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WACKY COOL FUNNY IN ‘CRAZY STUPID LOVE’

Exclusive Q&A with Steve Carell

Photography by Robert Ascroft 

What was it about ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ that drew you to the project? 

Steve Carell (SC):  The script captured my interest.  I thought that it was unique.  It told a familiar story, but it was unique at the same time.  And I thought that Dan Fogelman is a unique writer, because he’s very clear, in terms of how he draws his characters and how he lays out a story.  There’s a cleanness, I think, to his writing that I responded to.

What was the atmosphere like on-set, with such an interesting ensemble of actors? 

SC:  I think the atmosphere on the set mirrored the tone of the movie itself, because there’s a great sense of joy, I think, in the movie, in the script, and the same applied to the filming.  I think we gathered a fantastic cast of people who were not only talented but good people and kind and generous and fun to work with, so I think that was pervasive.

So can you tell me about your character, Cal? What is his journey in this film?

SC:  Cal is a soon-to-be-divorced family man, and he’s blindsided by a bit of news that his wife has had an affair.  And for the first time in many, many years, he finds himself in the world alone, ostensibly.  He encounters a young man named Jacob, played by Ryan Gosling, who introduces him to the world of dating once again, a world that he has not been familiar with since he was a teenager.

It’s really a world he never understood, because fell in love with his wife and got married so early in life that he really never played the field, never was part of that universe. So, he gets out there and finds it to be daunting trying to learn about himself.

What was it like to work with Ryan Gosling in Cal’s scenes with Jacob.  Was there chemistry off the screen as much as there is on-screen? 

SC:  Oh, I think we got along right off the bat.  He’s such a good person.  I knew going in that he was a good actor, but you have no barometer for what someone’s going to be like in real life.  And he couldn’t have been a kinder, more generous person.  I instantly liked him, and I think it helps.

I suppose you can act those sort of things, but it helps when you genuinely like and care for someone.  I think it’s clearly more organic, and we just had fun.  He is a funny guy.  He’s a great improviser.  He’s completely open to experiment and be playful, which is how I like to work.

It’s such a rich cast with so many interesting characters and actors. Can you talk about what it was like working with this cast? 

SC:  Well, I was a producer on the movie and I had a hand in casting as well, which was exciting, because we got to see people come in an audition.  And so many of the people who came in were great, talented, and did wonderful auditions, but the people that were ultimately chosen were chosen for a number of very specific reasons.

And someone like Analeigh Tipton, who is not well known and I think will soon be, had a presence about her.  Without sounding too pretentious, she has a soulfulness about her, which I think really resonated through the character that she played.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 at 5:26 pm and is filed under BOYS, Celebs, Headline . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.