Jason Spisak
Appearances
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Yes. And we talked about it actually. So not only was I putting it in, but this is a collaborative effort for everybody at Realm and DC and everybody who's put the time and effort and love into this love letter to the fans. It's very important to everyone who's in the booth with me.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And we didn't have these discussions like, well, he's in this room of people, you know, and he says, none of you are safe. Oh, wait, but he's in a room full of people. Should it be more projected than that? Yeah, but I don't know if he's that Batman-y yet. Okay, well, let's see. Let me try it this way. And so I am actually trying this and it's sort of like Cinderella's glass slipper.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
If you work on a project like this where it's iconic art, it's iconic writing, these stories are legend, you know when you hear a thing and it's right and it goes . It just fits in and you're like, okay, no, there. That's what it is. That fits in this space. You're never exactly sure where you're going to land in that moment. And there's lots of different ways to play it.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And you check in, you know, I check in with the folks at Realm and I check in, Mike from DC is there and Fred, our director from Realm and Rashaan. And it's just a beautiful team effort. And thankfully I'm not alone. Because if I was alone in this endeavor, alone in the booth, I have to tell you, I have a feeling that it wouldn't nearly be as good. Because the folks at Realm have this dialed in.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
They have a vision of what they want this to be. But it's a collaborative effort to kind of do that on purpose. Maybe he's unsure in this moment. And I don't think anyone's ever gotten that privilege. Because to me as an actor, that's a privilege to get those opportunities.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Well, it's all acting, I'll tell you that. And I think if I've done anything across my career, it's to try to ignore the medium as best as I can first. First and foremost, I'm part of a storytelling troop.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
I'm from a group of people who want to tell you the story, want to get you to feel where the character is and to disappear into that as best I can, that there's no more Jason, that's unimportant. What is it like to be in this story in this moment? But you can't completely ignore the fact that this is an immersive audio experience for a thing that already exists.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
We get to have... I don't know if anybody who's watching this or you remember radio plays, but there was this thing in the days of the golden age of radio where... that you would have this audio experience of what it was like. And prior to that, you were reading. You were either watching theatrical performances or you were reading books.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And when you're reading books, your imagination processes that and makes it real for yourself. But in an audio experience like this, you don't have the visual. So your imagination is on board in a completely different way. You're not reading the words, you're listening to the words and your imagination gears up in a completely different way and begins to paint these beautiful pictures for yourself
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
which I encourage people to, if you haven't read the comics, don't. Just listen to this immersive audio experience. It's its own genre that if you can give yourself over to it and enjoy it, your imagination will take you places. and then later grab the comics, you know, and flip through them with it as a second pass. I think it is its own medium in a way.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Yeah, you were saying that. Where it's just like, because you can viscerally hear the sounds of the motorcycle and it takes you to a place in your mind, you're making it real. It's like, I'm making this real. It's like the matrix. I'm making this real, you know? And our brains are participatory on a whole nother level when you're hearing it, when you're hearing it, you know?
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And again, the music is incredible. It marries to each moment.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
It blew me away. I mean, I can't say this enough. Like it's incredibly humbling and it's such a gift. because I love auditory experiences. I love that thing. I'm an audio guy. And so like, I really loved listening to it and hearing the city. When you read the comics, you don't hear Gotham. But when you listen to DC high volume Batman, you hear Gotham. You hear the train.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
I am super surrealed out by that intro because I was just thinking as you're going through those list of credits, I'm like, I don't know. Is that me? I'm just a fan. I just, I enjoy this. These are my heroes. What are you talking about? And then you're like, as Batman, oh man, that is such an incredible responsibility and a joy and a pleasure. So it is an incredible honor to be here.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
You hear the footsteps of people. When Bruce is going out to do his reconnaissance, you're hearing things in the alley and people screaming and a beer bottle getting kicked and all. You hear Gotham. Yeah. And you never got a chance to really hear Gotham. Yeah. And I don't want to take anything away from other mediums like cinema, but in this, you actually have moments where that's let breathe.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
You have moments in DC high volume where Gotham is a character auditorially. And that's beautiful. That's a really incredible thing that you get to. And it sits you right down in this world. It sits you right down where Bruce is going to be and have to do this really nearly impossible thing, you know?
