Welcome to "IsaaMation Interviews" This is the multi-wiki show where i Interview various people involved with Creativity.
Today's guest is Thom Adcox Hernandez. an openly-gay Voice Actor. He was the voice of Felix the Cat in season 1 of Twisted Tales of Felix. Along with that, he also voiced Lexington on Gargoyles, Klarion the Witch Boy on Young Justice, Along with Pupert in The Buzz on Maggie. He also starred in Live-Action roles like Lethal Pursuit, Falcon Crest, and Invasion America.
How did you get into voice acting?[]
That's a really interesting story. Because I was an actor. I knew I wanted to be an actor since I was probably about four years old. And I started doing plays. And so I always knew I wanted to be an actor. But I didn't ever think about doing voiceover.
And one day in the early, well, mid-90s. Maybe early. It was after 92. It was 94, maybe. I was in my commercial agent's office in L.A. And I was talking with my agent about stuff. I just happened to visit her. And I wasn't able to do voiceover.
And these two guys walked by. And they heard me talking and they stopped me. And they said, hey, you have a great voice. And I said, thanks. And they said, are you represented for voiceover? And I said, no. I never thought about doing it. And they said, well, we'd love to represent you. And those two guys turned out to be like Jamie Thomason. Who's a big director now. And he directed all the episodes of Gargoyles. And directed so many things. So he was one of the guys.
And Jeff Howell was another guy who does a lot of casting and stuff, promos and stuff. So they brought me in. They signed me. And I would go in and read constantly. And I didn't book anything. And then after about six months, both of them left to go do casting. They were done being agents and they wanted to do casting.
So one day, about a year later, I got a call from my agent. And they said, Jamie Thomason is casting a Disney show called Gargoyles. And he wants to see you. So I was like, oh, great. So that's actually how I got into voiceover. I went to the audition and got Gargoyles. Which was actually only my second voiceover job. The first was like a commercial, a little commercial for radio. And so Gargoyles was actually my first big animation job. And that's how I fell into it.
After that, I kind of always did on camera for a little while. Then I left it completely to do just voiceover. Because I was doing movies and TV and on-camera commercials and stuff. But voiceover was so much easier than doing on camera stuff. Because when you do on camera stuff, you have to learn the lines. You've got to kind of dress the part, you know. It's like a two-hour audition. But voiceover I found, just to me, it just came more naturally and was a lot of fun. And you could go wearing shorts and you didn't have to learn any lines. I remember loving that part. Because, you know, you have to sit right in front of you.
It took a long time. I probably auditioned for a hundred things, and I didn't get one job. And then I got the little radio commercial, and then I got Gargoyles. I did get another job before. I got a job. It was called A Goofy Movie. I went in, and I read to that, and I actually booked a job. I was supposed to be Max's best friend. So, I booked that part, and I went and I actually recorded it. And then during the recording, they kept saying to me, at that time, Pauly Shore, who's an actor, he was a comedian and then an actor, he was kind of known for, like, a weird cadence in his voice, like a surfer dude. He was, like, a little weird.
And so, the directors of the Goof Troop kept saying, can you be a little more like Pauly Shore, dude, or try this way, try that way. And then, like, about a couple weeks later, I got a call from my agent. They said that they are not going to use you in that. They're going to go Pauly Shore.
So, how did you book Felix?[]
Oh, God, that's a story (here we go). Yeah. I read for that part probably, I think, nine different times over a year period of time. They brought me in, and then a month would go by, and I'd go, I guess I didn't get that. And then they'd call me in again. Oh, you're reading for Felix again. I'm like, okay. But this went on for about almost a year, and CBS had already picked them up for 22 episodes. So, they had to start animating, and they were in a rush. So, what they did was have, there's an actress, she's an actress, a great actress, and a dear friend of mine named Susan Blu. She ended up directing a lot of stuff after she had a really great voiceover career. She was a director, so she also directed Invasion America, the Steven Spielberg thing.
She laid down all of Felix's lines for all 22 episodes, because they had to start drawing. They had to start animating. So, when I got, after nine different times, it got down to, it was between me and Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman), and Mayim Bialik. Those were the three it got down to, to be the voice of Felix. And so, they ended up going with me for some reason, and it was interesting, because I would have to, they said, we've got to get going on this. So, as soon as I got there, it was sort of like doing anime, because I was trying to match the lip flap of Susan, who did all the dialogue, so I would watch her, and I would have to do the lip flap and match it. So, I had the whole 22 episodes was done that way. And then, that was another strange story, because after I did, I think I did 21 episodes, they all of a sudden replaced me with Charlie Adler.
