Comparisons to Jim Carrey: Steve Carell’s perfectly fine with being compared to Jim Carrey. “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’ve watched him and I’ve enjoyed all of his movies.
I was telling somebody when I was living in Chicago, I was there the day before the original Ace Ventura opened. 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. 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 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 honor to me. Even if I am unfavorable compared to Jim Carrey I take that as a compliment.”
Keeping His Day Job: Fans of The Office will be happy to learn Carell has no plans to dessert the series for film work. Asked how much more time he’s giving himself for doing The Office, Carell responded, “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 in television or in movies. 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.”
So how would his character Michael Scott from The Office handle the same request from God? “How would Michael Scott, like, become a modern day Noah? Wow, that’s an interesting [question]. 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).”
And Speaking of His Office Co-Stars: Jenna Fischer seriously injured her back during a party celebrating the series’ last show for the 2006-2007 season. “She’s doing much better,” said Carell. “She’s back in Los Angeles. She will be completely fine. She’s going to kind of lay low. She wasn’t working this summer, so she can kind of just take it easy and start rehabbing it. But she’s going to be fine.”
Up Next – Dan in Real Life: Carell plays a parenting advice columnist in the film which was written and directed by Peter Hedges (Pieces of April) and which will hit theaters in October 2007. “Well, it is interesting. It involves a guy who is who fairly recently widowed,” explained Carell. “Like three years, four years before, and he’s been raising these three daughters on his own. They are reaching a point in their young adult lives, at least two of them, that he doesn’t know what to do with. 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 let’s things sort of get away from him in terms of his own kids.”