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Yes. And I got to really live in Gotham. You are auditorily chewing your food. You're chewing your Batman stories. Which I so appreciate. One mouthful at a time.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
We were talking about that, how there are people who like true crime. And for the genre of podcasts of which this is, I would like to say, an evolution. I think DC High Volume Batman is an evolution of the podcast medium. Yeah. You have people who love the true crime podcast and you have people who love the fiction sort of narrative podcast, but haven't read the comics.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
That's not part of their lived history. So you get these folks who are, for them, these stories are going to be brand new. Yeah. They get to have that first time Batman what? Wasn't always Batman experience, you know, or like what? You know, and he's unsure of himself. What? You know, and I think that is such a gift to anybody who goes and grabs this on their, you know, in their podcast feed.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
They're going to be so pleasantly surprised by this. And then maybe, you know, they might go out and grab some comics. They might go out and it might take them into a different place that they've never explored.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Or give them like a sketch pad and be like, just draw, just draw. What's your crime sketch of the culprit here? Draw Selena right now, what you think she looks like, you know?
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Yes, yes. And I would love to see people's interpretation of the auditory experience into their own version of a visual experience. That would be fascinating to know. And then have them, you know, open the comic and be like, wow.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Oh man, there were a couple, uh, to be honest, as an actor, there's this moment where, uh, You have thought about what it's gonna be like. You have rehearsed in your own space. You have done the work and you leave all that behind. And it's time for the first time, do the voice of Batman. And I just, that moment is, it's incredible. It's incredible.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And I do remember there being a little bit of silence on the end of the line. Like when I, because, you know, there's this, the beginning of year one is Bruce's VO as he's coming into Gotham. And so the beginning of this is all, you know, Bruce. It's all Bruce and Bruce's head and all of this. You know, so then when Batman drops in for the first time, Oh, oh, oh, okay.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And that to me was so, it was a little bit worrisome, but not in the way that you would think. It wasn't like, oh, am I going to get this right? It was almost like, I hope they enjoy this as much as I do. Because I really love it. I really love doing the voice that I've created in those moments that specifically crafted for that time in the story.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And I was just, I was really hoping they would too. And they did. So it's quite lovely. I think everybody's enjoy it when they, enjoys it when they hear it.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Oh, that's interesting. Yes, I did. Man, I really, I mean, there is this moment where he tells everyone that none of them are safe. And it's such a beautiful moment.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
There's also a moment where he says it's showtime that is also incredibly like un-Batman-like to me, which I don't want to say that that's my favorite line, but I also think it shows you where he is, that he's playing this character for the first time. It's showtime.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And he has no clue that that is so inappropriate for Batman. It's like Batman would never say in Showtime what you're talking about. But I really love that. And to get that right is difficult because, again, as an actor, you've seen lots of other people's performances. You've taken in stuff over your life. And, well, I've never seen that Batman. I've never seen that Batman.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
I've never seen the one that's just like, it's showtime. What are you talking about? That's the Joker. It's showtime.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
It is insane. It is incredibly humbling. And when I think about Batman, my childhood and when I think about having watched Batman throughout the years and taken in the content that Batman has come into my brain through my life, it's impossible as an actor, you never come to the work just empty as a vessel.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So that to me, if you're talking about a memorable line, I'm going to award it to that one because it is. But I don't necessarily think that that one's quintessential Batman. But maybe it is quintessential year one. Because it really fits the story that Miller was trying to create. And I think that makes him human.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
To me, it's very dear to my heart, the human nature of Bruce Wayne, who has this psychological construction that eventually, I believe internally, he's confused with and burdened by in many ways, you know? that we get to see what it's like when that's born.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
That's really cool because Batman begins to have a whole lot of room inside Bruce's mind.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
It's not. To be honest, my favorite experience is the vulnerability that I get to bring. I love to play those heroic moments. I do love to play those moments. those quintessentially Batman-y moments. Like I love that idea, but that's been done, right? And I think one of my jobs as an actor, like if you get to play Hamlet and you, you know, that's been done a whole bunch of times.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
That's been done by a ton of actors. Why would you do Hamlet? Well, because I want you to see my Hamlet. I want you to see the interpretation that I'm bringing in. What can I find in this that no one else has found? And it's the same way. If you dive into Batman, just wanting to give the audience that, that thing.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
I think you're doing the audience a disservice. They've come to see you. They've come to see something new. What are you going to give them in that seat with that ticket? You know, what make their time worth it? And DC high volume Batman is worth your time because of all those other things I think that we can bring.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Yeah. Yeah. Well, here's the thing about that is, is you never realize what you don't know until you're done, until you perform as an actor and your job is to now, Hey. put on that suit, put on that cowl, you know, be that millionaire, you know, billionaire playboy. Like you don't know what you don't know until you have a chance to do that. And once you do, I don't look at Batman the same now.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
I have to be honest, I don't look at Batman the same now. There's a, oh man, how do I say this? There's a vulnerability. There's a strong fragility. It's like bulletproof glass is still glass.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
