Jack Plotnick is the type of actor that you know you should recognize. He’s been in something else you’ve seen, and as you take your finger and thumb and begin stroking your chin it comes to you – “oh yeah, he’s that guy!’

Plotnick has been a familiar face on both the big and small screens, acting alongside the gang from “Dawson’s Creek” and “NYPD Blue.” He and a friend have just created a hybrid improv sitcom, along the lines of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” called “Love Spring, International” set to begin taping in March for Lifetime.

Plotnick has headlined flicks like Straight Jacket, the hilarious Girls Will Be Girls and the upcoming Stay (which generated quite a bit of buzz at the recent Sundance Film Festival), where he plays a straight crystal meth addict.

The testament to Plotnick’s talent is a chameleon-like ability to immerse himself in his characters, as was the case with Evie Harris in Girls Will Be Girls. But it’s his distinct voice that gives him away. And, appropriately enough, it is his verbal resonance that is giving him a new career boost as Xandir, a gay videogame character on Comedy Central’s gleefully un-PC animated series “Drawn Together.”

Each week on “Drawn Together,” envelopes are pushed to hilarious jaw-dropping effect, leaving audiences to wonder how they can get away with that.

The Gay & Lesbian Times spoke with Plotnick via his cell phone, as he was heading off to the studio to lend his vocal prowess to “Drawn Together,” now in its second season. He relayed the reasons why the cartoon is able to skewer stereotypes, which cartoon character may be the gayest, and his hopes to reunite the Girls.

Gay & Lesbian Times: Doing a voice for an animated series is obviously different than being in front of the camera. What’s the process like?

Jack Plotnick: It’s really fun because you can do a take 10 times in a row and they’ll just pick the best one. And I don’t have to have those other pesky actors around me [laughs]. I kinda like that, just being by myself, because I can try a line a whole bunch of different ways, and there’s a lot of freedom with that. I like it too, because they animated him [Xandir] based on what I do, so I don’t have to worry about any of that kind of stuff. Like, if I get creative with my voice, it’s always exciting to see what those unfortunate little Japanese girls – or whoever animates it – what they’re going to do with the inflections I give it.

It’s interesting, ’cause sometimes they are exactly sort of how I would say that line, like Xandir will look how I would have said that line. And other times it will be totally different. This is my first cartoon, so I don’t have a lot of different voices in my arsenal.

Sometimes I feel like Xandir, at times, can sound a little like Evie Harris – definitely when he gets emotional, he goes into Evie Harris land. But the way I came up with him was I used to do sketch comedy, and I had a teenage boy character I used to do, and I also had a teenage girl character that I used to do, and I just mixed them. He meets right in the middle of those two approaches.

GLT: “Drawn Together” gets away with tackling dicey subject matter. Has there ever been a moment where you thought the show went too far?

JP: I love things that just push it. I don’t have a lot of boundaries [laughs]. The show for me – I love it, and I love that they go too far, and to me that’s why you watch the show.

In terms of the gay thing, I love these guys. None of them [the creators of the show] are gay, but I feel like they really care about the gay character. And, they told me they don’t want to offend, and they want to do good by him. It’s very rare that they’ll want me, as Xandir, to do something that I’m offended by.

But there was one that I just wouldn’t say. It was in my coming-out episode, where Xandir is saying that he’s straight, and the line was, “Come on guys, I’m as straight as the seams on The AIDS Quilt!” And I just wouldn’t say it; I wouldn’t even put it in the microphone. But the thing is, they knew that it was tacky, and they knew that it was maybe too far, and they didn’t have a problem with me not saying it. So they tried to come up with another line, “I’m as straight as Cher’s bangs.” In the end, we just got rid of the line, because we couldn’t come up with an “I’m as straight as” that was funny enough.

What I love about my first big episode, they dealt with a really serious issue, which is young gay people and coming to terms with that. And they presented the harsh side, too, like the fact that Xandir is up all night trying to kill himself, but he has 50 lives. I thought that was so perfect, ’cause they hit the truth of it, which is its really terrible what happens to young gay people. There’s a high suicide rate for gay teens, but, like, they made it funny, and I thought that was amazing.

GLT: Why do you feel this animated forum affords a better venue for controversial issues?

JP: Well, because it’s not real, you’ve got the distance of the fact that these are cartoon characters, so it’s “not really happening.” Well, also I just think it’s wonderful because cartoons through the ages are always for children, and they never deal with any issues, and it’s always wrapped up in a tidy moral lesson for a third-grader. So it’s so delicious to see them dealing with the real problems the world deals with, but because it’s a cartoon it’s, of course, blown up to some ridiculous, exaggerated place.

GLT: Which cartoon character, past or present, that’s never been outed do you feel is the gayest?

JP: A couple come to mind. First off, Bugs Bunny – he’s totally gay. The villain Ursula from Little Mermaid is just such a drag queen. The Wonder Twins were awfully gay. Maybe that little guy who’s always chasing the pot of gold? The Lucky Charms guy [laughs] – keep your fingers out of my pot! There’s cartoon characters I wished were gay, like definitely a lot of the Disney princes. The prince in Little Mermaid is so cute, but I don’t think he’s gay.

GLT: Where did the inspiration for Evie of Girls Will Be Girls come from? Will we see further exploits of Evie, Varla and Coco?

JP: There was an infomercial woman in the early ’90s who did a late-night infomercial about a juicer, and we just thought she was hysterical. We taped her infomercial and would just watch it all the time! And I think that’s where her voice came from. Then I just started doing her in sketch shows. She didn’t really become Evie until I moved out to L.A. and I met my friend Dennis Hensley, who had a birthday party – and we used to just do shows at his parties. And that night was the night that Evie was born.

And in the end, I think she’s an amalgamation of just my subconscious love of all those wonderful old entertainers, like Liza Minnelli and Phyllis Diller and Barbra Streisand. It’s just kind of all of them, so I can’t say I’m doing one person at all. …

The good news is that we want to do a Christmas special with the Girls for Logo, and they seem like they like the idea. … It’s such a slam dunk – Girls Will Be Girls belongs on Logo as a TV series. It’s like “The Golden Girls on Acid.” It would be such a hit. The world needs it; I think it could truly heal the world [laughs].

GLT: You’ve been on TV shows like “Reno 911,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Ellen” and “Seinfeld,” and in movies like Gods and Monsters and Down with Love. Is the term ‘character actor’ a blessing or a curse?

JP: It’s a blessing, because I’m not going to be the leading man [laughs]. So I love being a character actor; I love getting to completely change into different people. I think that’s why I’m an actor. I don’t think I could truly be happy on one of those hourlong doctor shows, where the actors just sort of rattle off the lines. I can’t not be funny; I think life is funny. So even when you’re doing drama, there’s comedy in the most tragic moments. I think I’d get more tail if I was a leading man…. I’m totally kidding, I don’t think I’m ever gonna get laid because I played a 90-year-old woman. But I love making people laugh, and that’s the highest thing I can do.