Wayne Brady Makes Most Of 'Little' Opportunity

Sure, he's playing a skunk: but actor-comedian Wayne Brady said his new gig in the latest chapter of the "Stuart Little" movie series hardly stinks.

Brady plays Reeko, a skunk who comes to discover the true meaning of friendship when he's befriended by Stuart on a camping outing in the made-for-video release of "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild."

The film, new on DVD this week (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), segues from live-action/animated territory into 100 percent animation this time out, but still features the first two films stars, Michael J. Fox, Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie, in voice roles.

Part of what Brady loves about his new bag is that he gets a chance to get funky, a la James Brown, for a song in the film.

"We were doing the 'Reeko Funk' -- that was a blast," Brady told me in an @ The Movies interview this week. "I wrote that with a buddy of mine, Cat Grey, it was fun making a skunk sing."

Brady is no stranger to voice roles, having done such mic gigs as "Batman Beyond" and "Clifford's Really Big Movie." But he's a familiar face in front of the camera, too, with the Emmy Award-winning "The Wayne Brady Show" and the hilarious improv series "Whose Line is It Anyway?"

He also made waves with his gut-busting appearance on the second season of "Chappelle's Show" in 2004, where the always-sunny Brady got to show his dark side by taking over Dave Chappelle's talk show -- and showing a frightened Chappelle a thing or two about the streets.

And while his latest venture is kids fare, don't go looking for Brady to belittle his "Stuart Little" role. In fact, Brady said, he's a big fan of the movie series plus, there's a certain audience member that he's thrilled to entertain.

"Being a family man -- I have a 3-year-old girl -- you start trying to do things that will appeal to your family as well," Brady told me. "So, I love the fact that my daughter, at 3, can watch this 'Stuart Little' DVD and love it and go, 'That's Daddy's voice! That's Daddy's voice! That's him!' It's such of an amazing feeling. Doing the kids' stuff, whether it's 'Stuart Little,' 'Sesame Street' or 'Reading Rainbow,' almost trumps anything else you do, because your kid loves it so much."

Making "Stuart Little" an even better experience for Brady was that the film, like its previous two installments, had some substance. In the case of Reeko, the movie examines self-esteem.

"It was great because the writers end up teaching a lesson -- and the lesson as far as Reeko was concerned, was being OK with yourself," Brady explained. "When you're a skunk, and none of the other characters in the forest want to spend time with you, you end up put a defense wall and not being very well liked.

"Stuart showed Reeko that he could take down that wall, and just let people like him for him," Brady added. "At one point I say, 'You don't like me because I'm a skunk,' and they say, 'No, we don't like you because you're a jerk.' He couldn't understand that. There was a good lesson there."

From here, the 33-year-old Orlando, Fla., native has several projects in the works, including a hidden camera show, "Joke's on You," set to air this summer on CBS; and he's writing a sitcom pilot for the new CW network called "Man's World."

One thing you won't see him in again, he assured, is a "Wayne Brady Show"-type of gig.

"It was great and I enjoyed my time on it, but everyone wants to box you in (by saying) 'We want you to be a talk show host now.' Why would I want to do that?" Brady asked. "I've been acting since I was 16 and it's gotten me this far, and the last thing I would want to do is a talk show again. It was great time, I won three Emmys and I got to do things and got to meet stars that I wanted to. But you have to go on and keep sampling all that the business has to offer."

Brady said his biggest hang-up with being a talk show host was that it was so limiting.

"It takes a lot of time and you can do only that," Brady explained. "When I was doing a talk show there were a few nice movie roles that came up, but because of my contract with Disney, I couldn't do them. So, I made a note that I would not let myself get in another spot again where I couldn't do the kind of stuff I want to do."

Being in tight quarters sometimes forced Brady to take big risks. For instance, he had to cancel three days of his talk show to work on his now-famous appearance on "Chappelle's Show" -- a risk that's obviously paid off.

"They were a little irritated at me by doing that, but at a certain point, I realized that it was going to be such a special thing," Brady recalled. "There was no way that I wasn't going to make it."

As for teaming up Chappelle again, Brady told me that he's always game.

"There are a couple movie scripts floating around, and we've talked about doing something together in the past," Brady enthused. "He's in the midst of doing whatever, but if I get the chance to work with him again I'd really love to. He's a real smart, humble and funny guy."