Jamie McGonnigal - 12/11/05

Thanks for doing this interview Jamie. I know how busy you are with being an actor, producer, director, artistic director... which leads me to my first question, when do you find time to sleep??

Jamie: I’m not sure what you’re talking about…what’s this “sleep” everyone keeps referring to?

So, for fans who aren't currently aware of you... please summerize your life and career in five sentences.

Jamie: I grew up in Massachusetts where I first began acting at the tender young age of 10 in a musical called “Evita.” A lot happened and then I moved to New York City about 13 years later and began my professional acting career. Then, when I least expected it, someone got me a job doing a voice for an animated character on Scifi.com called Barbarian Moron. Then someone who was in that with me, passed my name along to some people in the city who do anime work, and I started off playing Kosaku in Demon Fighter Kocho then went on quickly to Takeo in Magic User’s Club, Omi in Weiss Kreuz, Bud in Patlabor, Tieh in Weathering Continent, Uchi in The Gokusen, San Pietra in Arcade Gamer Fubuki, Kazuto in World of Narue, and a bunch of other stuff. I think that’s four sentences. Well now it’s five…well…six actually.

Is McGonnigal Irish or Scottish in origin? Which area did your family come from?

Jamie: McGonnigal strangely enough is an Irish name, but there was only one Irishman in my whole family. Some time ago, William McGonnigal, an Irishman working in Glasgow, met Mary Campbell. They’d had a son, James Campbell McGonnigal (my Great-Grandfather and namesake) and a daughter (Susan McGonnigal) and another daughter on the way. In March of one year, their daughter Susan was killed by the whooping cough at the age of three. Then in August, the 8-month pregnant Mary watched on as William was killed in an accident and she never spoke another word and was committed to an asylum. A month later, her daughter Mary was born and her father and mother, Thomas and Susan Campbell took care of the older brother James and the baby Susan and raised them as their own. So in actuality, despite the Irish last name, everyone in my family was actually raised in Scotland in a small town outside of Glasgow.

So what have you been doing lately to keep busy?

Jamie: Well every year now for the past three years, I’ve been the Artistic Producer of the World AIDS Day Concerts in NYC. Last week, on December 5th, we presented a concert of the Broadway musical, The Secret Garden. It was an amazing experience and we’ve begun working with the Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation. JDAF runs a summer camp for teens living with HIV and AIDS. So the concert this year was raising funds for them. It was one of the most worthwhile experiences of my life.

Describe for us a typical (or whatever passes for typical in your world) day in the life of Jamie McGonnigal.

Jamie: Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a typical day for Jamie McGonnigal. Lately, I’ve had to make it a bit more typical because I just rescued a puppy. His name is Eli and quite honestly, he is the cutest thing ever made…and I say that with 100% objectivity. So I have to be awake and home at certain hours so that he can get used to some kind of schedule with eating, sleeping, peeing and pooping. We’re working on it.

You started your already impressive career on Broadway, what made you take the leap from Broadway to the soundbooth for anime?

Jamie: To be completely honest, I’ve never actually worked on Broadway yet. I’ve produced and directed a lot of concerts and such starring a huge bunch of Broadway stars, but never actually performed there myself. But I was primarily a stage performer first. I was doing a new musical down in New Jersey and there was a lovely girl in that show named Leah Applebaum. She passed my name along to Scifi.com and then Lisa Ortiz took it from there and began talking good things about me all over town and poof! I had a career in anime!

How much knowledge or experience with anime did you have before you went in for your first audition? Were you an anime fan before hand or did that not happen until after the fact?

Jamie: Definitely happened after the fact. I’ve ALWAYS loved animation and had an impressive collection of animated films on tape and such. And who didn’t love Thundercats and a lot of titles like that? But actual anime is something that I’ve definitely come to later on in life.

Your work with charitable organizations is very impressive from the National AIDS Fund to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, was there anything in particular that inspired the need to give back?

