John Leguizamo Character Quotations

a ton of research -- more than I've ever done before for anything. I've hit this point in my career where I just love doing research. It's what feeds me -- going and living the life of my character -- so for this I went to Ecuador a month or two ahead to work on my Spanish and get the feel for the place. I also traveled around with this local TV reporter who was doing the same thing Manolo does, and every morning we'd go to the morgue to cover murders.

It's always the same thing that drives me -- a type of character or personality that I've never done before, or that allows me to try out some new acting technique. So I'm always experimenting and looking for that interesting hook.

I did 40 voices for Chris Wedge, the director of the first film, before coming up with the version we used. He was hard to please, I don't know why. I gave him really slow talking voices. then I thought perhaps Sid could be an Indian sounding sloth. To find out more about my character, I watched footage of sloths. I discovered that the food they store in their pouches rots and ferments and half the time they're drunk.

We see them [animals] as the Ice Age is ending and we know that actually in the long run, they're not going to make it. And there's something beautiful about that, beautifully sad. The way the characters are woven together in the film adds to the emotion because they need each other. The message is that it doesn't matter what species you are, you can still love each other and that is a fantastic message.

You have the hilarity and the great production. These films are distinctive because they are not just topical, they tell good stories and they let scenes play out physically. Apart from the dialogue, the characters also have a non-verbal existence, for example with Scrat.

I don't think it's my responsibility, but I definitely try to create my own projects that are Latin-based with a Latin crew and Latin cast. I try to give all my characters Latin names whenever I can and make sure that they are of Latin heritage. But that does not work with every project.

Great acting is being able to create a character. Great character is being able to be yourself.