In the animated adaptation of Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One, actor Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Jupiter’s Legacy) played Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent. But in the upcoming second chapter, Duhamel finally transforms into Two-Face, one of the Dark Knight’s most infamous foes. We got to chat with Duhamel about his transition from Batman’s ally into one of his greatest rogues of all time.
Nerdist: Playing Harvey Dent is really playing two people, two different roles. Given the nature of who he is, how did you create the character? Or characters, actually.
Josh Duhamel: Harvey Dent is a guy who’s kind of a slow burn. We got to see this internalized beast bubbling up [in Batman: The Long Halloween Part One]. As for finding who Two-Face is though, it took me a minute to figure out exactly what this guy even sounded like. There’s a lot that went into that.
Warner Bros. Animation
Nerdist: There have been lots of great iterations of Harvey over the years, like Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight. And of course Richard Moll in Batman: The Animated Series. Did you let yourself get inspired by any previous Two-Faces, or did you try to do something totally different and put those out of your mind?
Duhamel: I was just trying to do my own thing with it. It’s kind of difficult doing things like this because you’re playing a guy also played by many great actors before you. If you try to take from them, you’re just sort of copying. I didn’t really watch any of that previous stuff, to be honest. I just thought about what I believed [Harvey] was going through. The story was really well laid out. So much of it was just about how he became who he was. It wasn’t just Harvey, and then Two-Face. There was that evolution into Two-Face.
Nerdist: Fans see the original graphic novel of The Long Halloween as the definitive Two-Face origin story. No one has really ever topped it. Did you feel any pressure to do justice to that character’s most celebrated story?
Warner Bros. Animation
Duhamel: I didn’t really know that! My son might have known that. He’s a big Batman fan. I really loved the style. I just read the script for The Long Halloween and thought it was really good. But I really had no idea [about the comic]. And you just never really know how these things are going to turn out. But then I watched it, I thought they did a really good job of capturing a tone. And making it feel scary and dangerous and adult. This isn’t something I would probably show my [eight-year-old] son.
Nerdist: Unlike other versions of Harvey Dent we’ve seen in the past, this version is a married man. How do you think having Gilda (Julie Nathanson) to play off of made your Harvey different from all the other interpretations we’ve seen?
Duhamel: He’s married, but it wasn’t exactly a perfect marriage. There was trouble there. And I don’t really know if the trouble is just because Harvey was a workaholic, or she sensed that there was something else going on. There was definitely something there that either made him snap, or he made her snap. But it was far from a perfect marriage, and I think that’s what made it interesting. Many troubled times between those two. The inability to make that marriage work is maybe part of the reason for everything.
Warner Bros. Animation
Nerdist. Two-Face plays a big part in The Long Halloween sequel, Dark Victory. Would you have any interest in returning, should they move forward with another chapter?
Duhamel: I’d love to. I love this entire team too. They’re so inclusive, and they’re really fun to work with. As an actor, you always feel like they’ve really got your back.
Nerdist: A lot of times, voice actors really find their character right there in the recording booth. Did you have a favorite moment when recording Harvey’s lines?
Duhamel: It was when I first found the [Two-Face] voice. Because it took us a while. I wanted to make it sound like his vocal cords were really damaged after what happened to him. After the acid was thrown at his face. Add in his already duplicitous nature, and the evolution of that, discovering all of that was fun.
Warner Bros. Animation
Nerdist: Jensen Ackles played Red Hood in a different Batman movie before he played Batman in this project. If you got the chance to come back as a different Batman character for another film, who would you like it to be?
Duhamel: Well, I want to play Batman! He’s my favorite superhero. He’s always been my favorite. But I don’t know if anyone will ever top Will Arnett in The LEGO Batman Movie.
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two is available on digital on July 27, and on Blu-ray on August 10.