Jamie: I don’t know if there was any one thing in particular that inspired me to do it and when it all first started, I just realized that I was having a blast doing it and it made me feel good too. Again, now having worked with the Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation, it all somehow makes sense to me-why I started doing all this in the first place.

So, before we continue I'd like to take a moment to mourn a death... back in early 2004 when you were working on The World Of Narue, you were sporting a rather stylish goatee but every picture I've seen since then has your face naked. When did your stylish facial accessory pass from this world?

Jamie: My facial hair definitely comes and goes. Right now I have a little bit of a light beard, but for about a year before that, I was only sporting a soul patch which is kinda fun too.

So you've worked behind the scenes and right in the lead with both anime and theater, which do you enjoy more? Working behind the scenes to create the production or being one of the actors that brings it to life?

Jamie: With anime, I definitely enjoy performing more. It’s different from being onstage in that onstage there are certain freedoms you don’t have in a sound booth (for one, I can wear whatever the hell I like in a sound booth and no one cares). In addition to that…and some will argue with this. Acting is seen as both an art and a craft. It’s a craft because actors all have a little bag of tools, or skills that they own and they call upon these tools when creating a character, like a toymaker in a toy shop. So in that way it is most definitely a craft, but the actual thought process, the creating of a character is definitely an art, so that can be truly exciting discovering that and letting it grow over the course of time. Now as far as musical theatre goes, I LOVE performing onstage, don’t get me wrong, but there is something far more exhilarating about sitting back in a theater and being moved to tears by something that you created. It makes you feel like a painter almost, as opposed to a character in the painting.

Earlier this year, you were in the 4Kids production of One Piece which was met by very angry fans for the way it was edited and butchered into something completely different from the original. Do you have any thoughts about this?

Jamie: I do. And some may disagree with me. Here’s how I feel…I love the work that I’ve ben given an opportunity to do. And places like 4Kids make that work possible. On the one hand they take a title like Pokemon or Yu Gi Oh and may change it somewhat to make their audiences understand it better or enjoy it more for what it is they enjoy. Truth of the matter is, without Pokemon, most of this country wouldn’t have a clue what anime even is. They’ve popularized an art form which has gone undetected for decades. Sure we all watched Speed Racer, but who ever actually THOUGHT of it as “anime” before Pokemon came along? On the other hand, with something like One Piece…It is a STRANGE show. I still have no idea what’s going on and I’m ON it. First off, they have to do all they can to make the story relevant to an American audience of kids today. If that means changing a character’s name or twisiting a plot line so these kids get it and more people end up loving this art form, I say so be it. If they feel that parents are going to be turned off by a guy smoking a cigarette on a cartoon, turn it into a lollipop so a few more people tune in. Bottom line is…it’s a business and they have to do what’s best so they can continue doing what it is they do and I can continue to make money at it. :)

If I had to choose a favorite role that you've done, it would easily be your portrayal of Kazuto in World Of Narue. What was your favorite and least favorite part about not only the character but also about playing Kazu in the soundbooth?

Jamie: Thanks very much. I loved Kazu. My least favorite part was that the recording studio we worked in was in ass-end of Brooklyn and took me far to long to get there. My favorite part was working with the people I got to work with. Tom Wayland is a fantastic director and really allows the actors to play in the studio and make discoveries for themselves. It’s always encouraging. Different directors in NYC work differently, obviously. Some directors dictate exactly what it is you need to say and precisely how to say it. This is, in my opinion, an annoying and completely unfruitful way of working. Some go so far as to yell at you when you’re not reading the line exactly as he would and sometimes it makes you cry. That’s not fun, but I won’t work with that director anymore. :) But I digress, World of Narue was a blast from head to toe!

I'd like to thank you again for this interview but now it's time to ask the obligatory question that I end all of my interviews with... do you have any parting words that you'd like to leave with your fans?

Christmas.

For those of you who would like to keep up to date with Jamie and what is going on with his illustrious career, you can visit his website at www.JamieMcG.com

Also if you'd like more information about one of the charities that Jamie is active with, you can visit www.WorldAIDSDayConcert.org