Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch is set to voice Harley Quinn in the new DC animated movie Batman and Harley Quinn.
The New Harley Quinn
Rauch is best known as her role on Big Bang Theory as Bernadette Rostenkowski*Wolowitz. She will be joined by Batman: The Animated Series alums Kevin Conroy as Batman and Loren Lester as Nightwing. Rauch talks about why she loves Harley as a character:
“I love that Harley is a badass and, beyond that, that she uses her humor as another weapon in her arsenal. She knows just how to diffuse a situation with her humor, and how to incite a situation with her sarcasm. It’s a dream role.”
In the original Batman: The Animated Series, Harley was famously voiced by Arleen Sorkin. While Sorkin is not a part of this upcoming animated movie, Rauch is up to the task to fill the role Sorkin created 20 years ago. Rauch discusses the process to voice Harley.
“I knew Harley had a higher pitched tone, and a bit of a New York accent — and I come from a New Jersey family where everyone could be former gun molls. So I wanted to give a nod to my background without being as shrill. In all honesty, I used to speak exactly like that — my acting school professors really worked the accent out of me. So it was fun to find those tones and accent again.”
BTAS Returns?
Batman and Harley Quinn will be executive produced by Bruce Timm. The direct-to-home feature will also maintain Timm’s animated style from The New Adventures of Batman. It will showcase the dynamic duo and Harley teaming up to stop Poison Ivy and the Plant Master’s plot.
Paget Brewster of Criminal Minds voices Poison Ivy and will be joined by John DiMaggio, Eric Bauza, Rob Paulsen, Robin Atkin Downes, Mindy Sterling, and Trevor Devall.
It is unknown whether the movie is a continuation of the BTAS continuity or not. However, Lester let fans know that there will be similarities and differences.
“So many fans have asked when there will be another Batman: The Animated Series, and this film really captures that sensibility and essence that people loved about the original series. That makes perfect sense when you know Bruce Timm was at the helm of both. The difference is we’re not restricted by the networks for this film, so we can take the story and characters in more mature areas, and explore more about them as three-dimensional human beings with human feelings and human desires that we often couldn’t explore in the series.”
Batman And Harley Quinn will be released this summer via digital download, Blu-ray and DVD.