You know, it really does help you understand why the story gets taken so many places by DC and why those things really do happen in the comics is because this is a real human being who's putting this on, who's putting this cowl on, who's going to do these things. And it's the humanity of Bruce Wayne and what he becomes, which can't be separated from Batman. I think it's that humanity.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And that's what I love about when they gave me the opportunity to play Batman, I thought, oh, wow, what a gift. I better not mess this up. That was my thought. And I'm super glad that this opportunity is unique in the scope of things that have been done in the DC universe and in Batman, because it is finally a telling that stays true to the original words. And that is such a gift, man.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
I really, I think I lacked a bit of understanding until I got a chance to really create it.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Thanks, Corey. And thank you all.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Yes, which is crazy. We were talking about that in 2025, that when I go back in my mind and I think of all of the elements of the personality of Bruce Wayne and Batman and the action sequences and the things that have happened, And then I've, you know, you read these comics and, oh, I've never seen that done. Yeah. I've never heard what that sounds like.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
What is it like when for the first time that Bruce gets the idea to be Batman? And like, what does that sound like? And you were saying that. And I'm like, it is incredible to create. We take lots of care and gentleness and care. It is a large responsibility to make those moments because it's new. It's actually new.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Even though the panels have been around for decades, the images have been around for decades. DC High Volume Batman is an immersive audio experience. What does that immersive audio experience sound like for that word, that sentence, that moment in Batman and Bruce's existence? Is Bruce vulnerable here? Have we heard that? Have we heard how much he feels about this? He's not telling anyone.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So much of Frank Miller's writing in year one is thought bubbles. And that's what I love about this. We get an insight into Bruce Wayne's psyche and mind that we don't often get presented with. And you get to feel that, oh, wow, he really does have a little bit of worry. He thinks he's messed this up. He's not sure this is the right choice.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And we don't often get times to feel Batman in that space. We often get presented with the gothic Batman. We get presented with this very big stoic thing when in reality, you just have to read your one to know that it wasn't always that way.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So were there any things that surprised you? And Bruce is very guarded in that way.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
At all times. And depending upon whoever he's in the room with, he has to be very careful about how he plays that chess game. And it is a real burden for him to carry, a real burden for him to carry to say, okay, what mask am I wearing? And we have this thing when we were working on DC High Falling Batman, talking about the many voices of Batman.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Because I mean, there's at least six, there could be nine. And that's what I like to say there because there's Bruce in Bruce's head alone by himself. There's Bruce when he talks to Alfred, there's this Bruce when he's out as the playboy among high society and the press is watching. That's a very different Bruce than the Bruce that's in Bruce's head.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
And then when you hear him as Batman, he's a very different Batman inside his own head. He's a very different sound when he's intimidating Falcone or Zuko or, you know, in their faces. And it's a different voice because he's like a different person. He's presenting a different thing. And you have to clearly make those distinctions. And that's what I'm hoping people will hear.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
It was hard because you make a choice and you're using this incredibly beautiful gift of the writing of like year one and Frank Miller and Jeff Loeb's writing is such a gift. You almost have to trust fall into it as an actor.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
You have to just try not to do more than what's being presented to you and just honestly look at it and be like, okay, just disregarding anything I've seen or heard or audience expectation, What are they telling me that I'm supposed to do here? What are they guiding me? Where is that? And it is a solid guide. They're brilliant writers. They're gifted folks.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So just do that and you will end up in the right place.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Well, I actually have the comic right next to me as I'm performing. So I will always have the panels up. There's no other way to do it because this is, I mean, this is legend.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So I don't want to be doing a Jason thing. This is very important to me because this has been laid out very clearly. And the imagery is very different in Mazzichelli's year one versus sales art. They're very different styles. And so that's guiding you. That's guiding you.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So, hey, and we had this discussion actually when we were doing Dark Victory, when we were doing Long Halloween, that there's this evolution in who Batman is. And, oh, look, he's getting to be much more of that gothic traditional stoic Batman in these panels. Well, hey, let's see if we can bring some of that to the sound here. And if you use those as a guide, you won't be lost.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So I'm not envisioning anything other than what's on that page. Are they showing me a look, a smirk? How does Batman stand in this panel? Okay, now how do I sound like the way Batman is standing? I'm using the panels, man.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Right, because typically as an actor, you know, when you're doing film or television or any of the video games that I've done, you've got the script, you've got the, you know, the direction, but you don't have something as clear and signpost-y as you have these beautiful works of art.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Well, it's very interesting because the imagery is helping us understand what is that situation? Is Selena standing there? Who's in that room? Is it him and Gordon now just alone on the roof of the GCPD building? If that's the case, then, well... We know it has to be the Batman who Jim is used to seeing. Bruce has to make this congruent for Jim.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
You know, he has to make sure this fits in Jim's reality. And okay, well, if that's the case, but they're alone and now they're talking about something super intimate and oh, Harvey Dent's there. Okay, well, how does that change it? Does he know? How well does he know Harvey?