I had a great experience. I went from working on Gargoyles. Actually, while I was still working on Gargoyles, I got Felix the cat, so I was seeing him simultaneously.
Why did they replace you?[]
I'm not sure. I think it wasn't doing as well as they thought it should have been. It was on Saturday mornings, and it was kind of a bizarre kind of cartoon. I loved it, but I think it wasn't really a children's cartoon. It was more geared toward adults, I thought. So, I think, you know, the producers and stuff probably looking for someone to blame or something. They just said, well, let's try a different actor. So, they tried Charlie Adler, who's also a friend of mine, and he's amazing. He directed...when I did The Buzz on Maggie, he directed all of them. And a great guy, and a great talent, too.
He did a couple episodes. And then what was very strange, because they called me in again. and they said we want to bring you back into Felix. After I did it, lost it, and then they called me in again. So, I go in, and when I walk in the door, I see Mark Hamill. And he just got done reading for Felix. And he stopped me, and he goes, wait, don't you do Felix already? And I go, yeah. He goes, you do a great job. Why are they replacing you? And I said, I don't know. But he was so nice. And so, they ended up, after that session, I think they dumped Charlie, and I think they put in Cam Clarke. (So Cam Clarke Felix is lost media? LOL)
I have a bunch of episodes that I recorded on VHS myself. I thought I was still Felix the cat, and then one day I'm watching it and I hear Charlie's voice coming out of it. I'm like, what happened? It's not my voice.
Are you still able to do the voice?[]
Well, it's pretty much my voice. And what they did was they automatically, they tuned it, they made it a little higher. So I'd go, "hey kids, hey kids, it's Felix the Cat." And so they would tweak it up a little bit.
Did you base your voice on Jack Mercer's voice?[]
No, not at all. because I couldn't... That voice was... You know, that was way up there. You know, this voice was very different. I just did it, and they liked the way I did it. You know, I just did it the way I thought. They didn't ask me to do it like him at all. Thank goodness, because I'm not a voice match guy. I don't know how to do voice matching.
What's your least favorite show that you've worked on?[]
Oh, I can tell you. It wasn't an animated show. It was a movie I did. It was a real movie, called Under Siege Part 2. It was with the obnoxious, horrible actor, Steven Seagal. Under Siege 2 was this piece of s**t movie. and he was a piece of shit. He was so unfriendly, and he would be taking my lines from me.
I'd come big on and given him to these extras, and there was a rumor on the set that he was dating this extra, and that was the girl he was taking my lines and giving them to her. He was just an unfriendly, miserable man.
Before that, I was in one of my favorite movies. It was another on-camera movie called Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story. and I had a really good part in that, and it was with Martin Sheen, and Heather Graham, and Moira Kelly, and the cast were the best cast ever, and everybody loved each other, so I went from working on that beautiful experience to doing Under Siege Part 2.
I don't have a bad job, I don't think. I mean, I did a game. I don't even remember the name of it once, and that was a tough, but it wasn't bad at all. It was just hard on my voice, vocally, because a lot of times when we do video games, we want you to do several different lines, and you're screaming, and you're falling down a trap, and you're yelling, so they get you for like four hours of non-stop screaming and yelling, and I remember at this one job I did, I couldn't talk the next two days. I had to cancel all my auditions. I couldn't do it, Because I screamed so much, you know?
That's what every kid's cartoon is like nowadays. It's just constant flashes of color, and everyone's screaming at each other.[]
Yeah. That's just, wow. Yeah. I've seen those, believe me.
Are there any plans for the future?[]
I read every day for auditions.
What kind of dogs do you have?[]
Petey and Cody (R.I.P. Cody) Ever since Petey was a little puppy, When he watches TV, he will, he can watch, he'll sit there and watch TV and he won't bark, But as soon as he sees an animated dog or an animated cat or a real dog or real cat or a horse, he hates horses. He goes crazy. He barks at the TV constantly.
Thank you so much for your Time, Thom.
THIS INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED IN APRIL 2023 BY ISAAC NELSON. All opinions expressed in the interview belong solely to the crew or cast member interviewed, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Wiki.