Sitting down with Steve Carell for the press junket for Despicable Me, I was surprised to find him so down to earth. Unlike his character Michael Scott of “The Office,” Carell is friendly, funny and normal!
In “Despicable Me,” Carell voices Gru, a villain who finds great pleasure in doing deliciously wicked things to other people. Whether it’s freezing a long queue of customers ahead of him at a coffee shop, or creating a balloon animal for a small boy only to pop it in front of his face, Gru gets to do all of the dastardly things we only wish we could.
Gru is on track to become the greatest villain of all time by committing the crime of the century, but when he adopts three orphan girls to unwittingly help him break into the heavily secured compound of his enemy, Vector, he never imagines they’d melt his icy heart and turn him into a softie.
Carell says he enjoyed watching the character develop and at one point, Gru knows his kids are in jeopardy and he storms Vector’s lair to save them. That’s when Carell knew that Gru had become a dad, “Because as a parent, you would throw yourself under a bus for your kids and not even think about it. There’s not a split second of hesitation. It’s like, he punches a shark, and is just like “Nope!” and keeps going. It becomes about them and you’d do anything for your kids, so I totally identify with that.”
To Carell, the movie has a bigger message than an evil man turned good guy, “It’s the quintessential journey of becoming a parent. That to me is really the story. Someone has their life structured the way they want, or think that’s how they want it to be. Then you introduce kids and it changes and you can’t explain it to someone who’s about to have kids how it’s about to change. The common thread is it changes everything: how you think about yourself, your work and your life, and how you view the world around you.”
And just when you think Steve Carell is winning awards at home, he reminds us once again that he is just a normal dad, trying to impress his kids, “No matter how cool you think you are, your children always bring you back to earth.” He adds, “When we were leaving the theater after seeing “Despicable Me,” my son thought the movie was great but ask why I didn’t play a minion.”
Listen in to more of our interview with Steve Carrell and then check out this featurette from the film. “Despicable Me” opens in theaters nationwide July 9.
Check out all our “Despicable Me” coverage by visiting the following links:
Interview with Julie Andrews
Interview with Miranda Cosgrove
Interview
with Jason Segal
Despicable Me Movie Preview
In “Despicable Me,” Carell voices Gru, a villain who finds great pleasure in doing deliciously wicked things to other people. Whether it’s freezing a long queue of customers ahead of him at a coffee shop, or creating a balloon animal for a small boy only to pop it in front of his face, Gru gets to do all of the dastardly things we only wish we could.
Gru is on track to become the greatest villain of all time by committing the crime of the century, but when he adopts three orphan girls to unwittingly help him break into the heavily secured compound of his enemy, Vector, he never imagines they’d melt his icy heart and turn him into a softie.
Carell says he enjoyed watching the character develop and at one point, Gru knows his kids are in jeopardy and he storms Vector’s lair to save them. That’s when Carell knew that Gru had become a dad, “Because as a parent, you would throw yourself under a bus for your kids and not even think about it. There’s not a split second of hesitation. It’s like, he punches a shark, and is just like “Nope!” and keeps going. It becomes about them and you’d do anything for your kids, so I totally identify with that.”
To Carell, the movie has a bigger message than an evil man turned good guy, “It’s the quintessential journey of becoming a parent. That to me is really the story. Someone has their life structured the way they want, or think that’s how they want it to be. Then you introduce kids and it changes and you can’t explain it to someone who’s about to have kids how it’s about to change. The common thread is it changes everything: how you think about yourself, your work and your life, and how you view the world around you.”
And just when you think Steve Carell is winning awards at home, he reminds us once again that he is just a normal dad, trying to impress his kids, “No matter how cool you think you are, your children always bring you back to earth.” He adds, “When we were leaving the theater after seeing “Despicable Me,” my son thought the movie was great but ask why I didn’t play a minion.”
Listen in to more of our interview with Steve Carrell and then check out this featurette from the film. “Despicable Me” opens in theaters nationwide July 9.
Check out all our “Despicable Me” coverage by visiting the following links:
Interview with Julie Andrews
Interview with Miranda Cosgrove
Interview
with Jason Segal
Despicable Me Movie Preview