Ray Romano on Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas: "The First Couple of Sessions I Thought I Was Going to Get Fired"

Ray Romano said it plainly: "The first couple of sessions I would tell my manager, "You'd tell me if they fire me, right?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah." I g…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On November 16, 2011, Fox held a press call with Ray Romano ahead of Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, airing Thursday, November 24th from 8 to 8:30 p.m. on Fox. Romano voices Manny the mammoth in the franchise, which was also heading into its fourth theatrical installment, Ice Age: Continental Drift, set for July 13, 2012. Premier Guide Miami was among the outlets on the call.

The first couple of sessions I would tell my manager, "You'd tell me if they fire me, right?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah." I go, "Don't wait, just tell me. I can take it." And then I would come out of that one and think, well, now they'd really have to fire me. It is so bizarre. It's such a weird genre in that sense.

Getting into character — one line, repeated a dozen times

Romano described his method for finding Manny: "It takes a couple of minutes when I get into the recording studio. I have a line that I use as my mantra, my way in. And it's a line from the first movie where Sid is trying to get him to go somewhere and he just gets into Sid's face and he says, 'I'm not going.' So I repeat that about a dozen times until I feel it." He pushed back on the assumption that he's simply doing his own voice: "When people hear the movie they think that that's just me doing my voice and it's not. I'm tweaking my voice. It's Manny. I can distinguish between my normal speaking voice and Manny. I am doing the character. And yes, at this point, it's as simple as that — just repeating that line over and over again."

Recording in isolation — and why he thought he was going to get fired

Romano was candid about how disorienting the voice-acting process was, especially early on: "On the first film I had no idea. It was such a difference for me and when I went in and recorded there's no feedback. There's nothing. I seriously thought I was going to get fired." He described the piecemeal nature of the work: "I get the script, the original script, and you've got to remember this takes a year and a half to two years sometimes of recording. And you go in and you record for like a four-hour session and then you don't get another date to record for maybe two months — a month, two months, three months sometimes. And in that time they're storyboarding it and rewriting it and the script gets rewritten continuously. So each time you go in you don't know what scene you're doing." He noted that in four films, he had never been in the recording studio with another actor: "We're always on other sides of the country or this and that and you have to do it in piecemeal." The director's role becomes essential: "Each line the director has to tell you, 'Your daughter is lost and you haven't found her. And now you're on this ice shelf.' And each line you just have to prepare for each line from what he gives you. So it is a weird process in that sense. But it's also kind of exciting — one line you're being soft and emotional and the next line you're falling down an ice mountain."

On Manny — the every-man mammoth with family values

Asked what makes Manny relatable, Romano was direct: "He's kind of the every-man mammoth. He's a little bit of a curmudgeon on the outside but we know he's got a great heart. He's a big hulking figure but he's a softy, really. He's a family man. And the family is the most important thing to him. So he may seem like a grouch but he sticks up for his friends and his family. I think people know people like this and people are like this." On the franchise's longevity: "After we did the third I said, 'Wow, this is a great franchise but it's three and out, isn't it?' And sure enough the fans just wouldn't let it go." On the new film's premise: "The baby is now a teenager and it's a whole other set of circumstances. It's her trying to go out on her own and have a boyfriend, and Manny has to learn to let go. But there's a great adventure which moves the story." On the Santa Claus logic: "Mammoths don't talk either. So I just give over to it. It's just a story and it's fun to combine Santa with this world."

On comedy — relatability is half the battle

Romano offered his formula for comedy: "What works for me and also what appeals to me — it seems cliché but it is the truth — it's relatability. The standup that I was really drawn to and influenced me was like Bill Cosby. Guys who talk about family and life and things that you experienced and then they made it funny. That's what worked for me. That's what worked in Everybody Loves Raymond. We took our own life experiences. Again, this is animation — it's Ice Age and it's animals talking — but underneath it all, at the core, are just problems and relationships that people identify with. That's kind of half the battle in comedy, I think." On his own career path: "I originally was interested in acting. In college I took a couple of drama classes. But I think my heart was always into comedy and standup comedy mostly. When I became a standup comic I felt like this was my calling. Standup was a great vehicle to get me there and it did get me there — David Letterman signed me to the deal to do Raymond. But I still think I am a standup at my core."

Christmas traditions — and the one his family hates

Romano described his holiday traditions with characteristic self-awareness: "Christmas is a big one. I force the kids — the kids want to open all the gifts and presents Christmas Eve. And I'm a strict 'Christmas morning is the morning.' And a lot of people do Christmas Eve and it kind of drives my wife and the kids crazy. But one of my childhood memories is that Christmas morning, coming down, trying to wake your father up so you can get down. And he's got to go in the bathroom and shave and do whatever he's got to do and you're dying to get down there." His youngest was 13 at the time of the call. "He's still excited to get down and find what new videogame he's got. Midnight mass is a tradition. I am a midnight mass guy before Christmas Eve. So me and the family go to midnight mass." On his childhood holiday memory: "I always remembered Charlie Brown. That was when I think of my childhood and I think of Christmas and watching an animated film. It's A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the tree and Linus. That's where I go. It still holds up. My kids watched it when they were at that age and pretty soon my grandkids are going to watch it. Oh God, I'm old." Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas aired Thursday, November 24, 2011, on Fox.

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