ComingSoon spoke with Teen Titans Go! star Tara Strong about the newly-released crossover film Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, where she voices three main characters, plus her roles in Metal Gear Solid and more.
In Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, the Teen Titans and DC Super Hero Girls must team up to battle Lex Luthor and his Legion of Doom as they enact a plan that could defeat even the Justice League.
Tyler Treese: A few actors have worked on both shows, but this movie had to be super special for you having main roles on both. How special was it to see these two worlds collide?
Tara Strong: It was so special. Don’t you think it was a special movie? It was so much fun. It was really funny. It had a lot of heart, a lot of magic, a lot of fun. I mean, I laughed a lot watching this movie and you’re right. To be able to play Raven in such an important role in the world of Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go! to play her is such a treat. And then of course, to play Batgirl is like the biggest honor. Oh, and then you get to play Harley Quinn too, which is another big honor. All these super intricate characters, you get to play them at funny stages in their lives right now, and at teenage stages in their life, and these funny stages and teenage stages go together in this movie to create a pretty entertaining adventure. It’s pretty fun to see them get together.
Speaking of emotional moments, Raven has a great scene with Zatanna that I thought was a real highlight in the film. What was it like to really share a moment there?
What I loved about that moment. I love, love in this movie, the elements when they’re with the Teen Titans Go!, or the moments that Teen Titans Go! are featured. I laughed every single time. I think it’s almost like every movie now needs to be intercut with Teen Titans Go! so that people laugh, it was just so great. AIn the moment where Zatanna is feeling very insecure, because she didn’t get them where she was supposed to go. Raven is there to make her understand she’s not alone, and that’s everything about Raven. Raven as a character has saved lives around the world with people feeling alone. Like no one is like me or no one wants to meditate or no one wants to read or whatever it is.
I’ve had so many people saying, “I love Raven. I relate to her so much,” so to play Raven on Go!, which is like a really fun, silly world, and to have people love that version too is really exciting. Then for her to need her in her intelligence from the other realm, right, where she’s saying, “Hey, I understand what it feels like to be tortured by a demon and want to be a good person.” It’s like a real moment of people who are still crying for season six, and I’m with you, and Go! sort of come together because she has this very real moment where she’s saying, “Do you think you just came here by accident? Or was it meant to be that I was here to teach you this lesson that’s going to save the day?” So it’s kind of this fun. That’s why multiverses are so fun when they’re really clever. It’s a clever little moment.
Batgirl is such a great leader for the DC Super Hero Girls. What has been your favorite aspect of Barbara to explore in the series?
Well, she’s a lot sillier than other versions and Lauren Faust really had that vision for her, which surprised me initially. But it’s been fun to embrace the lighter side of her. I certainly played her in a more real world in the original Batman series. So it’s been fun. It’s been fun to explore her as a quirky teenager.
With that said, this show’s also been particularly fun because we explore the relationship with her and Harley, which is so conflicted and challenging because really, one works for the good guys and one works for the bad guys, and to see how they interact with each other while navigating high school and very real emotions alongside with very real-world consequences that could end the planet. It’s just been a really, really special time to play both of them back-to-back exploring this part of their friendship and seeing how much they love each other. And they have to navigate this thing that really divides them.
We see a lot of plot development with Harley Quinn in this film. Can you speak to her arc and growth during the series?
Well. It was really cool because in the beginning, you think she’s over it with her, and to have that empathy still in her and to remember what this person means to her and what that person’s world means to her and not wanting to hurt that and having second thoughts about these people who she’s now devoted her life to, it was really interesting to have her just show up and you think, “Oh, oh, there is still a good person in there,” which is probably true for all bad guys. There’s somewhere in there is a good person. It’s nice to see that Harley shows up for Batgirl in that way.
You’re also voicing Harley Quinn in MultiVersus, which is such a fun idea with all of the wild crossovers. I imagine that the recording sessions for that are a blast?
