Kevin Conroy: To tell the truth, after reading the original script, I really went to audition for the character voices - like Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Like most actors, I really love to be challenged, and I thought they'd be more interesting and really push me. And then Bruce (Timm) and Andrea (Romano) said they wanted to hear me do Batman.

The only exposure I'd had was the campy Adam West live-action series, and they said that wasn't what they wanted. So I put myself into a very dark place in my voice, and my voice got deeper and darker and huskier, and it came out very mysterious. I really just took a stab at what I thought the voice would be, and then I saw Bruce and Andrea and Paul (Dini) running around the booth, so I knew I either was very good or very bad.

That's how it started -- just me in a sound booth, them on the other side of the glass describing the character, and then the voice just came out of my imagination. And it worked. So initially I was much more interested in doing the character voices, but luckily they talked me into Batman.

Q: Do you require a certain mindset to approach the voice of Batman?

Kevon Conroy: There's an emotional place I go to - Bruce (Timm) says he see it in me in the booth. It's much more a psychology than just producing the sound. Batman is very complex. The Bruce Wayne voice is the real put-on. This is a guy who saw his parents murdered in front of him, and nobody would be normal and together after that. He feels like a freak inside. So to do the voice, you have to take on all that drama.

That's why everyone relates to Batman - because everyone feels like a freak inside. Everyone has ghosts that they don't want to show anyone else. All of us feel like we have that inside us. For me, that's one of the most interesting aspects of the character - that a super hero would ultimately be based on that inner-freak that we all feel that we have.

Q: In your mind, what's special about playing Batman?

Kevin Conroy: I think what I didn't anticipate about voicing Batman was the fact that I was playing an icon - I just didn't take into account how much Batman meant to so many people. Coming from a very conservative background, and not having extensive exposure to comic books and the character, it just never occurred to me. So in the beginning, I only thought of it as an acting job.

Q: And now … you're an icon in the Batman universe?

Kevin Conroy: I'm always flattered that people actually know who the voices are. It seems to me such an anonymous job. But periodically, somebody recognizes me - it happened in a furniture store recently. To me, that's truly amazing - first that someone knows who does the voice, and it's even more amazing that someone would know the face of the voice.

I think a lot of the reason that I'm so linked to Batman is because I've been doing it for so long. Before "Batman: The Animated Series," there really hadn't been a voice aside from Adam West. People knew Batman from the campy live action series, and the fans knew the Dark Knight comic books, but there hadn't been a voice associated with the character, and certainly not a dramatic voice.

I think I just lucked out because I was the one who started with it, and people grew up with that voice.