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What made you want to do “Everyone’s Hero?”
Chris [Reeves] had done a film that I wrote a long time ago.  That was a big boon to my fledgling writing career.  I knew him in New York before that.  And Chris and Dana’s spirit is all over this thing, so pretty much everybody that was contacted was asked, ‘You want to make sure that the thing gets done?’ and everybody said ‘Yeah.’ 

It’s a lovely script.  I like the simplicity of it and the beauty of it.  Some of the Pixar films have all those double entendres for adults and ehhhh … some of the jokes.  This [film] doesn’t have any of that in it.  It’s so pure and clean, and it’s about keep swinging and don’t give up.

Are you a baseball fan?
I’m one of those guys that comes in during the playoffs and pretends that he’s been watching all year, and tries to memorize all the names and fake his way through it.

You have a long history in voice work, right?
Pretty much.  When I got into this business I financed this habit by doing commercials.  I was never big for the on-camera commercials – nor were they big on hiring me.  But I did voice-overs, and I’ve been lucky.

Can you do THE voice-over for us?
Uh, no.  I do Microsoft now.

Okay, let’s hear it.
‘Microsoft.’

Wow, that’s great (sarcastic).  And I’m sure they pay for that.
They pay me very well for that.  I did Secret deodorant, too.

That’s the one I wanted to hear!
‘Secret:  strong enough for a man …’ then some broad says, ‘But made for a woman.’

Some broad?
Some broad, yeah.  No, I didn’t do the second part.  That paid for New York.  When I moved to New York from Chicago, that paid for the first three or four years.

Wow.  So when you do them, do you find that you’re asked to do ‘a’ voice or ‘your’ voice?
Uh, both.  Ummm, on the animation, usually there’s something on it.  Like Lefty, in ["Everyone's Hero"], has a Chicago, fast-talking urban voice.  Voice-overs for commercials, usually it’s you.  It’s either the bright you or the sexy you or the quiet you or the intelligent you, but it’s you.

Which one is closest to you?
Well, I’m a very sexy guy.

You’ve got a role in the upcoming independent feature film, “Bobby” [written and directed by Emilio Estevez]. Who do you play in that?
The hotel manager.  I’ve got the part that … I haven’t seen it, actually, but I go all the way through the thing and I think Emilio used me as a thread to take it through.  It’s got a cast of thousands. Every night we shot it, it was like a Screen Actors Guild meeting.  You looked at the call sheet and wondered who was on that day.