Steve Carell on ‘Anchorman 2’: ‘I’m kind of psyched about the whole thing’

Halie Williams
Wed, 04 Dec 2013 04:07:44 +0000
Campus, anchorman 2, comedy, movies, paul rudd, steve carell, will ferrel

Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

If you’ve seen “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” there’s a good chance you’ve quoted it at least once or twice since then. Whether you walked around work extending invitations to your “pants party” or subtly screaming “I love lamp,” it’s hard for fans of the movie to deny their love for the KVWN Channel 4 News Team. But the same applies for the actors who play them.

“Boy, I love the innate intelligence of Brick,” Steve Carell, who reprises his role as weatherman Brick Tamland in the film, said in a conference call with The Lantern and other college media. “He’s sort of the counterintuitive quality of his character, I think, is what appeals to me.”

Paul Rudd, who plays fellow reporter Brian Fantana, enjoys playing his character for a different reason.

“And as far as Brian goes, I think I like his musky sexualized idiocy,” Rudd added during the interview.

In 2004’s “Anchorman,” Ron Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell) is a top-rated San Diego news anchor in a male-dominated broadcast business during the ‘70s. When a resourceful woman (Veronica Corningstone, played by Christina Applegate) is hired, Burgundy and his news team must face a change they didn’t expect.

The sequel to the film, “Anchorman: The Legend Continues,” is set to hit theaters Dec. 18 and follows Burgundy and his team as they “take the nation’s first 24-hour news channel by storm,” according to a press release.

While the sequel is coming out almost 10 years after the first film hit the big screen, Rudd said it felt effortless to return to the popular characters.

“At times, it didn’t seem difficult at all, like I feel we know these characters pretty well,” Rudd said.

For Carell, even when he was confused, it was more helpful than harmful.

“The more lost I felt, the better that served me. The more out of sorts I felt, in general, the better I think that played into Brick,” Carell said. “I am, as a human being, no smarter than I was 10 years ago, so that … I haven’t improved as a human being. I haven’t evolved in any way. So that really helped me with Brick.”

Signing on to play these roles for a second time was a no-brainer for Rudd and Carell, the two explained.

“For me, mainly it was like working with these guys again who I love,” Rudd said. “And, you know, it was such a blast doing the first one that I would jump at the chance to come back and beat a dead horse.”

Carell agreed.

“I think we all felt exactly that same way. We all just wanted to do it for the sake of doing it, and I think we all would have done it in a vacuum,” Carell said. “Even if there was no film and any camera, we would have come back and done it, because it’s so much fun.”

“Anchorman: The Legend Continues” was originally pitched to be a Broadway musical sequel, which was something Carell was looking forward to participating in.

“That was the part I was excited about, was the fact that at any given moment, the characters could just break into song. The idea of that happening — just great,” he said. “I also liked the idea that there were, at that point in time, enough people clamoring for an ‘Anchorman’ sequel and the idea of doing it as a musical on Broadway just really, I thought, was funny and annoyed people.”

Carell added that the name of the song his character would likely sing would be titled “Gravy.” Rudd chimed in, adding he would have sung “565,600 Minutes.”

But alas, the world might have to go without the likings of Brick and Brian’s musical talents, by virtue of director Adam McKay deciding against it.

“Clearly, not enough people felt the same way because it didn’t and will never happen,” Carell said.

While “Anchorman 2” might not have worked out as a musical, some students are anticipating the sequel regardless.

“I’ve seen the first one a couple times actually — it was one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen,” said Abdulrahman Awadi, a third-year in electrical engineering, who added his favorite character was Brick. “I’m planning on seeing the second one and I’m hoping for something similar but better than the first one.”

With the two trailers circling, excited fans know “Anchorman: The Legend Continues” won’t be short of ‘80s style, sexist jokes or an appearance from “Saturday Night Live’s” Kristen Wiig, but the actors aren’t giving away much more.

“I can’t really give (anything) away. I want people to have questions going into this,” Rudd said. “I want people to feel about this the way they feel about ‘Lost in Translation,’ in a way.

It’s like, remember, when Scarlett Johansson whispered into his ear and no one knows what she said. That’s the way I want people — I want that level of frustration.”

Nonetheless, Carell assured fans the trailer is only the beginning.

“You know, you look at the trailer and you think, wow, that’s — they put everything in that they could and that’s the entire movie,” he said. “But there’s so much more than is in the trailer and funnier. So I’m kind of psyched about the whole thing.”