Steve Carell: Just say Noah

Hollywood — It’s not easy stealing a scene from funnyman Jim Carrey, but Steve Carell managed to generate some big laughs in the 2003 hit comedy Bruce Almighty as a rival TV newsman who gets his comeuppance from Carrey’s divinely powered Bruce. Though it was a supporting role, Carell’s Evan Baxter established the Concord, Mass., native as a star in the making.

Steve Carrell reprises his Evan Baxter character from Bruce Almighty.

His career subsequently shot up like a rocket. Supporting roles in the comedy hit Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and the critically acclaimed Little Miss Sunshine followed. In 2005, Carell landed his first starring role in the hit comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin. On the small screen, he stars in the Emmy-winning The Office, in which he plays idiot boss Michael Scott.

Despite his quick rise to fame, the 44-year-old actor remains a humble and modest fellow. Dressed in a finely tailored gray suit, he seems genuinely surprised as he arrives at a dimly lit screening room on the Universal Studios lot where some four-dozen reporters are assembled for a press conference.

"Wow!" he exclaims, surveying the assortment of recorders and microphones set on a table before him. Yet his sharp wit is clearly intact. "Could this be a dingier room?" he remarks. "Everyone’s going to fall asleep. I’ll try to spice things up."

Despite the box-office success of Bruce Almighty, in which God (Morgan Freeman) gives an ordinary Joe named Bruce divine power, Carrey opted not to return for the sequel - reportedly because he thought his character had "arched out." Undaunted, the filmmakers approached Carell, who had made audiences laugh in the original - particularly in a scene where his character speaks in tongues during a live TV newscast.

Tom Shadyac, who directed the first movie, enlisted Bruce co-writer Steve Oedekerk to pen the sequel, involving a contemporary comical take on the biblical story of Noah’s Ark.

Written for Carrey’s Bruce character, the script was rewritten for Carell, who reprises the role of Evan.

The sequel opens with Evan and his family relocating from Buffalo, N.Y., to a Washington, D.C. suburb upon his election to Congress. A bigwig politician (played by John Goodman) approaches the freshman legislator to co-sponsor a bill to turn federally protected parkland over to developers. Evan sees the alliance as an opportunity to boost his profile in Congress, but God (Freeman) has other plans for him. He instructs Evan to build an ark, fill it with two of every animal and prepare for a flood. Naturally, Evan is dubious, but various divine signs keep directing him to his assigned task.

Birds flock to his shoulders; wild critters follow him home, and his facial hair won’t stop growing. He also

develops master carpentry skills. Soon he has no choice but to follow the Lord’s will, much to the chagrin of his colleagues and the concern of his family.

Wanda Sykes, John Michael Higgins and Jonah Hill play Evan’s dedicated but concerned legislative staff. Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham portrays Evan’s wife, Joan (Joan of Ark, get it?). And Molly Shannon plays an overly eager real estate agent. Hundreds of paired animals also star. Some are real; most are computer-generated.

Carell usually counts himself an animal lover, but he was no fan of the snakes or the foul-breathed camel. The most despicable creatures he had to work with? Baboons.

He recalls, "One of them spilled lemonade on me when we were shooting a scene, so I ad-libbed a line like, ’Watch what you’re doing,’ and the baboon bared his teeth at me and started getting aggressive. It scared the hell out of me."

At $170 million, Evan Almighty has the distinction of being the most costly Hollywood comedy ever produced.

Director Shadyac defends the expense, saying "we’re one of the cheaper summer movies, and we’re a comedy, so it’s unique."

Carell says he didn’t think twice about returning for the sequel and accepting the starring role.

"The first movie I ever did was Bruce Almighty, and Tom took very good care of me," he recalls. "When he said, ’We’d like you to play the title role’ (in the sequel), I was, like, ’you had me at hello.’"

Though Carell and Shadyac saw eye-to-eye on most things relating to the movie, they have different interpretations on the film’s message.

Shadyac, a self-described "Jesus freak," calls Evan Almighty a biblical parable, not just a comedy.

"From Day One when we started writing the script, we knew we were doing a contemporized Noah’s Ark story," says the noted comedy director. "It’s another chapter in the God series, so we wanted to find a theme to hang it on."

He recalls that it rained nonstop throughout the writing process, yet the production enjoyed ideal weather conditions. Divine intervention? Maybe, he says. "We felt this movie wanted to be made."

Carell, on the other hand, says he doesn’t see the comedy as a biblical story.

"I see it as a fable," he insists. "The message behind it is if people could be a little kinder and take care of each other and our planet, then the world would be a better place. It’s a universal theme as opposed to a religious theme."

Whatever the message, Evan Almighty is likely to score points with religious as well as environmental groups, which don’t always share the same agenda.

"I would like to bridge those two groups," says Shadyac, who looks a bit Noah-esque with his shoulder-length hair and scruffy beard.

"When I think of the environment, I don’t just think of a tree, a stream or the air," he adds. "It’s how we treat each other - hence the theme of kindness in the movie."

Whatever the underlying message, Shadyac says he was simply pleased to work with a talent as pleasant and as enthusiastic as Carell.

"When I pitched him the idea (for the sequel), he said ’I’m in, I trust you, I want to do your movie,’" he recalls. "He didn’t even ask for script approval. That’s never happened before."

The versatile, funny Carell has been entertaining audiences ever since the second grade, when he appeared in a Thanksgiving Day play in the Bay State.

Upon graduation from Ohio’s Denison University, he contemplated a career as an attorney but soon realized his true calling. Honing his craft at the Second City in Chicago, he got work in television, most notably for The Dana Carvey Show and later was a regular correspondent on The Daily Show.

He also provided the voice of Gary in Robert Smigel’s The Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoons that aired on Saturday Night Live. Other film credits include Curly Sue and Sleepover.

These days, Carell is best known for his role as the pompous paper company manager on the American version of the British series, The Office. The hit show is returning this fall on NBC for its fourth season. Despite his growing demand to do movies, the actor insists he will stay with the series.

"In terms of the writing and the value, nothing beats it," he says. "I’m still very proud to be part of it."

Having channeled Paul Lynde’s Uncle Arthur characterization in Bewitched, Carell is taking on another pop culture icon in the big-screen adaptation of the ’60’s TV classic Get Smart, which he currently is shooting. He also stars as a widower that gets a second chance at love in the heartwarming romantic comedy Dan in Real Life.

Married to actress Nancy Walls, Carell is the proud father of six-year-old Elisabeth and three-year-old John. No one is as amazed as Carell at the trajectory of his career.

"The last few years have been surreal for me," he says, smiling. "I don’t really have a set path."

— Nielsen Entertainment News Wire


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Steve Carell: Just say Noah