But "animation is such a cush job in show business," said Martin. "I mean, who doesn't want to do it?"
Plus, there's that voice, a flexible instrument that in person carries a distinctive rasp.
"My whole career, people said to me, 'We hear you're going to be on TV or we see in TV Guide, but we don't even wait - we're doing our dishes in the kitchen, we hear that voice and we shoot in.' So it's about time I got some voice work," she said.
The Spring House, Montgomery County, native, who got her start in summer stock at the old LaSalle Musical Theatre while still at Wissahickon High School in the 1960s, has also had plenty of TV face time in recent years, as Mac's mom - "the grossest mom on the planet" on FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and as the cross-dressing Selma Greene on HBO's "Big Love."
I confessed to having been a bit terrified by Selma.
"I don't think she was terrifying at all," Martin said, laughing. "She had a soft spot here and there."
Recalling her "Big Love" audition, she said, "They wrote it as a 'he/she.' So when I read the sides - they don't give you the whole script anymore, they only give you a few sheets of paper - I thought, hmm, they can't decide whether they want a man or a woman in this role. But my friend Grace Zabriskie, who I'd done a ton of plays with, is Lois on the show, I called her . . . and she said, 'Well, I don't know, Sandy. But I'd go wearing a suit.'
"So I went and I wore a nice woman's suit and it was Halloween. And they were telling me, 'Get spookier, get spookier . . . '