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Right. That distinction. Right. So you have to honor that perspective
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
presence of voice and then on top of that the circumstance i mean obviously emotionally where is bruce and batman where i mean you know batman has this very narrow emotional range and that's one of the things that we love about that that stoicism because he has to be to be this you know dark knight of gotham you can't you don't get to be emotional and make that work
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
But inside that range, there's all these shades and it has to land right in that moment. And those emotional cues are then layered on top of what I would say the circumstances. And you get those things together and what your ear is gonna hear is you're gonna hear a different shade of Batman in each of those things. And what's interesting is vocally, I am dropping into a Batman voice,
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
But I don't have a Batman voice because that to me would be betraying the reality of what's going on in the story.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
That's the difference between acting and just sort of a mimic or a ventriloquist or whatever puts their arm inside the thing of Batman does a pretend. Truly acting the story of what it's like to be Bruce Wayne in Batman, you're not putting on a voice. You're being another person. And that person has a set of realities that you have to commit to.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Well, no, no. But you know what I mean? Like I've heard, I've heard voice work. If I've had coffee, I'm too close to Wally. Fine, fine. I lied about believing in magic, but magic is the real lie. A major load.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Yeah. And if you hear Bruce in his head, it has to have this weight to it. I mean, if you look at the words, you look at what he's saying, he's like, you know, Mother, father, there's this weight to the syllables that are coming out of his mouth. There's not a ton of dialogue.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
To be fair to everyone, the amount of words on the page I have noticed as an actor are far less than what you get in cinema. They're less than what you get in television and animation. Because in a comics, the art is doing so much heavy lifting for you. The actual words that are being spoken are fairly abbreviated to the point, well chosen.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
So there is this weight that comes along with what Bruce is, when he speaks to himself or to others, that has to accompany it. He chooses his words, even in his own mind, very, very carefully, I feel.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
That's correct. Yeah. You're not going to find an over-wordy Batman comic when Bruce is talking.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
You're not dictating into your phone and then just throwing that up on panels. But I feel like Bruce's emotional content lends itself very well to that. It lends itself very well to that brevity, that there is this weight when he even arrives first at year one and he's, you know, I should have taken the train. And there's this sense of responsibility. There's regretfulness at times.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Could I have done this better? And as humans, where do we get those voices? Do we get those voices from our father? Do we get those voices from our mother? Where do those things come in? What makes us have this sense of internal responsibility? And on top of that, he's had to live his life without them. So yeah, I think it has that weight because of the story.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
We experienced the birth of the cycle. I was frightened about that, by the way, because like the first time you get to do the Batman voice, having it be such a young version of Batman, such an inexperienced version of Batman. I didn't want the audience to reject it because it's not what they typically hear.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Right. And so like in the back of my mind, I'm like, just trust it. Just trust it.
DC High Volume: Batman
Interviews with Batman Actor Jason Spisak & DC's Mike Pallotta
Just trust it. You know, and because I want people to, to enjoy that journey. I want them to enjoy the journey that we're having from year one to Long Halloween to Dark Victory. I want them to feel what it's like to be Batman and how he has to grow and he's forced to change.