For Animaniacs star Jess Harnell, Batman legend Adam West didn't just play a hero -- he was one, too. In an interview with CBR, Harnell recalled his first encounter with West and how meeting him was a childhood dream come true.
"I would love to play Batman on something," Harnell shared. "I think that I could bring something to it. I used to be a Batman freak I was a little boy. I read all the comics. I had Batman stuff. I've gotten to be Adam West's voice match, which is about as close as I've come to playing Batman, but I've done his voice match for a bunch of stuff. But one day, I would love to play Batman, hopefully in an animated project and if not, maybe a video game. Stay tuned, because hopefully it'll happen!"
"Yeah, [West] was such a nice guy," he added. "I gotta tell you a bit. When I first worked with him for the first time -- what a sweet man, by the way -- we worked on a show called Spy Dogs. He came in and we were all so excited, because, you know, he's the once and forever Batman! Adam West was sitting there, and he was just as nice as he could be."
"As we were leaving, it was just me and him at the elevator," he continued. "He pressed the button, and he nodded at me, and I said, 'Hey, Mr. West, I just gotta say something. I gotta say thank you, man.' I go, 'Thanks for not being a jerk, because you would have really screwed up my whole childhood.' And he put out his hand to me and he said, 'Jess, this was the best time I ever had!' And it was the Batman moment, man! So he was what you would have wanted him to be, and that was pretty cool."
Harnell, of course, has played his fair share of iconic characters. In addition to his role as Wakko Warner in Animaniacs, he voiced Ironhide in the Transformers film series and Crash Bandicoot throughout the popular game franchise of the same name. His past credits also include The Tick, Wreck-It Ralph, The Super Hero Squad Show, ChalkZone, Drawn Together, Codename: Kids Next Door, Cars, Johnny Bravo, 2 Stupid Dogs and many more.
Animaniacs stars Jess Harnell, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille and Rob Paulsen. Season 1 of the revival arrives is now streaming.