Jack McBrayer loves playing good guys like his ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ character

TORONTO – In Disney’s new 3D animated comedy film “Wreck-It Ralph,” a burly video-game character goes to desperate measures to shed the bad-guy image that’s unfairly haunted him his whole life.

Jack McBrayer, who voices the video game’s decorated good guy (Fix-It Felix Jr.), is well familiar with such typecasting. After all, he’s played sweet-natured southern roles onscreen several times now, most notably ever-optimistic NBC page Kenneth Parcell on “30 Rock.”

Unlike “Wreck-It Ralph,” though, McBrayer isn’t anxious to bust out of the aw-shucks innocent mould that’s defined his career and seems to stem from his own personality.

“For me, doing the role of Felix, it is not too far from many of the other characters that I’ve played in the past,” the cheery Georgia native, who got an Emmy nomination for his role on “30 Rock,” said with his signature southern drawl in a recent interview.

“Is this a typecasting kind of thing? If it is, I’m OK with it. I just enjoy being cast.”

But can McBrayer see himself playing a villain one day?

“The most adorable villain in the world,” the blond Georgia native said with a huge laugh. “I honestly don’t know. I like the roles that I’ve been offered.”

“I just like working and if the day came that someone was like, ‘He’s got to play a villain,’ then I will try my darndest,” he continued, adding with a howl: “But we will see to what level of success it is met.”

Opening Friday, “Wreck-It Ralph” goes behind the screens of a video-game arcade, showing the worlds in which the characters live and the challenges they face.

Oscar-nominated actor John C. Reilly voices Wreck-It Ralph, a hulking building basher in “Fix-It Felix” who has a big heart and is envious of the praise and medals bestowed upon the retro game’s title character.

Despite reassurances from his “Bad-Anon” support group that his persona is a necessary evil in their world, Ralph travels into other video games in an effort to find the praise and medals he desperately craves.

“Glee” star Jane Lynch voices the sexy and strong Sergeant Calhoun of the first-person contemporary action game “Hero’s Duty.” Comedian Sarah Silverman is behind the feisty misfit Vanellope von Schweetz of the slick, candy-filled cart racing game “Sugar Rush.”

Mindy Kaling, Ed O’Neill and Adam Carolla are among the other cast members who voice the script by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, under the direction of Rich Moore.

McBrayer, 39, said he isn’t a video-game enthusiast but he did go to the arcade and play on an Atari 2600 as a kid.

Helping him get into character were hilarious recording sessions with Reilly and Lynch.

McBrayer has done voice work on several animated projects, including the film “Despicable Me” and TV’s “The Simpsons.”

“Wreck-It Ralph” was a big commitment, though, as it took 2 1/2 years to make and several trips to the recording studio to revoice the script as it was tweaked.

“It was pretty overwhelming, I’m going to be honest, because 2 1/2 years you’re sitting there with a microphone and you have no idea if any of this is going to match together, work, be funny. And then you’re seeing the completed product, the finished movie, and it blows you out of the water,” said McBrayer, whose other film credits include “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”

“I have to say, it’s quite humbling, because what you realize is, ‘Oh, my contribution is minuscule compared to the animators who spent hours in front of their computers.'”

One of the most fun scenes for McBrayer was when his character had to communicate with Q-bert, the orange 1980s video-game creature with an abstract speech.

He ended up improvising, often saying words backwards, to get Q-bert’s odd language down.

“There was a whole string one time when I was like ‘Mama, church, island,’ just with different inflections,” McBrayer recalled.

“I was saying, ‘Now how does that sound?’ And it just sounded like, I don’t know, devil worship.”

“30 Rock” is into its final, shortened season and McBrayer admitted “it’s getting weird” as the clock ticks toward its demise.

“Sometimes you’ll just find yourself sitting in your room, watching TV or just in front of your computer and you’re like, ‘I’m never going to see all these people together again,’ and it’s very bittersweet,” he said.

“It’s been a fantastic seven years, I’m excited to see what’s next. But I mean, this has been like my family for a long time and I’m quite convinced I would not have been asked to be a part of ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ if it had not been for ’30 Rock.'”