INT: Steve Carell

You
know what’s better than an incredibly funny guy who actually makes
you laugh out loud? How about
an incredibly nice and genuine guy who makes you laugh?
Yes, I’m talking about Steve Carell.
You’ve seen him in TV’s “The Office”, you may
have caught him in BRUCE ALMIGHTY in a supporting role, and in the
surprise hit LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, plus many more.
But it was THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN that made people want to
see this dude on the big screen. Well,
you have a chance to see him again EVAN
ALMIGHTY as another average joe forced to do the Lord’s
work.

When
a group of us had the chance to talk with Mr. Carell over at the
magical world of Universal Studios it was nice to see what a truly
decent person he is. There was
no pretension about him, only a very nice and downright cool guy.
His work in “The Office” is really brilliant, as is
most of his other work so it is really nice to see that he is still
a very down to earth guy with respect for those who are not lucky
enough to be paid millions of bucks per picture.
It’s a great quality and one that is especially nice to see
in such a successful career. And
as for EVAN ALMIGHTY, your chance to see God, and a Noah in training
will be this Friday, June 22nd.

Steve
Carell

Your character seems to have a difficult time with his
kids. What about you in real life?

My
kids are angels and never do anything wrong and are never
aggravating and are perfect in every way, except… no, I have a
three and a six-year old, so, I think everybody goes through that.
The kids in the movie are a little bit older than mine. But yeah, I
mean, everybody goes through problems and difficulties and
brattiness and where to draw the line. And, it was interesting too,
because we sort of bonded with the kids who played our kids in the
movie because we spent a lot of time driving around in that Hummer.

They
were just in the back seat, and there were times when they would not
stop. They were like doing… [Laughing] and they were getting dirty
and they were telling dirty jokes to each other and they were
laughing and we were trying to do a take and they’d be all over
the place. So, Lauren and I sort of became the parental figures.
It was like, ‘O.K. guys!’ It was like good cop/bad
cop. And I was generally bad cop with the kids. We got along really
well with them. There was no —the kids were almost as good as the
animals.

Have
you talked to Stephen Colbert about the pro-bear agenda in this
movie?

The
pro-bear agenda?

Yeah, I wonder what he’d think of you rescuing the
godless killing machines on the ark.

[Laughing]
I have not talked to Stephen about the godless killing machines.
I’m sure he would weigh in on it on his show. And maybe
he’ll go after the movie. I hope he goes after the movie on his
show, because, of course, that would, in turn be a vote of
confidence.

You
had faith in this from the get–go? Why
did you commit so quickly to it?

Well
mostly because of Tom [Shadyac]. The first movie I ever did was
“Bruce Almighty” and Tom took very good care of me. And it was
funny, when I went to the premiere of that, I had no idea I’d even
be in the final cut. And it was right here at the Universal
Amphitheater and I remember going and sitting there and there my
scene was intact. And I had so much fun doing it and it was sort of
a dream. A couple of years before I got the part, I remember
watching “Liar, Liar”. And I was watching the outtakes and Jim
Carrey just making everybody laugh and how much fun they looked to
be having.

And
then two years later I was doing “Bruce Almighty”, and it was
exactly that and then I was in the outtakes. And then the chance to
work with Tom, again, sort of on a one-on-one basis, was like a
dream come true. It was, how the last few years came about, was very
surreal for me. He actually came and pitched it to me and I thought
that he was going to pitch the idea of a sequel, starring Jim, and
then maybe featuring me, as you know, another thorn in his side kind
of character. But then when he said, ‘We’d like you to
play the title role,’ I was like, ‘You had me at ‘Hello.’’
I was totally there.

You
play a parenting advice columnist in “Dan In Real Life”; I
was wondering if you took your own philosophy
for that role?

Um,
well it is interesting, it involves a guy who is who fairly recently
widowed. Like three years, four years before. And he’s been
raising these three daughters on his own. And they are reaching a
point in their young adult lives, at least two of them, that he
doesn’t know what to do with. And he still has one who is kind of
a baby little girl that he can still manage.

But,
one of the themes of the movie is that he doesn’t take his own
advice and he lets things sort of get away from him in terms of his
own kids. So, did I take my own personal [philosophy]? I don’t
know. I don’t even know if I have kind of a personal, like a take
or a mental manual of how I’m raising kids. It’s really – I
think with everybody, it’s just day-to-day and you just try to
deal with each situation as they come. And I think that’s
essentially what that character does as well.

