John Leguizamo says a quarter-century of voicing an animated sloth has done more for his finances than any dramatic role he’s taken on. Speaking with Entertainment Tonight during his press tour for “The Odyssey,” the actor credited the “Ice Age” franchise with funding both his children’s college educations and multiple homes, describing it as the financial foundation that let him pursue riskier creative work elsewhere.
Leguizamo has voiced Sid the Sloth since the original “Ice Age” debuted in 2002, a film that earned an Oscar nomination for best animated feature and grossed $383 million worldwide. The franchise expanded rapidly from there: 2006’s “The Meltdown” brought in $667 million, and 2009’s “Dawn of the Dinosaurs” pushed past $886 million to become one of that year’s top-grossing films globally. Leguizamo has said separately that his paychecks grew substantially after the first sequel’s success, giving him leverage he lacked on the original film, for which he was paid scale.
The actor said the role allowed him the freedom to work as a stage performer without financial pressure, calling the character’s comedic latitude a contrast to the more dramatic parts that have defined much of his career. He pointed to real estate and tuition as the clearest evidence of what the franchise provided, noting that the earnings covered both his children’s schooling and additional properties beyond his primary residence.
Leguizamo now returns for “Ice Age: Boiling Point,” the sixth installment in a series that has grossed roughly $3.2 billion since its debut. The new film reunites him with original cast members Ray Romano and Denis Leary and adds Queen Latifah and Jennifer Lopez to the ensemble, according to the actor. Described by the studio as a prehistoric adventure that sends Manny, Sid, Diego and the rest of the herd into new corners of the franchise’s Lost World setting, “Boiling Point” is set for release on February 5, 2027.
The comments arrive as Leguizamo draws attention for a different kind of role entirely, playing Eumaeus in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” currently running in theaters. The actor has spent recent weeks promoting that film while also teasing the long-running animated series that has quietly underwritten much of his career, a split that he suggested reflects exactly the balance he set out to create between commercial security and artistic freedom.
