Ben Stiller on "Madagascar"

Ben Stiller has been making comedies for close to 20 years now, and he's created some unforgettable characters along the way, including male supermodel Derek Zoolander, the haplessly accident prone Gaylord Focker and the steroid befuddled dodgeball champion White Goodman. None of his past experiences, however, prepared him for the challenge of providing the voice for a character in the new DreamWorks' animated feature, "Madagascar." In the film he plays Alex the Lion, the star attraction of the Central park Zoo who, through a series of misadventures, finds himself stranded with three of his friends on a tropical island...

"Doing a voice for an animated character is just such a weird process," Stiller explained. "In the movie I'm best friends with a zebra named Marty, who is played by Chris Rock, but we were never in the same room when we recorded scenes. I would read with this guy named Cody. He's like this white guy from Glendale who did Chris Rock impressions."

"Madagascar" marks the second time Stiller has been the voice of a cartoon character, but his work on "Legend of the Lost Tribe", where he played Robbie the Reindeer, was a vastly different experience.

"I was actually re-voicing a reindeer that was originally a British reindeer for a British animation thing so it was more like going into something that was already finished and trying to give it something," he said. "'Madagascar' was really more about creating something from the ground up so it was definitely a very different process. We didn't even see any drawings except for some preliminary sketches for a long, long time. It was much more organic."

Like a lot of roles, the character of Alex developed over time for Stiller. Unlike other characters, though, Alex didn't come together over a few weeks of rehearsal or a few weeks of shooting the movie. It took almost 4 years.

"I actually think this is the hardest acting job in the world because so much of it has to come from within the actors themselves," explained Jeffrey Katzenberg, executive producer of "Madagascar" and the man who picked Stiller to be the voice of Alex. "When they record their characters, there aren't props, there aren't other actors and there aren't situations where they can get into character. They have to just stand in the recording studio and do it. And because of the nature of the process of how these films are made, where they are made and remade over the course of three or four years, they may have to go through the creative proves over and over again, but when it is over, the actors have complete ownership of every aspect of their characters."

As the process wore on and he saw more and more completed footage, Stiller also started to notice that as he was becoming Alex, Alex was becoming Ben Stiller. "I knew there were things about Alex that I identified with, like he is sort of a creature of habit that likes the status quo. I can totally understand that. I like familiarity," he said. "But then I started to notice Alex uses his hands a lot when he talks, which is something I didn't notice I did until after I saw him do it.

"I think he might even be doing me doing Zoolander, and that might mean a lawsuit,' Stiller added with a laugh. "If it's Blue Steel, it's okay. If it's Magnum, they're in trouble."

While he may be flattered about the way Alex took on some of his personality traits, Stiller wished the folks at DreamWorks had called in a stunt voice when it came time to record Alex singing the classic salute to the city he calls home, "New York, New York." "That was probably one of the most uncomfortable moments of my professional career. It was horrible. And they kept on putting it off. I think for months and months they kept on saying, "Oh, 'New York New York,' we'll do that next time." And then it came the day to do it and it was?it just was... it was bad. But at least its funny."

While he will have to wait until Friday, May 27th to read the official reviews to see if the critics agree that "Madagascar" is funny, Stiller already has one vote of confidence that he and his cast mates did a good job. His three-year-old daughter Ella Olivia loves the movie.

"Having children makes being part of a movie like this special," he said. "Having a three year old I see what a big part these animated shows are of her life. Watching the old Disney movies like 'Lady and the Tramp' with them for the first time you realize just how timeless these films are when they work."