wasn’t even sure I wanted a backless dress, and now I’m stuck with it. You can use all kinds of profanity.

Ron Funches:

Funches: I worked with Patrick, Dean and Justin, and Alan on a show, previously, called Powerless, which was a funny show set in a DC Universe that didn’t have superheroes. And people were like, “We don’t like that.” So, they were like, “We’re gonna try it again, but with superheroes this time.” And then they were like, “We want you to come in and be King Shark and just be yourself. And when he gets angry, just, you know, let that anger out.”

Matt Oberg:

Oberg: I was bitten by the bug real early. Justin and I met through, like, a “Parent and me” class. We both had the same sort of attitude about like, “Are we happy to be here or miserable?” It was hard to tell. But then he called me and was like, “Hey, would you want to do this?” I was like, “Of course.” And I… I recorded an audition and Justin was like, “No, no, no, do the character from…” I did this bit on 30 Rock. He was like, “Just do that.” I was like, “Oh, okay.” And then I did my, like, jerk voice. Which is not that different from my real voice and they were like, “Okay, great.”

Alan Tudyk:

Tudyk: I think you guys called me and said, “Hey, we want you to play Clayface.” And that it was a great, very exciting, uh… you know, a bad actor. Bravo! What magnificent word choice. You are truly the Shakespeare of the sea. And they said… Also, they were casting for the Joker and asked if I had a Joker voice. I said, “I don’t know, I’ll try.” And… Then we got off the phone and I think I just recorded it in the next 10 minutes.

Halpern: And then, everybody, we were all in the writers’ room, and everybody was like, “Well, he’s both those.”

Next up, the cast and crew start answering fan questions!

Kiteman said he deserves the best. If it’s not Ivy, who’s the best for him?

Bell: Whoo. I think that what’s interesting about relationships is that I don’t know if there’s just one person for each person in the world. Controversial, but I’m just… I would assume that Kite Man has a love for him. And I think that Ivy is one version. But let’s be honest, her heart is split.

Oberg: I think Kite Man’s open to whatever arrangement is available. This is like a polyamorous thing. You know, that’s fine. That’s fine.

How do you approach reality and absurdism in a show like this? Do you start by saying there are simply no rules?

Coyle: So, it’s just a matter of figuring out… I’m trying to honor what these records are. The inflection and the acting, and everything. And try to capture all of the manic energy, and then we take it one step further. Can we push Harley to be crazier?

Kaley, is voicing Harley fun? And if so, what’s your favorite part about voicing her?

Cuoco: Like I said, it’s been an absolute blast. I spend, you know, an hour and a half, two hours in the booth screaming and going absolutely ballistic and being just crazy, and trying things I never thought I would try. Cussing and just being outrageous. I don’t see what’s more fun than that. It’s really been thrilling. And like we were saying earlier, I can’t believe they let us do this. Like, I said the same thing you did when I first read the script. I’m like, “We can’t say this.” And we do and we keep saying it. And people are really… They’re really into it.

How was the experience of playing with such beloved DC characters in such a fun way but at the same time being respectful to their core?

Tudyk: It’s a blast. It’s cool to get to play the Joker who does… Cussing as the Joker seems, like, natural. That’s a natural marriage that the Joker would have foul language. In addition to just the salty language, there is, um… great superhero battles, and I don’t know. It reminds me… It echoes some of the superhero shows I’ve watched. Cartoons that I watched as a kid. It’s so many things at once. It’s a blast.

How does it make you feel that so many people connect with Harley and Ivy’s relationship?

Cuoco: It is unusual, because we’re not in the room together, and so we kind of like fall in love with each other through this weird virtual experience. It is amazing to have that back and forth and not be together… for all of us. Like, the show plays as if we’re all in the same room. It’s pretty impressive that we’re all there together, and none of us have really ever even done that with each other. So, it’s pretty impressive how it ends up. Ultimately, they’re just all about family.

How did you guys come up with your portrayals of Clayface and King Shark?

