I've another child on the way. We've actually been playing the sound of the movie up against my wife's belly, and the signs are very good! 
One of the hardest working man in Hollywood, Ben Stiller has starred in ten movies in the last five years. Recent highlights for the 39-year-old writer, producer, director and star include Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball and Meet The Fockers. In the computer animated family film Madagascar he voices Alex the Lion, star attraction at New York's Central Park Zoo, who sets off with two pals to rescue Marty (a zebra voiced by Chris Rock) when he pursues his dreams of wide open spaces beyond their caged home.
How do you approach voicing a lion?
Alex is a New Yorker, who is sort of an actor. I looked at it that way. He put on a show in the zoo every day, and he really loved the adulation of the crowd. It was very much about performing. So that was really how I approached it.
Did you get a glimpse of what the character would look like while you were recording the vocal track?
They showed us pictures before we started. They already had the idea of what the animals were going to look like. They showed us storyboards and everything. I like how Alex looks, he has nice hair, it needs to be blown out but once that's done it has a nice texture. And then it kind of frizzes out once he's in the jungle - which happens with that kind of hair.
Did you know any of your co-stars before this film?
Chris Rock and I go back at least 15 years - we're the same age and we're both from New York. Whenever we run into each other we have fun. It's one of those nice things, and that contributed to the relationship on screen, because we weren't ever in the same place for the recording. It was helpful to somehow have a reference point in your head of who you're talking to.
One of the ideas explored in the film is the idea of freedom versus security and home comforts. Which would you plump for?
I like to spend time in a comfortable home environment, especially when you've got a young child, it's good to be home. But I do like to travel too, so I guess I'm sort of an enigma.
Your performance at the microphone was taped for the CG animators to refer to - were you surprised at just how animated you were while you were doing it?
I realised that from hearing the playback sometimes. Obviously the microphone doesn't pick up gestures, but I noticed they put in a lot of hand gestures in the movie. I didn't ask to see video, I don't like to look at that. When you're doing it you really want to get outside of thinking about what you look like, because most of the time you look pretty silly if you're having to do the sound of falling down a hill or talking with sand in your mouth, or something like that.
Have your own children seen the film yet?
I have a daughter who's three, and we have another child on the way. We've actually been playing the sound of the movie up against my wife's belly, and the signs are very good. There's a lot of movement in there!
Madagascar is released in UK cinemas on Friday 15th July 2005.
