Q+A Drew Carey

The actor-comedian has been following the U.S. soccer men's national team--and moonlighting as a photographer

SI: You shot the recent U.S.-England soccer game as well as the Lamont Brewster--Andrew Golota fight (below). How did that come about?

Carey: If I wasn't a comic or TV star, my other dream job was to be a photojournalist. I envy [photographer] Carolyn Cole from the L.A. Times, and when I see Christiane Amanpour on TV, I think, Man, wouldn't it be great to be her cameraman and be at these cool places where history is changing. Plus, being a celebrity, you always get good seats to sporting events, but you never get seats as good as the photographers get. I want to learn sports photography so I can get better seats to sporting events [laughs].

SI: Do you have a favorite photo that you've taken?

Carey: For a while my screen saver was a picture I took of Polish fighter Tomasz Adamek, who was on the undercard of the Brewster-Golota fight. It was out of a slasher movie, like Friday the 13th. There was blood down his face and chest and arms.

SI: Growing up in Cleveland, which opposing athlete did you hate the most?

Carey: John Elway and Terry Bradshaw. Notice how much thought I had to put into that.

SI: Ever get the chance to share that with either of them?

Carey: I had to meet John Elway for a TV commercial we were doing together. Just shaking his hand was ugh. I used to think about him dying in a car crash. Honestly. And so I'm shaking his hand going, "Hey, hi, nice to meet you, John." But he ended up being a nice guy, which was even worse. He knows everybody in Cleveland hates him. He just laughs about it.

SI: Think there will ever come a day where you'll get bored traveling the world to watch soccer?

Carey: I don't know. Do you ever get tired of looking at beautiful women? Watching soccer and traveling are like the two greatest things you can do. --Richard Deitsch

COLOR PHOTO

MIREK TOWSKI/DMI/AP (CAREY)

COLOR PHOTO

JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES (CAREY RINGSIDE)