Superman guides Supergirl in "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse."

QUESTION:
Do you now feel some sense of ownership of Superman?

TIM DALY:
I think I feel a greater sense of ownership now than I ever have. I think it's because I've embraced the fact that it's so important to so many people. People take Superman very, very seriously. I think that when I first started doing the series, I took it seriously when I recorded the role, but I maybe judged the audience a little bit.  I wondered “Why are people getting all excited about Superman? It's just a cartoon.” But I've realized that it's not my place to judge. People love this character and take him seriously, and follow his every movie, and if that's their thing, then they have every right to that. And I should serve that with all my might. So I understand that now, and I try to respect the character’s importance to the fans.

What really surprises me is when I'm talking to someone, and someone else standing close by will say, “Tim Daly? Superman!” And I'll say, “How did you know?” And they say, “Your voice.” And then I realize, oh yeah, that makes sense. But clearly they've become attuned to my voice, and the fact that my name is attached to Superman. But still, it always surprises me.

QUESTION:
Is Darkseid a perfect example of “the bigger the villain, the better the story” adage?

TIM DALY:
Villains are really what give comic stories their flavor. Honestly, I think Superman would be quite dull without a really great villain. Batman, maybe not so much, because he's such a twisted character himself. He's struggling with a lot of inner demons.  But Superman is the kind of guy who's impossible to hate, because he's a guy's guy, and he's straightforward. He can be a little sarcastic and he has a wryness about him. But he doesn't have a lot of dark corners. So I think that contrasting him with someone like Darkseid, who's a real badass villain, absolutely makes the script more interesting.

QUESTION:
Do you have a favorite villains?

TIM DALY:
I guess my favorite would have to be, and I say this very selfishly, but it’s Bizarro. He's sort of a hapless villain, a sort of demented Superman replicant that Lex Luthor wants to use for his own evil purposes. He's kind of almost innocent in a weird way. He has no idea what it is he's doing, but he's doing a lot of damage. And I guess I like him the best because I got to play him.

QUESTION:
What entertained you as a kid?

TIM DALY:
I had two sources of entertainment. One was television and the other was my own imagination. I was a kind of a lonely kid – I spent a lot of time by myself, and I spent a lot of time outside. So I would wander around in nature with this huge imaginary world. And I had three imaginary friends. And there was a whole lot going on in there that no one else really knew about.  But that entertained me. I wasn't sad, I was just a loner. And then there was television – especially cartoons like Bugs Bunny.

QUESTION:
And what entertains you now?

TIM DALY:
I haven't been bored since 1970. I play the guitar, which entertains me a lot. I play golf. I watch a little bit of TV with great relish. I go to the theatre. I play around with my kids. I am not very good at sitting still, so having activity entertains me. I futz with stuff. I build things and fix things. I like to garden.

QUESTION:
Another thing you and Batman, er, Kevin Conroy have in common. Working in the garden. What’s the foundation of your attraction to gardening?

TIM DALY:
Oh my God, if you've ever grown your own food, you’d know. I had a moment about 15 years ago when I first harvested my own potatoes. I had some primordial Irish experience. It was a cold fall day, and it was kind of misty, and I was muddy. I reached into the ground and I took the potatoes out of the ground and sort of held them to the sky. Like, “Food, my food, my people.” (he laughs) It's great.

I farm in Vermont. A lot of people tell me I shouldn't talk about this because it makes me sound too much like Mr. Green Jeans, but I have a garden with lettuce, broccoli, peas, beans, tomatoes, carrots, lots of herbs, parsley, basil. Cauliflower, which never grows. Eggplant is a disaster for some reason. Corn, squash -- stuff like that.

Maybe it's because it's just a little miracle. You take some little seed, you plant it, and it becomes this beautiful thing, and you can pick it and eat it, and it sustains you. Just a little miracle. I love it.

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