Funches: For me, it’s just a lot of… I’m lucky that they let me play around a lot and have a lot of fun. They were very much just, like, “We want you to be yourself.” He’s a very grounded, very intelligent, very charming young man who bites people’s heads off. That’s me. I get that.

Tudyk: With Clayface, he gets to become… That’s his greatest power, that he can turn into anybody or anything. And I love that he finally shows that he has this incredible power by the end of Season 2.

What made you decide to depict Bane in this specific and unique kind of way and what inspired his design?

Lorey: I think we all, initially, kind of together came up with the idea of we wanted to do sort of a spin on Tom Hardy in Dark Knight Rises.

Halpern: I do remember one moment when Shane Glines, who’s a brilliant character designer, so talented. We were designing Bane. You remember this? And then he brings us this drawing of Bane and it was perfect. I was like, “What went into this drawing?” He was like, “Well, I just feel like Bane is a guy who doesn’t work out his legs.”

Is Harley Quinn coming back for a third season? And if so, what’s the possibility of including Punchline?

Coyle: The answer is, I hope so. I don’t personally know about Punchline. Whether she should be involved or not. I just literally met the lady.

Halpern: We want to focus on Harley and Ivy’s relationship. And I’m personally less interested in if the Joker gets a new girlfriend, that I am just like let’s explore this relationship that just… we’ve spent two seasons building.

Matt, what happens to Kite Man in Season 3?

Oberg: Um, well, a lot. I think that at the end of the day, that’s really up to me. That’s kind of my call. I don’t know. Maybe… Who’s this Punchline? Is she cool? Is she sort of, you know…

What have been your individual favorite tiny moments that we will never see or never get to hear about?

Cuoco: Oh, gosh, um… There’s been… Just realizing how funny these damn writers are and how brilliant some of these actors are and hearing their… I mean, how Alan can go from this… King Shark, the best character. What you do is so brilliant. Lakey, it’s so funny not seeing her and not working with her. But when I see her in person, I feel like we’ve been… I’m like, “Hey, babe.” I feel like we’ve been shooting for years together, you know? We’re dating, we’re definitely dating. Yeah, there’s definitely something there.

Bell: There’s something therapeutic about going in the booth and just… Nobody’s looking at you. You know, you have this incredible freedom to just be really raw.

Funches: I love the art style, because I grew up loving Batman: The Animated Series and have people tell me how much they love this portrayal of King Shark. People be asking like, how do you come up with this, when it is just literally me being myself, which when in my teens and early 20s, was not met with much acclaim.

Oberg: As actors, we’re all working towards a catchphrase. That’s really the goal. I’m so blessed that I have one.

Bell: Can you give us a “Hell, yeah” just for…

Oberg: Let’s see, is Kite Man here? Hell, yeah! That’s been really fun. Just to say the same thing over and over again in a stupid voice. So, it’s been great.

Tudyk: I particularly loved in Season 2… um, Poison Ivy’s and Harley’s, their relationship. They’re coming together and that they just kept accidentally getting together. The morning after, when they would wake up and realize they’ve done it again.

Tudyk: The cuss words strung together… Those were beautiful. Those were well done. Well done, ladies. That’s a lot in the booth. Yeah, I had never heard those words put together in that order before.

Coyle: I love it that every time I read a script… It’s a real rarity to just laugh all the way through it. It’s as if we get this audio track with this amazing cast to laugh all the way through that. And I know that I speak for not just myself, but a lot of the artists on the crew, designers, storyboard artists, after-effects… This is the best thing we’ve ever worked on.

Lorey: I’ve never had a show where every department inspired every other department as much as on this show. And, you know, as writers, we write, and then we get the performances back, and they were so uniformly brilliant, that it was inspiring to the writers.

Schumacker: My favorite scene in the whole show is probably that Legion of Doom board room scene. They’re just pitching on ideas, and I just thought that was like the distillation of the writers’ room in cartoon form. The scene in Bane’s Pit where they’re escaping, nd it’s right before they kiss and kind of have… and Ivy and Harley have this monolog.</i>

Halpern: And I think all those little tiny moments, like what Lake was talking about earlier, those are my favorite things in the show.