Tom
mentioned that he’s a Jesus freak…

He
mentioned that he’s a Jesus freak? How did that come up in idle
conversation? ‘Oh, incidentally…’

So,
I was wondering, what is your philosophy on religion?

See,
I don’t see it that way. I don’t see it as a biblical comedy. I
see it as a fable. I see it as a comedy that is based upon a
story of the Old Testament, but you know, I don’t see it as a
religious comedy in any way, shape or form. I think it’s a fable;
it’s a tale about a guy who has to make a huge leap of faith. In
terms of my own personal beliefs or convictions…? That’s –
honestly, I think that’s such a personal thing that I don’t want
that to infuse my promotion of this movie, because I also think that
that narrows it. Because I think the movie is really for everybody.
It is for any faith or non-faith. I think the message behind it is
if people could just be a little kinder and take care of each other
and the world we live in. And I think that’s a universal theme as
opposed to a religious ideology.

In
this movie you are very funny, are you trying to move into more
romantic leading man roles?

You
know what? I’m frankly; I am willing to take almost any job
offered me at this point. So, I’m pretty amenable. I don’t
really have a path set. Like, ‘I need to do this kind of movie and
then that. And then I need to switch it up and play a psychopathic
killer and then I need to…’ I don’t look at it that way. I
thought the script of “Dan in Real Life” was great and Peter
Hedges is a very, very thoughtful filmmaker. And his “Pieces of
April” I thought was fantastic. And he wrote “About a Boy” and
“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”.

So,
he’s really an accomplished person, so I thought, ‘That’s
somebody I’d love to work with. So, it wasn’t so much, ‘Oh, I
want to do a romantic comedy with Juliette Binoche.’ It was more
like, ‘Wow! I think that could be good and interesting and I think
the script will be really good.’ In terms of working with Tom,
that was, again, just a delight. “Get Smart” – just something
I loved growing up with as a kid and getting the chance to bring
that to a movie screen. We are twelve weeks in, we are almost done
shooting that and I think that is going to be fantastic. I’m very
bullish about “Get Smart” for next summer, too.

With all these movies you’re becoming a big movie
star…

Oh,
I’m internationally famous. [Laughing]

How
much more time do you give yourself for doing “The Office”?

I’ll
give them 20 minutes every day for five days straight and that will
be it for the season. So, whatever they can get, that’ll be it.
No, I love it. I think just in terms of writing and I think value,
nothing beats that. I think it is such a smart group of people and
people are really devoted to the show and actors who I think are
fantastic – every one of them. We’re very lucky. That sort of
group of people doesn’t come together very often on television or
in movies. I just don’t think that – it’s sort of a brain
trust in my opinion — especially the writing team. It’s really
remarkable. So, I’m extremely happy and still very proud to be a
part of it.

How
do you think Michael Scott would handle the same task from God?

[Laughing]
How would Michael Scott, like, become a modern day Noah? Wow,
that’s an interesting question. Well, Michael — I have no idea.
He would probably, well he would probably get Creed to come in and
build the ark. So, he wouldn’t want to do it himself. And Jan
would end up; Jan would convince him not to do it because she rides
roughshod over him anyway. So, he probably wouldn’t end up doing
it, because in his mind, Jan might be more powerful than God
himself. [Laughing]

Can
you talk about the special Boston benefit for Dana Farber?

I
met this woman whose son has been suffering with brain cancer and
it’s a very rare form of brain cancer. And as a Make-A-Wish, he
had come to visit the set of “The Office”. And
I got to talking to her – she is from the Boston area – and she
asked whether at some point I wouldn’t mind hosting some sort of
benefit, because there is not a lot of funding for his specific type
of cancer. So, we got to talking and we coordinated with my manager
and with Universal and put together an advance sort of Boston
premiere for ‘Evan’ to benefit Dana Farber and this specific
brain cancer, pediatric brain cancer, so that’s how that came
about. That’s on the 21st, I believe.

What
was your most difficult scene to shoot? Was it with an animal or
with the birds?

