Romano branches out to animated movie

RON DICKER

Originally published Tuesday, March 5, 2002

While he was growing up in Queens, N.Y., Ray Romano and his brother used to fill a garbage can with beer and sell it in the stands at the U.S. Open. Romano has since found a better way to earn money: making people laugh. He is in the first year of a two-year, $40 million contract for the CBS sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," in which he plays a New York sportswriter and family man with pain-in-the-tush parents. The show remains a ratings winner in its sixth year and has netted Romano three Emmy nominations for best actor in a comedy.

Romano is now branching into new territory -- the movies. He is the voice of a woolly mammoth named Manfred in the animated comedy "Ice Age." In it, the oncoming ice age is forcing most of the Earth's creatures south, but Manfred and his sloth companion Sid (John Leguizamo) choose salvation over migration. They try to reunite an abandoned human baby with his family and are soon joined by a saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary).

During a recent break from taping "Everybody Loves Raymond" in Burbank, Calif., the 44-year-old former stand-up comic agreed to a Q&A over the phone.

Q: Since you signed your two-year $40 million contract, has anybody weird asked you for a loan?

A: Nobody asked me for a loan, but it's part of a territory where you want to take care of the people close to you. It's not at a level where it gets weird. It's a new part of your life, having that responsibility, but I guess it's a good problem.

Q: Shouldn't you make more money than Jennifer Aniston?

A: Just the fact that they feed me and someone cleans my clothes, I'm happy.

Q: How could you have considered accounting for a career?

A: I was a numbers guy. I was always good in math, I don't know. I just wanted my student loan money.

Q: Let's talk about "Ice Age." Have you done voiceovers before?

A: Only "Dr. Katz." So this was kind of weird.

Q: Would you like to do more movies?

A: I'm weaning the audience on me slowly with my voice first. Every hiatus for the last couple of years we try to hook up but it hasn't worked. We've got a few scripts -- two or three that hopefully we can get done.

Q: You have four kids, ages 3 to 11. Is that one of the reasons you decided to take on a children's movie?

A: That was part of the reason. It would be something very special for them. It was a great script. It had a moral and heart to it. They see clips of it and they're nuts.

Q: Other than a mammoth, is there another animal you'd like to play?

A: I'd be a flying monkey in "The Wizard of Oz." I like to eat stuff on my body. And flying? Who wouldn't want that?

Q:Are the parents on your show like your parents in real life?

A: Unfortunately, yeah. The father is as close to real as you can get. The mother is a little bit exaggerated.

Q: So how many more years of "Raymond"?

A: I'm signed for one more, year 7. It's 50-50 whether there will be an eighth. But I don't see after eight.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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