by Jake Friedman

Terry McGovern has built a name for himself as an actor, a voice artist, and a teacher of both. You can read all about him ( or hire him!) via his website, terrymcgovern.com. His screen credits vary from Star Wars to “Transformers,” but perhaps his best known character is Disney TV’s Launchpad McQuack, right-hand-duck to both Uncle Scrooge and Darkwing. In honor of the recently released volume of “Darkwing Duck” and the upcoming release of the second “Ducktales” volume, I chewed the fat with Terry, and his alter ego waterfowl.

JF
What do you tell your students is the secret to good voice acting?

TM
Practice. Knowing what to practice and doing the work every day, not just taking classes. Classes are good, but people think that if you take enough classes you’ll suddenly be good at this, and it doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. You have to do the work on a daily basis. This is an athletic undertaking. You have to drill on your weaknesses and make them better.

JF
What’s the hardest thing about being a voice actor?

TM
The same thing as being an independent contractor in any field. You have to market yourself.

JF
What’s the biggest perk about being a voice actor?

TM
The money. If you start making money at it, that’s a cool thing.

JF
Why did you choose to audition for the role of Launchpad in the first place?

TM
Actors audition. That’s their job. They don’t get up and go a movie set unless they audition for it. So that’s what I did, and as a matter of fact almost didn’t get to do it. Because I threw a real hissy fit and called my agent and raised a stink, because I knew I could do this, there was no question in my mind about it — the directions were that it was a cross between jack Burns and Norm on “Cheers” — and I was right, because they picked me. They even auditioned Jack Burns and the actor who plays Norm.

That often happens. They’ll have a model in mind but the model himself won’t be up to the task. You really do have to have a sense of what it means to do animation. While most actors on television are required to pull things back a little bit because the camera’s on top of you, that’s not the case in animation. It’s always larger than life.

JF
Whs there something about animation that pulled you to it?

TM
I’ve done voices all my life. I was doing voices when I was a little kid, and I had a talent for it. I define talent as work. If you’re always working at something, you’re going to be good at it. You know the type, people who walk around doing voices. But if you know anybody who walks around doing voices all the time, they’re either insane or they’re voice actors, or possibly both.

JF
How do I get to be a cartoon voice actor?

TM
They most important organs we have are our ears. Everybody thinks it’s the voice, but almost anybody can do a voice. Acting is an imitative art – we’re constantly looking for what makes that-person-that-I’m-trying-to-be different. I always have to emphasize my teachings by saying, “Alright, what is it about this character that’s not like you?” If you’re just going to play what’s like you, then there’s not really going to be much happening. You really have to go to the center of the character, and those are the things you play, the differences.

With cartoon character acting, you have to be a student of the business. If you don’t know who Cartman is in “South Park,” then you should probably find something else to do. You have to be tuned in, because that’s what the market’s looking for. You’re not going to be auditioned by brain surgeons; you’re going to be auditioned by a bunch of young kids who have grown up on animation and video games.

JF
How did your experience differ between “Ducktales” and “Darkwing Duck?” I heard that for “Ducktales” the actors recorded together.

TM
Yes. When I was doing Ducktales, I lived in LA, but in 1988, I moved to the Bay Area, and Disney called me up and said, “We’d like you to do your character again, … we don’t want to change actors, so we’re going to record you up there.” And that’s what they did; I did the whole series by phone patch.

JF
Do you know why Launchapd was chosen, of all the characters, to be brought back?

TM
The only thing I know about this business is that they test-market everything, and he just must have tested real high. And they felt they needed some comic relief for Darkwing.

JF
Do you have any guess as to what makes a character like Launchpad last in the mind of its audience?

TM
That depends on a combination of things. It has to be conceived well, there has to be a built-in-need for a character, and everything just has to be right in place and click.

***

Conversations with Launchpad McQuack

JF
Launchpad, I always wondered how did you get to be twice as tall as all the other ducks?

LMcQ
Well, let me set down this bottle of bourbon, I hit it pretty early here. I’m joking, little fella. I don’t know, I’m a big guy, I wear an 18 shoe. And I wore an 11 shoe when I was 11. Of course this is a webbed foot we’re talking about.

JF
I’ve been wondering for years, what happened that ended your job for Scrooge McDuck that freed you to work for Darkwing?

LMcQ
I was let go by Mr. McD. He said ‘I’m noticing there’s money missing in the vault. He was nuts, I never touched nothin’. No, I was given a leave of absence. We parted very amicably and we’re still very good friends.

JF
That’s good. Some people were afraid he canned you, or God forbid he passed away, I don’t know.

LMcQ
No! My God, he’s in the vault right now, counting. Money will keep him alive forever. I still fly for him once in a while, you know, take a trip up to the wine country. He loves wine. So I shuttle him up there to Napa or Sonoma and get a couple cases and uh, come back.

JF
Do you ever have trouble landing straight with the few cases of wine under your…

LMcQ
Oh I don’t touch – oh hey hey hey hey, my friend, I don’t touch that stuff, not when I’m flyin. Not when I’m flyin. I have enough problems.

Jake Friedman is a New York-based animator. Visit him at [ jakefriedman.net ]