I
think it might have been, it was early on. It might have been those
birds on me. They were on me for a few days straight. And they were
real. That wasn’t a computer-generated flock of birds on me. So, I
think the fact that they would literally not get off of me and I
could move around and I don’t know how they trained them to do it,
but they would go nowhere. And frankly, and to be blunt, they were
all well fed before shooting began. So, that posed it’s own set of
difficulties as well.

Was
that the worst thing to have those birds on you?

It
wasn’t fun. That was certainly up there.

Were
they pecking your hands?

They
were pecking on my ear and my hands. They didn’t like them.

Were
the snakes in the car scenes real too?

Well
it was interesting, because the snake that you see was CGI’d. The
snakes that they used, they couldn’t use because they kept
crawling down the back of my jacket. And these were like pythons.
These were serious, big, nasty snakes. But they couldn’t use it,
because you couldn’t see them. They were there, but they were just
like in my clothes. (Laughing) So, I had to suffer through that and
then they generate a snake over me. But, I did suffer for the art.
You have to know that.

You
speak to certain bitterness about some of the animals in the
production notes…

I
would never speak with bitterness about any of the animals. I
loved them all desperately.

Well,
what were the most lovable animals and what were the ones you
least-liked?

Loveable?
Giraffes and elephants – very soulful faces, kind, sweet, gentle.
Reprehensible, the baboons were horrifying. There is one scene
when the baboons bring me lemonade. And in one take, one of the
baboons spilled the lemonade and I went off book and I improvised
and said something like, ‘Hey man? What are you doing?’ And I
raised my voice maybe to that degree [expressing his tone], and the
baboon thought I was getting aggressive with it and it bared its
teeth and took a very aggressive stance with me. And it scared the
hell out of me.

And
after the take the trainer came and said, ‘You know what, don’t
do that. Really don’t talk to the baboon.’ And then he paused
and said, ‘You know what? As a matter of fact, don’t look the
baboon in the eye.’ And I’m like, ‘What? Why didn’t
you tell me before they were shooting not to look the baboon in the
eye?’ So, they were a little ornery. Yeah, the camel’s breath…
In an enclosed space, a camel’s breath can change the atmosphere
of the room. Not only just the smell, they literally seem to change
the atmospheric pressure. It’s so disgusting. It’s like they
have eight stomachs each more rancid then the next and it just comes
out of their mouth. So, those two would probably be the ones I
wouldn’t take home as pets.

Did
you have a favorite wig or get up at all?

Oh
they were all my favorites I guess. Just in terms of my intrinsic
sexiness in them, I would say the mountain man look. That was like
the third stage of growth, which to me looked like a ‘70’s
tennis pro. Kind of like a Bjorn Borg… a little mystery… might
have been a few days without a shower or bath, a little grubby, a
little greasy. I think that is my personal favorite.

How
tough was the daily regimen to put that on?

It
was fine. You know, the people who applied it were such artists.
David Anderson who is I think one of the best special effects
make-up artists in the business, did all the design and crafting of
those wigs and beards and it was about 3-4 hours to put it on in the
morning and about an hour to take it off, but I really, I never want
to hear myself complaining about it. Because you hear actors
complaining about prosthetic makeup and, you know, it’s not fun,
but let’s face it, I’m not on a roof in 100-degree weather
putting tar down. I’m getting a beard stuck on my face. It’s
really not that bad.

You
said you see this as a sort of fable. Do you see this as a
kid’s movie? What do you think the message
of it is?

I
wouldn’t say it’s a kid’s movie, I think it is a movie, and
you know; this is sort of a fine line to walk to. Whenever I hear
someone describe something as a ‘kids movie’ or a ‘family
movie,’ it immediately has a negative connotation in my mind
because I think, ‘Well, as an adult, I wouldn’t go see it by
myself, because it’s purely for children and it holds nothing for
me and it’s simplistic and it’s kind of easy.’ I don’t see
the movie as that. I see it as, I hope, as having a fairly broad
appeal.

Because
I think it’s funny. I think it would be very funny for kids, but I
think likewise for adults. I think message-wise? Another fine
line… I was hoping that the movie had a strong message, but subtle
message, about our environment, about taking care of it and taking
care of each other and acts of kindness to one another. And sort of
leaving people with a bit of a positive message and making people
happy, but my goal beyond that was to make it funny without making
it preachy or overly sentimental or overly precious. In no way — I
don’t think this movie crams any message down anybody’s throat.
I think it’s done with a fairly light touch. At least I hope so.

You
didn’t have any scenes in the first film with Morgan Freeman. Did
you get to meet him?

I
never did.

What
was it like on this film then?

I
never met him on the first one. I saw him from a distance at the
premiere, but I was far too nervous and shy to approach him and say
‘Hi.’ And I was almost too shy to approach him on this one as
well. He’s just a presence. He walks around and people have a
great amount of respect and reverence for him really. He’s such a
fantastic actor and all you want to do is be around him. He’s the
type of actor I think, the best kind, because he makes everyone else
he’s with better than they are.

And
he’s great and could not have been sweeter and has an enormously
good sense of humor about himself. So, that was, you know, I’ve
been so lucky in the past couple of years, I’ve worked with Alan
Arkin and Juliette Binoche and Catherine Keener and I’ve worked
with Morgan Freeman. These are people who I hold in such high
regard, among others that I’ve worked with. But, yeah, he’s one
of those sort of iconic people that I think anyone would love to get
to work with at some point.

How
do you keep a balance between your family and your career?

I
use sports energy drinks. Highly caffeinated sports energy drinks is
the answer. You know, I’m sort of – I am the type of person who is
always waiting for the other shoe to drop. So, I’m not taking any
of what is happening now for granted and essentially I know that
there’s a window of time when I’ll be able to do these things
and I’m just trying to take advantage of that now, while at the
same time, being very cautious to not let it interfere with my
family life. That, to me, is the line. If it starts to bleed over
into time away from my family, then it’s sort of not going to
happen, but so far I’ve been able to balance those things.

Can
you talk about building the ark? We heard you got some
training for it…

I
got some training? I think one day a guy said, ‘Now this is an
auger. And you put it here and you press down there.’ I didn’t
get any training. [Laughing] I don’t know who put that in the
little liner notes. Yeah, oh yeah. I am so not handy. There is no
way. It would take me several hundred years to build one of those
ribs for that ark. The amount of work that would take…. Even a
skilled master carpenter, it is, to stand. I mean, imagine this room
— and we are in a large viewing room — the ark was maybe twice as
wide as this and 450 feet long.

It
was, just the structure and the magnitude of this project. And for
Tom, it was very important for him to actually build it. And he was
right. And we were talking about it early on and he said that
in his mind he had this idea of me at night in front of the ark and
it’s just this massive, hulking thing. It’s almost like another
character in the movie. And you just couldn’t get that if you did
it as a computer generation or a backdrop of some sort. But, no, I
could maybe build a boat the size of this table that would then
sink. No way.

Can
you talk about working opposite Wanda Sykes and ad-libbing with her?

I
was so close to ruining so many of her takes, because she just makes
me laugh. And there were times, she was doing one scene where she
was on the phone, just calling in. And Tom had her just riffing
doing different lines over and over and over. I was standing at the
monitors and I literally had to leave the room, because I was going
to ruin what she was doing because it was so funny. She’s really
– she’s kind of beyond funny. She has a very sarcastic, biting
sense of humor. She’s
kind of made her mark that way, but in person, very warm, very
sweet, kind, kind of a gentle soul that you don’t necessarily see.
And I hope I didn’t pull the curtain aside on who she really is,
but she was great, really fun.

Do
you like people comparing you to Jim Carrey at all?

I
love it. No, I take that as a huge compliment. To even be mentioned
in the same sentence with him, yeah, that’s a huge compliment to
me. I think he’s great. I’ve watched him and I’ve enjoyed all
of his movies. And I was telling somebody when I was living in
Chicago, I was there maybe a day after the original “Ace
Ventura” opened. And it was before it had really caught on and
people started catching on to him as a movie star. I saw it like
within a day and there might have been four people in the theater
– a large theater.

And
from the opening credit sequence, we were howling and I remember the
guy in front of me, turning around and looking at me and saying,
‘I know! I can’t believe it!’ Like we had found this
thing and the four of us were in a little club together and like we
were witnessing something. So yeah, to have been in ‘Bruce
Almighty’ and to have been in scenes with him was a real thrill
and honor for me. Even if I am unfavorably compared to Jim Carrey, I
take that as a compliment. Thanks.

Let
me know what you think. Send
questions or comments to [email protected].