There’s a time-honored axiom in the film business that
comedy is harder
than drama, so while dramatic performances are typically lauded come
awards season — and the actors that give them both well respected and
rewarded — Hollywood also enthusiastically keeps its eye out for new
comedic talent, since more often than not it’s those types of movies,
typically cheaper to produce, that keep their coffers filled.
After first gaining recognition for his contributions as a
correspondent on Comedy Central’s
The Daily Show, and more recently on television's
The Office and in 2005's
The 40-Year-Old Virgin — a rare, R-rated comedy smash, to the tune of $175 million worldwide, that wasn’t also pitched solely at a teen-skewing audience —
Steve Carell has emerged as one of the most sought after comedic actors
in Hollywood. (Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell can’t headline everything,
after all.)
Evan Almighty, then, easily represents Carell’s biggest screen venture to date,
because it just so happens to also be
the most expensive comedy ever
produced. Still, he's not feeling any pressure. In fact, he seems... strangely normal. "I’m willing to take pretty much any job offered to me,” says Carell, with enough amiable modesty and seeming sincerity to allow him
to pull off such gross misstatements. “I’m pretty amenable, I don’t
really have a path set, like, ‘Well, I need to do
this kind of
movie and then that, and then I need to switch it up and play a
psychopathic killer. I don’t look at it that way. ...
I know that there’s a
window of time that I’ll be able to do these things, so I’m just trying
to do that now, while at the same time be very cautious to not let it
interfere with my family life."
For the full feature piece, from FilmStew, click here.
