McDonald voices the federal investigator in The Iron Giant, the film's antagonist and its most human threat. He plays the character as petty, ambitious and frightened rather than as evil, which is what makes the escalation credible: nothing he does requires malice, only a career and a chain of command.
He has worked continuously in American film and television for four decades, most often in supporting roles as smug authority figures or antagonists, and he is widely recognised for a comic sports villain that has become a permanent cultural reference. That range of registers is the whole point of the casting. He has also worked extensively on stage.
Recurring subjects: arrogance, men whose confidence exceeds their competence, and comedy derived from a character taking himself entirely seriously. He plays smugness without caricature, which lets the same technique work in comedy and in genuine menace depending on what the material asks for.
His comic antagonist in a nineteen nineties sports comedy is among the most quoted supporting performances of its decade, and he returned to it decades later. His prestige television work has brought renewed attention to a career built almost entirely on supporting parts.
For viewers who appreciate the actor who makes the antagonist work. Suited to families approaching the animated film, and to anyone who will recognise the voice from a completely different context.
