by Ed Fortune
Robbie Daymond is an American voice actor who has played iconic roles such as Peter Parker, Crow in Persona 5 Royal, and Glithunder in The Seven Deadly Sins. He is perhaps best known as the actor behind Dorian Storm, the errant bard from hit streaming show, Critical Role. In the latest DC Animated super-hero movie, Legion of Super-Heroes, he portrays both Brainiac and Timber Wolf. We caught up with Robbie to find out more…
STARBURST: How would you describe the movie Legion of Super-Heroes to an elderly but beloved relative?
Robbie Daymond: [Laughs] Let’s see… I would say “hey, great-grandmother, you remember who Superman is?” And if she says “yes”, “okay, good, good, good. He’s got a cousin who’s a nice young lady. And she’s got all these powers and all of this potential ahead of her. And she’s given the opportunity to become as great a superhero as her older cousin. But she’s got a long way to go to find that path. And she might just have to travel to the future to do it…” And hopefully that would give Grandma a spoiler-free idea of what she’s getting into!
How did you get cast as Timber Wolf for this project?
It was just a regular audition. So I gave it a few takes. We get some limited information – obviously, a lot of it is, is hidden, so there are no leaks or anything like that. I sent in my best three tapes. And they must have liked one of them. So they brought me in!
How familiar were you with Brainiac and Timber Wolf for this role?
Really I wasn’t. I’m actually pretty familiar with the DC universe, but some of my knowledge is going to be dated. I’m not quite as avid a reader as I used to be, so I had to go back and look up what this was. And then I got into it. I read some of the backstory stuff about the character and then asked questions – like when in the timeline this transpired? Is this an Elseworld? What’s actually happening here? I read enough to familiarise myself but didn’t go deep enough to where I wasn’t able to take direction once I found out how the film would interpret that.
How different is playing a character like Timber Wolf in Legion of Super-Heroes from a more improv-heavy role such as Dorian Storm in Critical Role? Which one do you feel closest to?
Oh, I don’t think there could be more disparate sort of characters. Dorian is very insecure and uncertain, or at least that’s where he started. I feel like he’s grown a bit from then. Timber Wolf is a grizzled veteran who’s very comfortable and capable of being in charge of people. You know, it’s funny, I don’t think I’m like either. I think if I were like personalising it, which I don’t tend to do with characters, I think more of a Timber Wolf guy because I’m really good in emergency situations. I’m a dad. I enjoy being in charge of things. And that’s the reason why I chose to play Dorian – I wanted to explore what it felt like to be insecure and uncertain and he can still be charismatic while having stage fright. Yeah, very different characters, but equally enjoyable for different reasons.
If you got to do more DC roles, what sort of characters – hero or villain – would you like to play?
I’m not built to play one of my favourite DC villains, which is Doomsday. I know the guys that are built like that. I know what voice that requires. I don’t know, give me like a teenage Doomsday, maybe [laughs]. But seriously, I really love the gallery of villains in the DC universe. That’d be a tough one. As far as heroes go, I really want to play Animal Man. Do you know this character?
Yes, we’re big fans of Animal Man over at STARBURST Towers, especially Grant Morrison’s Coyote Gospel story and Jamie Delano’s classic Flesh & Blood.
Well, my idea for it would be I would love to play like the first few episodes with that sort of cheesy Booster Gold-like fun cop. And I just remember one of the covers is like Buddy and a chimpanzee in the buddy cop pose. It’s so ridiculous! And then have a turn after the first few episodes and do the stuff from the 2011 run with all the really dark body horror stuff. I think that would just be a really intriguing sort of mature audience version of that character. That could be really cool.
What’s the next big thing that you’re excited about? That you’re allowed to talk to us about, at least…
You know, voice actors are a couple of years behind everything. I’ve got a lot of stuff coming out. Video games. Animation, obviously. I’m excited about the Legion of Super-Heroes. I’m a huge fan, so I can’t wait to have it in my collection. And then I’ve got a pretty good run on One Piece. I’ve always wanted to do One Piece. It’s obviously iconic. I’ve got a couple of AAA video games that’ll drop sometime over the summer. And then other more secret stuff that I’m working on… the cheeky answer is that I’m gonna strap on a mocap suit in about a month’s time, so watch out for that!
What’s the worst bit of video game work? Is it the yelling? The repeating of the lines?
I really enjoy it all! The team is good, and 99% of the time, I really enjoy video game work because the repeating of the line part of it is actually really fun for me because you only have to get it right once. And I love how capable of creating magic you are, especially in heavily narrative beats video games. The hardest part is the yelling, though, yes. Absolutely. Say a prayer for my vocal cords!
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES is out now to rent/buy digitally, and is also available on DVD/Blu-ray!