So much fun. I just have so much fun. I got to tell you yesterday, I did a game with her and it was four hours straight. Sometimes with other games you can get cranky, because it’s like, even if you’re not doing a hundred death sounds, talk for four hours straight, it gets you tired. But I never get cranky with Harley. I’m like, “What is she going to do next?” She’s just like therapy for me. We get to scream. We get to be crazy. We get to be vulnerable. Every time I’m playing her, no matter what world she’s in, it’s just fun.
My favorite video game series is Metal Gear, and you wonderfully voiced Paz. So what was your reaction when you found out about the whole scene with the bombs being embedded with her?
A lot of times at Comic-Cons people will bring me a Paz thing to sign and they’ll be like, “It’s so sad how she died.” I don’t know if this is a PG interview or not, but I will have to explain to my handler how she dies. It’s like, really sad and strange, tragic, anyways, but she was a great character to play. She was a great character to dive into in terms of her life story. I had a really good time voicing her.
I believe you did facial capture for that as well. Is that something you do often? How was that experience?
I would say often, yeah, not all the time, but the technology on that moves very quickly. Like, you could have done one six months ago and now, the way they do it is totally different. A lot of it is based on like, painting little silver dots on your face, and then there’s a camera and there’s a light. I think the most challenging thing is to have a light right in your face while you’re looking at the script and then trying to be in the moments. That’s the only real challenge, it’s not uncomfortable. It’s fun to be able to give animators that much to play with.
You already have such a huge fanbase and you recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the voice of Miss Minutes. That character has really grown into a life of its own. How wild has that reaction been because as far as fandom goes there’s nothing quite like the MCU?
I know. I was really surprised. First of all, when I booked it, I didn’t even know what it was. It was very top secret. And I was actually shooting an on-camera series in Toronto, and I voiced it from like, my makeshift closet in Toronto, and I got on the Zoom and it was like all these Marvel people. I was like, “Wow.,” and I found out exactly what it was and they already had it prerecorded. So I got to act off the scenes on Zoom. So I was with [Tom] Hiddleston but not quite. It was so beautifully shot that I think I knew it was going to be special, but I still didn’t know how people were going to react to this very beloved franchise to suddenly having an animated character. Before it even came out, they said, “Don’t comment on it.” And of course, the internet sees the commercials and are like, “This is Tara Strong!” and I’m like, “I am not allowed to respond yet.” Thankfully, once I was allowed to respond, it was pretty fun. The love for that character’s been so hilarious and rewarding and it’s super fun to be a part of the MCU. I get invited to other premieres. It’s fun.
It’s been so cool watching Teen Titans Go! really get embraced by fans after an initial backlash of it not being exactly like the old series. How has it been seeing that growth? Now you have plenty of old fans enjoying it and then a whole new generation as well.
It’s really exciting, and I meet fans at Comic-Cons all the time, where the family’s cosplaying the entire Teen Titans and they all love Go! And you know, you’re right, initially, there was this backlash, and it’s because the show was left on a really pivotal story arc. I get that everyone wants Season 6, and so do all the actors. I think it would be genius to do both at the same time. They’re two different shows, they’re completely different shows. So I think people initially were just more disappointed that it wasn’t the continuation of what they were expecting, but not actual hatred for the show because it’s always been pretty great. It’s pretty funny. So to see the fans embracing it now is super rewarding because we are all the same people and we all still exude all the same love in the room, except that we laugh a lot. So we’re pretty happy that people are laughing with us now, too.
You’re also voicing Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, where you get to be more violent and mature. How has it been getting to play all these different sides of her?
I’m just the luckiest girl. It’s so much fun. It just really is, it’s just so much fun. Every time I open a script and it has Harley on it or Batgirl, or Raven, it’s just fun, you know? And to explore them in different universes. We’ve been multiverse with these characters before they created these movies that are so fun to watch, and this one is really fun too.
