Glee star Jane Lynch voices gung-ho Sgt. Calhoun in new Disney flick Wreck-It Ralph
After years of constant struggle, Jane Lynch is in demand
LOS ANGELES – After struggling for two decades in acting, Jane Lynch has finally stopped struggling.
The Emmy-winning Glee star doesn’t chase down jobs — they chase her now.
So you might think Lynch is secure in that knowledge, but she’s not.
“I still have free-floating anxiety,” says the 52-year-old, seemingly relaxed at a Beverly Hilton hotel suite.
She will admit that unemployment wasn’t working for her back when commercial voice-over bookings kept her in the game.
The improvised 2000 Christopher Guest film Best in Show changed all that. Then Glee came along in 2009, and a whole new generation discovered Lynch’s talents through her darkly comic autocratic phys-ed teacher Sue Sylvester.
So it shouldn’t be much of surprise that director Rich Moore called on Lynch to do the voice of gung-ho Sgt. Calhoun in the Disney animation, Wreck-It Ralph, which opens Friday.
Ralph (John C. Reilly) just so happens to be a 1980s video game villain. He’s been doing the same destroyer things for too long and is unhappy. He breaks free from his world in search of a medal to make him a hero, which he believes will change his isolated existence.
During his road trip, Ralph ends up being pursued by hard-nosed Sgt. Calhoun and Ralph’s nemesis Fix-It Felix Jr. (Jack McBrayer). Both are concerned that Ralph might upset the delicate balance of the video gaming universe.
And he nearly does in the racing game Sugar Rush, in which he meets up with nineyear-old outcast Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman).
All’s well that ends with a bang, however, and Sgt. Calhoun makes sure of that in the comedy chock full of gamer references and snappy patter.
“The movie was an education for me. I played Asteroids in college, but I was usually drunk.”
jane lynch
“Jane is the consummate professional and incredibly smart when it comes to comedy,” says Moore who previously directed multiple episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama.
“I do know my way around a set of headphones,” agrees Lynch more modestly.
Indeed, Moore took advantage of his cast’s comic talents by doing some of the voice sessions as an ensemble with Lynch, McBrayer, Reilly and Silverman in the same room.
He also insisted that Lynch shape her performance, although she admits she wasn’t much of a gamer. “The movie was an education for me,” she confesses. “I played Asteroids in college, but I was usually drunk.”
One way or another, it didn’t matter to Lynch.
“I am not in the habit of turning down work,” says the actress. “And No. 2, it’s a Disney movie, so maybe I will end up on the shelf with Jungle Book and Snow White.”
Even better, she made a lot of the creative decisions for her character.
“He wanted me to do my thing, which I enjoyed,” Lynch says of the director. “And I have to tell you, doing voice work is the cushiest job in the world. You don’t have to show up in makeup or wear nice clothes, so it was great.”
The actress had a slow build. She earned a degree in theatre from Illinois State University and a master’s degree at Cornell, but there was not a lot of work post-college.
After a stint with Second City in Chicago, she did voice work, cameos on TV shows and some theatre gigs to pay the bills.
All that changed with her lesbian dog handler role in Best in Show followed by her porn-actress-turned-folk-singer in A Mighty Wind and her sexually available store manager in Judd Apatow’s The 40-YearOld Virgin.
Currently, she’s keeping busy with her own to-do list. She is writing a few pilots and is quietly encouraging a film version of an ensemble sitcom called Party Down, which she left to join Glee.
And, yes, she happily continues with Glee, which is evolving with lots of new cast members and some returning ones.
“It’s changed, but it stays the same in some ways,” she says of the musical comedy series. “It still has that outcast feeling as the kids try to find a place in the world, and people never tire of that.
“And everybody loves it when a life crisis can be resolved by a song.”