Interview: Titus Welliver Discusses Voicing Rorschach in DC’s Watchmen: Chapter 1

ComingSoon Senior Movie News Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Titus Welliver about voicing Rorschach in Watchmen: Chapter 1. Based on the iconic DC graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the Warner Bros. Animation and Paramount movie is now available to purchase digitally on Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and more.

Watchmen: Chapter 1 will also be available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on August 27, 2024.

“In an alternate world history set in 1985, the murder of a government-sponsored superhero draws his outlawed colleagues out of retirement and into a mystery that threatens to upend their personal lives and the world itself,” the synopsis for Watchmen: Chapter 1 reads.

Brandon Schreur: I wanted to say congratulations about Watchmen. I saw it this past weekend and absolutely loved it. It was so up my alley, you were so good in it, and I had an absolute blast with it.

Titus Welliver: Thank you. Well, I haven’t seen it so I’d say ‘no spoilers,’ but I already know what happens [laughs]. But I’m glad you enjoyed it because, at the end of the day, we can only do so much. DC did a knockout job with the animation. It’s a completely, 100 percent faithful rendering of the graphic novel, which, to me, was not just integral but 100 percent was the proving factor for this to succeed. I’m looking forward to seeing it and I’m glad you were affected.

Absolutely, no, I loved it. So you’re obviously voicing Rorschach in the movie. Huge, iconic character from one of the most influential comics of all time. How does that feel? Was that daunting at all to get that call and hear, ‘You’ve got to voice this character,’ or were you ready, game, and into it?

I was excited and felt privileged and honored to do it because I was a huge fan from the time when the book first came out. No, it wasn’t really daunting, but there was an extremely successful live-action film version of it. Jackie [Earle Haley] did an amazing job, but, obviously, you need to make something your own. I wasn’t going to do my impression of Jackie doing Rorschach and Kovacs. I wanted to pay homage to him, to a certain degree. What he did was incredible.

I was able to find my version of it. It was pure pleasure, pure pleasure. You definitely feel the weight of that kind of responsibility. I’m a huge fan, I’m a collector, and a comic book person. I know there have been some missteps in casting in the past, things where I go, ‘Why would you cast that person? They’re so not right for that character.’ Fortunately, that’s been few and far between. I will say, David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury was, you know. That was an unfortunate mistake. Not to shitcan David Hasselhoff, I’m sure he’s a lovely guy.

I’m sure it’s kind of challenging, too, with a character like Rorschach. His face is hidden the whole movie, obviously it’s voice-over so you can’t really communicate with any body language. He’s not much of a talker; I mean, you’re not going to have a casual conversation with Rorschach. I’m sure your lines, when you had them, you had to make the most of it. Was that hard or challenging?

I think that my overall mission was to try to bring that humanity and some sense of accessibility to the character. His face changes, but it’s within the mask, right? It was to also try to find, in watching that — I did go back and watch the [Zack Snyder] film a few times just because I wanted to kind of synchronize some sort of emotion connected to the movement of the mask. Obviously, I wasn’t voicing it to the animated film, it was the other way around. That was the challenge. That’s a long-winded yes to your questions.

Sure. He’s such a complicated character, too. He has a mask and he’s technically a superhero, but he’s not a good person. How much humanity do you see in Rorschach?

I think he’s a by-product and a survivor of chronic abuse, physical and mental. There’s a part of him that still has a moral compass. Even though his approach to things is deeply violent, he’s going after bad people. That’s okay. That makes him sort of an anti-hero, for lack of a better word. I found him very interesting.

And, look, The Comedian is no saint. He’s a rapist and a sadist. If you ask a lot of people, they like The Comedian, they like that character. And, God knows, Jeffrey Dean Morgan did a phenomenal job of playing that character in the live-action version.

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