Teen Titans Go! and the DC Super Hero Girls are crossing over once again for Mayhem in the Multiverse. When Lex Luthor begins trapping the world's heroes in the Phantom Zone with a Kryptonian amulet, the Super Hero Girls must come to terms with their problems in order to save the world.
Grey DeLisle, whose vocal talents have taken her everywhere from Robot Chicken to Invincible, takes on the roles of Wonder Woman and Giganta in the DC Animated crossover. An Amazonian princess, Diana is the leader of her team but also a caring friend with a relatively short temper. Giganta, meanwhile, is more of a bully through and through.
Prior to the film's release, Screen Rant exclusively spoke with DeLisle to discuss Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, recording in the midst of the pandemic, keeping in touch with her co-stars and more.
Screen Rant: You've had a storied career and Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is a great addition to it. What was your first reaction when you got the script for this one?
Grey DeLisle: I was so excited to be in a Teen Titans project again, because I was in the Christmas special, I played Mrs. Claus, and my kids just love Teen Titans. They love it way more than any of the other shows that I do, I'm not even on that show and they love it more than any of my shows. I think that's the only show that I'm not on and that's the one they want the most. [Laughs] So any opportunity to guest star on it, I'm so happy.
I don't really do a lot of media with [my kids] because they go to a school that's sort of not into media, which is funny because that's my job, but when I get screeners and stuff that I have to do homework for, I'm like, "All right guys, we're having a special movie night tonight." They just got so excited. We got popcorn and we had a movie night in the bed. But then they were complaining, "It's not enough Teen Titans Go!, it's too much DC Super Hero Girls." I'm like, "Rub it in guys, come on." But I love it, it pokes fun at itself.
That level of self-awareness is one of my favorite things about that film for sure. What was it then like for you really exploring Diana's arc in this film, because it's quite the emotional one?
Grey DeLisle: I know, and I got to play both versions of Wonder Woman. I often play the old style Wonder Woman in different Justice League things, but then I have a totally different voice for the DC Super Hero Girls and the original DC Super Hero Girls was an even different Wonder Woman voice. It was interesting to be able to do both parts in one show and yeah, Diana has quite an arc that tests her loyalty. But I love it, because it's so her to just go, "Oh, gosh, I don't want to betray my friends," but for the greater good, she's willing to do anything, so it's quite a struggle for her.
So a lot of the people I've talked to for this one have mentioned that for the recordings, you mostly didn't get to interact with one another. Did you miss that opportunity to interact with the rest of your crew on this one?
Grey DeLisle: There's so many good and bad things about the remote recording and it was so funny because, speaking of all my husbands, I was married to a record producer and he had a studio in our garage and it's like a professional studio, but then we got divorced and he moved and, we're still good friends, but he moved to Nashville and I'm like, "Damn now I've got this fancy studio that we spent all this money on and nothing to do with it."
Then all this hit and my agent goes, "Gosh, Grey, we don't know what we're gonna do. People are trying to go in closets and put egg crates on their walls, is there anything that you have at home that could [work]." I was like, "Oh my gosh, yes, I've got a professional studio in my garage!" [Laughs]
About two weeks into the lockdown, I was back up and running at full speed. I get to spend so much more time with my kids, I usually would have three or four sessions and even though I was in LA, it was too much time to get back on the freeway and get in traffic and go home and have a quick bite with them and then get right back in the car and then traffic and get back to my session on time, so I often would just eat something on the run or something quickly between sessions.
Now it's so nice to be able to go, "Okay, I'm done, I'm gonna take my headphones off, go upstairs and I can make a full lunch and actually sit and talk with my kids and enjoy them and then go right back down to work and be early sometimes." There's tradeoffs, but I do miss my friends a lot.
Did you have like a group chat or anything for when recording sessions are happening?
Grey DeLisle: We do get in trouble for talking on the Zoom quite a bit. Tara Strong and I, we Zoomed a bunch over the pandemic, just like on a Friday night she's like, "I'm gonna make myself a cocktail, do you want to Zoom." I'm like, "Yeah, I'm making myself one, too." We would just stare at our computer screens and laugh and talk about what's going on in life or not going on.
Especially in LA where everything's still shut down.
Grey DeLisle: She went to Toronto and she was living her life, and I was like, "Oh my God, I've been in my robe for three weeks, I put makeup on the other day and my kids were scared of me." [Laughs] I was really good during the initial part of everything, I stayed in for at least a good 9-10 months. I didn't go to the grocery store, I ordered all my groceries, I was lucky to be able to do that.
But a bunch of my friends lost their jobs, so I took them in and I rented rooms to everybody and I said, "The only rule is I'll pay for the food and everything — and we had barbecues in the backyard and everything — you just can't leave the compound." Because that was when we were still wiping down everything with Clorox, we didn't know what was going on, so it was more intense.
That's awesome you made that little community within your own house.
Grey DeLisle: I actually kind of miss it, we had film festivals, we'd play all the Linklater films, all the Spielberg films, we were doing director by director every night, we would do a new movie. You didn't have to go, but if you did go, I made popcorn. It was fun kind of getting off the hamster wheel a little bit, I was able to write a bunch of songs, I started this kids' band called The Roughhousers and I wrote like 11 songs and we just put that out and it's fun.
It's really good rock and roll music for kids and it's for adults too, because I just hate kids music. I would put kid music on and go, "Ugh, let's just put on Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton." I never played kid music for my kid, but this stuff is actually really good and we have the drummer from X and we have my ex-husband Murry Hammond was in the Old 97's playing bass and we have just an all-star super group of people doing the music and it's kind of taking off.
That's amazing, I'm gonna have to look into that. So, as I mentioned earlier, you've enjoyed quite the career in voiceover work, especially in the superhero field, both with DC and Marvel. What is it you find about the comic book genre that keeps pulling you back?
Grey DeLisle: Well, they're the ones that keep casting me. I'm always so grateful that people still give me parts, I'm always like, "Aren't they sick of me yet?" [Laughs] Apparently they're not sick of me. In the interview before you, the guy asked me what character would you play if you could play any character and I was like, "Wonder Woman, of course! I'd still play Wonder Woman, because she's the quintessential female superhero."
When you're feeling good about yourself and you're feeling like you're kicking butt and you go, "Wow, I feel like a Catwoman today" — even though I do play Catwoman as well. But then you say, "I feel like a Wonder Woman today." It's sort of like the universal phrase for being a kick-butt woman. But I thought it was funny that I referenced another character that I played. I've played so many different characters, and I'm so grateful that they keep bringing me back. It's not me; I don't have any choice in the matter.
Since we're talking about DC, I want to look to Marvel. Is there any Marvel character you would love to play in live-action that you've played before in voiceover?
Grey DeLisle: Well, if anything ever happened to Brie Larson — God forbid, because I love her so much — Captain Marvel is such a cool character. I play her in all the Disney rides and video games and all that kind of fun stuff. It's just such a kick-ass character. So yeah, I guess I'd say that Brie Larson does such a phenomenal job that I wouldn't want to do it unless something horrible happens.
As a fan of Waco O'Guinn and Roger Black's work, I do have to ask is, are we gonna hear any good news about Paradise PD coming back anytime soon?
Grey DeLisle: I know that I just did some ADR for it, so you're definitely getting some new episodes. They also have a new show in the works, I can't say if I'm involved in it or not, but it's a really good show.
For my last question looking away from DC, then we'll go right back, Legend of Vox Machina came out and just wowed everybody and now that we've got season 2 in the works, can we look forward to hopefully seeing you return in some capacity as well?
Grey DeLisle: In some capacity, yes. I can't say if it will be Vox Machina, but it might be something adjacent. [Laughs] I'm being so bad right now, I can't say what, but I definitely know that I'll always stay in the people' universe for the foreseeable future.
That sounds great to me. So with DC Super Hero Girls and Teen Titans Go!, both of those shows have really continued to grow with their audiences throughout the years. What is it you feel about both shows really tends to resonate with viewers?
Grey DeLisle: I don't know, you'd have to ask my kids because they just love Teen Titans so much. I think kids really enjoy each character has such a unique, different personality. You get to see them in different situations and see how, within their own little personalities, each person is going to react, everybody has a different reaction to whatever's around them. I think people get a kick out of that, the different points of view.
So what was it like for you when you got to see the final cut of the film?
Grey DeLisle: It was awesome, because I didn't see much of it when we did ADR. I only had a couple of little lines to pick up and we did that, but I didn't get to see much. But making it such a special event with the kids and the popcorn and all that stuff, I just loved seeing things through their eyes as they don't see very much, but they really were just riveted the entire time. I love seeing it all together and seeing those intimate moments that we hit, like when Zatanna and Raven bond over things. I just love seeing different universes overlap and seeing what happens when that happens, it's always interesting.
Since you do mention that, it's interesting how much the live-action comic book universes are now exploring the concept of the multiverse. What is it you think it is about the multiverse that's becoming so popular with franchises and audiences?
Grey DeLisle: I don't know, but I do know that it is so popular. People just really love that, I get comments on Twitter all the time. It's funny, because I don't watch that much stuff because I'm so busy with the kids and everything and they don't watch that much because I'm trying to kind of do a hippie parenting style. But sometimes I'll do a voice for something that I think is that property and then people are like, "Oh, no, it's part of this multiverse thing" and I'm like, "Oh, wow, I had no idea." Like I did some voices that I do in Diablo, but that ended up in the multiverse, and Captain Marvel and all these different things. I have no idea. I'm always surprised, I guess it's a surprise for the fans too, they don't know what's going to happen, it surprises everybody else.
Check out our other Mayhem in the Multiverse interviews with stars Tara Strong and Kimberly Brooks, as well as with director Matt Peters.
Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is available to purchase on digital platforms and Blu-ray.