Pink Kryptonite: First, tell the PK readers a little about yourself and what you do.

Jamie McGonnigal: Well, I'm Jamie McGonnigal and I do a lot of things, but I think the main reason you're interviewing me is because I do voices for cartoons and anime and I'm a homo.

PK: How did you get into voice acting?

JM: I actually moved to NYC from Boston about 10 years ago to be an actor. I had been here under a year when I was cast in a workshop of a new musical down on the Jersey shore. It was a horrible musical, but it was paying well and I was getting my Equity card for it. There was a girl in the show named Leah Applebaum and we'd become friends. She had worked on Pokemon back then and thought I had a good voice for animated work and went right home and recommended me to a friend of hers at Scifi.com. They called me in, cast me as the title character in an online series called "Barbarian Moron" which I did with Lisa Ortiz. Lisa then passed my name along to Mike Sinterniklaas and the rest is history. :)

PK: What have been your experiences with being an out voice actor?

JM: It's been pretty amazing. I mean, of course I don't have the celebrity status of Lance Bass or new family member Clay Aiken, but I've always hoped to live by example. Have I done things that were stupid and perhaps not the best example of the person I want to be? sure, who hasn't? But I try to be a positive person in my own life and in the lives of others. With that being said, I know a lot of anime fans that are gay or bisexual or well...let's just say "different in their own way." And I was very much that kid in high school...not an anime fan, but the little world that was all my own was Broadway. I latched onto it with a vengeance from an early age. I think when you're different, you have this great desire to be passionate about SOMETHING. The other kids are busy with cheerleading, soccer, baseball, whatever - and I had this little world where I could be an expert. I don't know...I'm being long-winded. It's been an amazing experience being an out voice actor and I hope that slowly but surely, more and more people feel the comfort and freedom to express themselves and to let the world know who they are. Hiding can be really lonely, and it doesn't have to be that way.

PK: Do you go to a lot of conventions?

JM: I try to go when I'm invited. I probably do 3 or 4 a year. I'm not always the most well-known actor there, but it gives me an opportunity to meet some of the fans and hang out with voice actor friends I've made over the years in other parts of the country - Go TEXAS!

PK: Do you ever get recognized? Has anyone stopped and asked you "Where have I heard you before?"

JM: Well it's hard to recognize a voice. And I primarily do character voices, meaning they can be pretty far from my normal speaking voice at times. Once in a great while, like about 3 months ago I was at a Sam's Club in New Jersey (that's like a BJs or a Costco wholesale club for those of you unfamiliar), the cashier who rang me up said "you look familiar, is your name Jamie McGonnigal?" I was a little freaked out and a little afraid I'd chatted with him on some gay dating site, but then he followed with "I'm a huge fan of Weiss Kreuz and Magic User's Club!" It was actually very sweet and totally made my day as that's something that so rarely happens in the real (non-convention) world.

PK: How much creative input are you allowed to give? Is there ever any ad-libbing involved when dealing with Japanese work?

JM: Well honestly not much. We walk in and have a script and pretty much stick to it. I mean our creative input is pretty limited to the acting and creating the sound that this character makes. Once in a while, there will be a line that doesn't quite work with the way the mouth moves and so we alter it just a little bit to make it fit and get to work with the director on exactly how to alter it. Some directors are more open to letting the actors speak up than others. With the Weiss Kreuz and Magic User's Club dubs we got to have a lot of fun in the studio and they ended up releasing outtakes of us screwing up or screwing around in the booth. For many, those are their favorite parts of owning the DVDs.

PK: Are you an anime/manga fan?

JM: I can't say that I'm a manga fan - just in that I haven't really been exposed to it. It's also a pretty time-consuming hobby. As for anime, I grew up on it without really knowing. I remember as a kid watching every cartoon out there, from Thundercats to The Smurfs to He-Man (my first crush, seriously). And I'd notice in the credits that there were like 700 Japanese names working on each one. As for contemporary titles, it's taken me a while to take the time out to watch things that I wasn't personally involved in. I'm a busy guy and I have plenty of my own stuff I've never even watched. But the things I haven't worked on that I've enjoyed watching are Fullmetal Alchemist, Paranoia Agent, The Miyazaki movies...I have some others I've bought that I haven't seen yet, but I will eventually.

PK: What are you watching/reading now?

JM: I'm actually trying to catch up on some TV watching. I recently got out of a relationship where my boyfriend had very specific likes and dislikes as far as TV goes, so we only really watched his favorite shows, which was fine and broadened my horizons a bit, but I'm now playing catch up. So I bought a bunch of TV box sets and am now obsessed with: HEROES, Pushing Daisies and Dexter. I've also always been a fan of Ugly Betty. Anime-wise, I'm hoping to start Irresponsible Captain Tylor next.

JM: Yes, kind of a lot actually. For one, it's several hours of sometimes grueling sessions because there are so many reactions. Like, I'll have to go for two hours just making guttural "getting punched in the gut" type sounds...it's really taxing on your instrument. Additionally, it's like recording a choose-your-own-adventure book. You have to record the story going in one direction if the player goes that way, and in 3 other directions for the other choices they may make. So it's a lot of work, but it's very fun. And I get to watch my nephew be ME in a game. It's kinda cool. And in Shadow Hearts, I got to play the lead, Johnny Garland, in addition to this Irish mafia dude named McManus which brought out a totally different side of me, so that was a challenge...a good challenge as well.

PK: Can you give us some of the details that go into the voice acting process? For instance, how do you prepare for each role?

