'The Hollywood Reporter' Talks to Steve Carell.

Issue: August 10, 2012

‘The Hollywood Reporter Magazine’ has a wonderful piece on Steve Carell ‘Kindness at the Heart of Darkness’ with some lovely comments from friends and colleagues. Also featured is a review of his latest film ‘Hope Springs’ co-starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.

He stays in touch with Jon Stewart, who gave Carell a break in 1999 as a regular on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and with his former Second City understudy Stephen Colbert. But again, it’s their humanity he singles out more than their comedy.

“When we were working in Second City, one of the staff members left and we had a tribute to him,” recalls Carell. “I remember Stephen went onstage and sang a song, and it was so moving and beautiful and poignant. He’s supremely intelligent, but he also has an enormous heart.”

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In a video created by co-star John Krasinski and featuring comments by everyone from Fey to Colbert to Aaron Sorkin, “Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen did this hilarious thing,” recalls Carell. “It starts with her giving me congratulations, and over her shoulder you see Ted watching TV, mesmerized by a rerun of Cheers. The upshot was: ‘Don’t let this happen to you.’ ”

Carell won’t. About to turn 50 on Aug. 16, he is shifting gears, ramping up his production company, Carousel Productions, broadening his material from light comedy to drama — and even playing a deranged killer.

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“I’m not driven by notoriety or stardom in any way,” admits Carell. “I never had any aspiration to be a recognizable person.”

Perhaps because of that, says Streep, he has “an uncommon openness and humanity. He is graceful and very generous as a person.” And yet, she acknowledges, “something is always held in reserve. You don’t think you are seeing the totality of what is banked there.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter