If it seems as though we’ve been hearing about the Get Smart movie forever, it’s because the buzz started early on this big screen version of the classic comedy series. During the summer of 2007, director Peter Segal and gang were in San Diego at the Comic Con to promote the movie and now on June 20th Get Smart finally heads into theaters everywhere. Segal is well aware of the expectations of diehard fans of the series and kept those folks in mind throughout the filmmaking process. In addition, Segal and his cast know there are Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, and Alan Arkin fans out there who've never watched the series and want to be able to understand the plot as easily as those who followed the series back in the day. It’s a tough balance to find, but Segal believes he’s done it with the Get Smart feature film.
Segal made sure he touched base with the men behind the TV series – the braintrust he refers to as ‘the three kings.’ Segal spoke to Mel Brooks, Buck Henry and Leonard Stern, and Stern even visited the Get Smart set. Segal claims it was nerve-wracking to speak to them because he was such a fan of the original series and greatly respected their work. “I have to say, Mel and Buck recently saw it within the last two weeks,” said Segal. “When Mel called me and he was going on and on and raving about it, I said, ‘Mel, you have no idea how much I've looked forward to and dreaded this phone call for the past two years.’”
Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, and Peter Segal Press Conference
Anne, how did you kick butt in heels? Was it fun or annoying being the only girl?
Anne Hathaway: “Annoying, no. No, no, no, I could never be annoyed with all these fine fellas up here. Especially you [Carell]. It was such a delight. I feel like I was so indulged on the set every day by these guys, being the only girl. It was fun. Some days I felt like they were trying to be very polite around me and keep the conversation to a more prim environment, and so I would just tell the dirtiest joke I could think of just to put everybody at ease.
As for the high heels, I had excellent training in The Devil Wears Prada for how to run around wearing them. So when it came time to just add some high kicks and jumps, it wasn't that bad. Having a stunt double who did it much better than me helped though.”
Steve, what were the challenges of dancing with the large lady?
Steve Carell: “I think the challenge was hers. She's actually a fantastic dancer and I am not, so I think the inherent challenge there was to try to make me look good. And if I may comment about the high heels for Anne, there were several scenes in the movie where we are running toward Disney Hall at full tilt. I was running as fast as I possibly could run. Anne Hathaway was wearing four, five, six inch heels and she was kicking my ass. I have no idea how that is physically possible.”
Did you look at the TV show or stay away?
Steve Carell: “I steered away from it because I didn't want to do an impression of Don Adams. I figured there was no way to improve upon what he had done. And I thought the more I watched of him, the more I would be inclined to be an impersonation because he was so good and so definitive in the role. So no, I sort of backed off of that.”
Alan Arkin: “In making it my own, I made the choice 30 years ago, not watching the show. It was easy.”
Anne Hathaway: “And I actually grew up watching the show on Nick at Nite and loved it, so it was really fun to revisit it. I wanted to revisit it because I was one of the last people cast, so I unfortunately missed the whole collaboration, ‘This is the movie we're making,’ part of the process. I wanted to make sure that I understood what tone we were trying to achieve. And I really think that in the final product, we've managed to kind of have that silly, sweet yet sophisticated feel that the original series had.”
Were there bumps blending action and comedy?
Peter Segal: “Not at all. Once Steve signed onto this project, everything sort of fell into place. Everybody wanted to come and play. And because of the tone that we set out to make, which Steve and I referred to as a comedic Bourne Supremacy, we went after the people who would make those kinds of movies. I've worked with Dean Semler several times. Deb Scott, the costume designer won her Oscar for Titanic. Because we knew the show had an iconic look, the fashion back then was so sharp and the '60s permeates a lot of fashion throughout the decades, unlike let's say the '70s. So we went after as primo a cast behind the scenes as we had in front of the cameras, because we knew what kind of tone we were trying to set.”
Anne, how do you select roles? Is there pressure to live up to iconic roles like Prada?
Anne Hathaway: “I think Meryl [Streep] had the iconic role. I think I was just the one who was kind of keeping the story moving and trying to keep the audience entertained while she was off screen. I've had tremendous - - I'm 25 years old and I've had tremendous luck in my life, in terms of movies that I've made for artistic reasons have gone on to become commercial successes. It's kind of dumb luck. You never know what's going to hit. Some movies that you think will have mass appeal flop. Other movies you think will be in a niche, you think it's going to be limited, make its money back and it goes on and way out-grosses any of your other films. The process is you just try to pick the best you can from what's available and you try to work with people that inspire you. That's just about it.”
