Anybody who watches “The Late Late Show with
But he was making a living with his voice in
animated movies long before the talk show came around. Ferguson has
voiced characters in “The Legend of Tarzan,” “American Dad, “The Angry
Beavers” and “Freakazoid!”
You can hear him next in the new animated feature
“How to Train Your Dragon” as the voice of Gobber, a one-armed,
one-legged Viking who is head instructor at a school that teaches young
warriors to fight dragons.
Ferguson enjoys animation because of the freedom it gives him.
“It allows you to do stuff,” he says. “You’re not
constricted by your body. You can be an amputee Viking without having
to do all sorts of awful things to your body.”
Some actors worry about portraying characters
without their hands, faces and bodies to convey emotion. Not Ferguson.
He says animated films have made him a better actor because they push
his imagination.
Ferguson, also known as the wicked Mr. Wick in “The
Drew Carrey Show,” likes to keep his acting simple. That’s why you’ll
hear his natural Scottish accent in most of his work.
He takes that approach on his late-night show, too.
He wants his talk show to feel like a living room where celebrities are
just chatting.
“With me, what you see is what you get. If I make
mistakes, they stay in the show. The only time we cut the show is if it
runs too long,” Ferguson says. “The late-night show is pretty much me.
I’m not that cheerful all the time, but you get the idea of who I am.”
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(c) 2010, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).
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