John Leguizamo is looking back fondly on voicing Sid in the Ice Age franchise. In a recent interview, the actor opened up about how the role helped him pay for his kids’ college. Leguizamo is currently earning praise for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
John Leguizamo says his Ice Age earnings paid for homes and kids’ college
John Leguizamo recently spoke with Entertainment Tonight to discuss his return as Sid the Sloth in the upcoming movie Ice Age: Boiling Point, which will be the sixth installment in the beloved animated franchise. During the interview, the actor expressed his gratitude for the role and how it helped him out financially.
“It paid my bills!” Leguizamo shared. The actor added, “It got me a second and a triple home. It paid for my kids’ college.” He also said that voicing Sid had allowed him “to be really as funny” as he wanted to be.
Leguizamo added, “Movies are more dramatic usually, but in that, I got to be hilarious. I got to be so silly and create this incredible character and creature.”
At one point, Entertainment Tonight showed Leguizamo a clip of an interview from 2002 in which he opened up about playing the beloved character. “I said, ‘Give me some Discovery Channel footage on sloths,’ and of course, you’re watching, and it’s like there’s a sloth on fire, and he’s running,” the actor said at the time.
“And just when I was about to turn it off two hours later, it still hadn’t moved. The narrator said, ‘They store food in their mouths.’ That’s how I started to come up with this sort of lateral lisp, from all the food. And that’s how we started to come up with the character,” he explained.
Reacting to the old interview, Leguizamo said that he “can’t really let go of Sid the Sloth” and can often find himself talking with Sid’s iconic lisp. The actor went on to tease Ice Age: Boiling Point, sharing, “Now we got number six coming up. They’re reuniting the trio, bringing Queen Latifah aboard, and I think J. Lo’s in it as well. I mean, everybody’s coming back for this one.”
Most recently, Leguizamo played Eumaeus in Christopher Nolan’s 2026 epic movie The Odyssey.