JM: Well to be honest, in the dubbing world, when you audition, there's not a whole lot of preparation that CAN go into it. Most of the time, you barely know the title of the show, nevermind the character you're going in for! So you sometimes get a brief description of the character, sometimes a drawing and then you have to go with your gut and make some shit up. Then the director either likes that and works with it a little or they say..."That sucks, try something else." And you make it happen...You have to have a little bag of tricks as it all happens very quickly and you have to be ready. Then once you get the role, it's all about maintenance and making sure every time you go in to record, you are recreating the same voice and the same set of circumstances for yourself for continuity purposes -- a good director also helps with that. Then you just make sure your voice is healthy and your body is healthy so you HAVE a voice and with some character voices, it's a little difficult so you do things like limiting your recording sessions to 2-3 hours so you don't hurt yourself...and other than that, you just go into the booth and have a good time!

PK: What has been your favorite role so far?

JM: I have a few favorites...it's weird...it's like having children, it's very hard to pick a favorite. Takeo in Magic User's Club is one of my favorites, I also loved playing Zoda on F-Zero and of course Omi in Weiss Kreuz. I had an amazing time playing Teddington Twingersnaps on Viva Pinata as well - that was different because it was what you call "pre-lay" meaning we recorded the voices first and then they created the animation, so with that I felt like I was really creating something for the first time.

PK: You won an award for playing Takeo, what was that experience like?

JM: LOL Actually, I was nominated for a (now defunct) American Anime Award for it which was very nice. It was kind of odd because It was 2007 that I was nominated when I did the work in 2001, but it's all good. I also got a random email one day the year the show came out and it just said "Congratulations, you've won Best Male Comic Voice Actor for your role of Takeo on Magic User's Club" It was from a group called The Anime Society. I wrote back and thanked them but I've never heard anything else about it. And I don't know anyone else who ever really heard of the group, but hey, it's an award.

PK: Please tell us more about Kizuna, and your role in it.

JM: Kizuna....well, Kizuna is a fantastic and apparently one of the first Yaoi titles out there and one of very few that has actually been dubbed. I had the pleasure of playing the boyfriend of Dan Green (Yu Gi Oh) and the obsession of Mike Sinterniklaas (Leonardo, Kappa Mikey)...kind of a dream come true if you ask me! It was great fun and Tom Wayland directed. I was really glad to be involved. It's kinda cheesy and pretty damn fun with a few..steamy scenes :) and totally worth it!

PK: That DOES sound like fun. How well did the cast get along? And how did you prepare for the steamier scenes?

JM: Well I love Dan and Mike is one of my best friends in the world. I only wish we could have seen each other recording and done a little preparation work together ;) The menu on the DVD has sounds of me moaning as the background when you start up the show. Kinda brilliant. I actually just gave Mike an animation cel for his birthday. It's one of the original cels from Kizuna with his character ferociously making out with mine. It's hot. I'm sure he was grateful ;)

PK: Are there any upcoming voice-overs you can let us know about?

JM: Ummmm...well I'm currently working on Yu Gi Oh 5D's for 4Kids, which is a lot of fun. I have a movie coming out where I play a few small fun things but that hasn't been announced yet...and there's a new series I'm involved with that will be on TV starting in the new year I believe, but I can't really talk about that yet either :( sorry.

PK: Do you have any advice for up-and-coming voice actors?

JM: Keep working towards it. GET EXPERIENCE! Just because you make fan dubs or can make up silly voices doesn't mean you are a voice actor. The most important part of the term "voice actor" is "actor." Go do some theatre, take some classes, become an actor and THEN you can be a voice actor. The anime industry is in a very bad place right now due to fan dubs and fan subs and people feeling like they should be able to get anime for free. Downloading anime has killed this industry. It's such a small industry that we feel it every time something gets downloaded or stolen. I can personally say that NYC has about 1/3 of the work coming in that we did ten years ago when I first began. The Japanese are making less anime because the networks aren't buying it because it no longer makes them any money because Americans are downloading it for free. So, sorry to be on the soapbox here, but it's a major problem and there won't be any more new anime if these practices continue.

PK: Tell us a little more about what you're involved in when you're not voice acting.

JM: Well I have a standard day job which pays my bills and even manages to challenge me regularly. But the other fun thing I do besides voice acting is producing Broadway concerts and events for charities. I've worked with dozens of amazing organizations and have had the honor of raising money for The Matthew Shepard Foundation, National AIDS Fund, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Free Arts NYC, Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation, and several others. It makes me really happy to be able to give people an opportunity to support such great causes and have fun doing it. I've produced about 70 concerts and events in the past 5 years and I love every minute of it.

PK: Are there any charity events or concerts coming up you'd like to mention?

JM: Broadway Loves Joe's Pub is coming up on November 2nd and featuring a whole slew of amazing Broadway stars. It's a benefit for Joe's Pub and the Public Theatre in lower Manhattan. That's all I really have going on at the moment. Well, actually, I'm also going to be producing a private concert of a new musical by Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman who wrote Broadway's "The Secret Garden." I did a concert of that show a few years back that remains the highlight of my theatre career. So Lucy and Marsha asked me to put together something for their new musical based on "Wuthering Heights." So I'm going to be working with Juilliard on that event in the early part of 2009.

PK: And that's all the questions I have! Well Jamie, do you have any final thoughts for the PK readers?

JM: Thanks so much! Pink Kryptonite Rocks!!!

If you want to learn more about Jamie, and what he's involved in, you can check out his personal website or his Wikipedia page.