His creature feature

Andy RICHTER speaks in many voices. Even in the span of a brief conversation, among those he mimics and affectionately mocks are his wife, his 4-year-old son, his manager and assorted other showbiz types (including Regis Philbin and Michael Caine). Then there is Mort, the lovable, plushy little lemur Richter gives voice to in the new animated film “Madagascar,” alongside the voice work of Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer and Chris Rock.

For many, Richter, 38, is still best remembered for his work as the postmodern Ed McMahon on the first seven years of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” Since then, he has starred in the television series “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” and “Quintuplets” and had supporting roles in such movies as “Big Trouble,” “Elf” and “Seeing Other People.”

The cast of “Madagascar” is pretty outstanding. How’d you get yourself in such esteemed company?

In acting there is a completely inverse proportion of work to payoff. I’m not even sure, and I don’t really want to know, whether or not it was an audition or if I already had the job. I had gone in to a recording session for “Father of the Pride,” another DreamWorks animation thing, which was being run by a friend of mine, Jonathan Groff, who was head writer on “Conan” for a number of years. I always discount that kind of job as nepotism anyway, but my manager called me and said, “There’s this other thing, some movie and they want you to read for some animal or something.” And that was as much as I knew.

So I recorded my guest spot for “Father of the Pride” and all those people cleared out, and a new batch of people came in, the directors and a producer, and they showed me some pictures of this little lemur. I asked what they thought he would sound like and they said “real high voice with a funny accent.” I said, “That sounds great.” So I recorded some lines and a few months later they called me back to record some more. Enough time goes by, you sort of forget, like, “Oh, yeah, I forgot I’m in a big cartoon!”

You make it sound almost more accidental than anything else.

I think that’s what all actors do, and then they just lie about it later. I hope, anyway, because otherwise I’m a complete charlatan. Especially this -- I know some people tell you voice work is really hard, but I don’t agree. Shakespeare at the Lincoln Center, that would be hard. This, I don’t know. Making silly voices to make people laugh is something I’ve done since I became verbal. And now that I have a kid, silly voices are a daylong occurrence.

Part of what’s so funny is that Mort doesn’t really sound like you.

I like that. I’ve done different voice things where they say, “Don’t make it too cartoon-y.” That’s like asking someone to design a car and saying, “We don’t want it to look too car-y.” I think, it’s a cartoon, don’t take all the fun out of it.

In particular, you, Cedric the Entertainer and Sacha Baron Cohen all as lemurs are quite a trio. Did you actually record in the studio with them?

No. Sacha and I actually just met a few months ago. The only time I’ve met him, until the recent press junket, is we both go to the same physical therapist. He messed up his ankle and I have bad knees, and that’s the only reason we’ve ever met.

When you left Conan, is this how you envisioned your career going?

I’m not a big envisioner. For me, it’s fun to be in cartoons. Just to say I’m a voice in a cartoon is tremendously satisfying. I think most people who are actors go through a period of thinking, “I can’t be an actor.” At least I know I did, thinking, “I can’t do that for a living, that’s not for people like me. That’s for a separate species.”

But then you get over that and feel like, this is my chosen trade and the career for which I am suited. Being in a pilot or some comedy, that’s like meat and potatoes for me. But to say I’m a voice in a cartoon somehow matches the initial absurdity I felt about being able to do this for a living. It comes to fruition and it’s still absurd, it’s still crazy and silly.

How did you deal with being on the bubble so long, waiting to hear if your show “Quintuplets” would continue?

I have a few things lined up. That’s what having a kid does, you’ve got to have contingencies. It definitely relaxes your artistic integrity. “Oh, I’m not so crazy about this script.” “Daddy, I’m hungry!” “That script looks pretty good.”

-- Mark Olsen