Video:Evan Almighty - Steve Carell and Tom Shadyac Interviews
with Rebecca MurrayUniversal Pictures rolled out the green carpet for the World Premiere of Evan Almighty, an ecologically friendly film starring Steve Carell as a man approached by God (Morgan Freeman) and asked to build an ark.See Transcript
Transcript:Evan Almighty - Steve Carell and Tom Shadyac Interviews
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of Evan Almighty.
Steve Carell ('Evan Baxter')
How difficult was it to work with all the animals on this?
Steve Carell: "You know what? Not as bad as you might. I like to improvise, and for somebody like that, and there were a lot of people in the cast who like to improvise as well, it was sort of a joy because you don't know what they're going to do. You don't know. They're animals; they're unpredictable, and that was fun."
Is there any particular animal you would never work with again after this experience?
Steve Carell: "Jimmy Bennett, who plays my son."
Was he horrible on the set?
Steve Carell: "He's horrible. He was the one throwing the poo."
This had a 'green' set. How important was that to you?
Steve Carell: "You know what? It was important. It's something that I didn't want the movie to be preachy about, but I like the fact that the movie sort of practiced what it preached. That it didn't leave a footprint. It recycled. That Tom Shadyac bought bicycles for the entire cast and crew. He had such an awareness and a strength in that regard. I think everybody felt that they were not only making a movie, they were kind of doing something a little special. I really think it translates in the movie that is very much a labor of love – and it's a labor of concern, as well."
Speaking of a labor of love, how quickly did you sign on knowing this was a spin-off of an existing movie? That's kind of tough.
Steve Carell: "Point zero five seconds. He just said, 'Would you do it?' And I said, 'Yes.' He gave me kind of a thumbprint sketch of the script, but the script wasn't even in place. But yeah, just the opportunity to work with him again, I jumped at the chance."
Johnny Simmons ('Dylan Baxter') and Graham Phillips ('Jordan Baxter')
Working with the animals, what was that like?
Johnny Simmons: "Smelly and stinky, and any other word you can come up with to represent stinky."
Graham Phillips: "It was really cool, though, because a lot of the animals that you wouldn't think would be real, you'd think that they'd make them on the computer, no, they were real. We got to work with them. It was really neat."
Johnny Simmons: "He's lying. There were no animals on the set. It's all CGI."
Were you concerned at all about being a part of a sequel to a very successful movie?
Johnny Simmons: "You know, Steve Carell when Bruce Almighty came out really wasn't like Steve Carell at that point. He kind of just started getting notoriety, and Tom [Shadyac's] now taking that and adding to it and mixing it around. It's just cool to work on, not to get nervous about it, and just have fun. This is all just craziness."
Director/Producer Tom Shadyac
Deciding to go with real animals, why did you do that instead of just sticking with CGI?
Tom Shadyac: "Because Steve [Carell] can't act with a CGI animal. How are you going to get a great moment like with the baboons or with the elephants? They've got to be there."
How tough is it for you as a director to be balancing all of that?
Tom Shadyac: "It's hard but it's fun. It's like going to work in a zoo. It's fun."
At what point did you know you were going to do a spin-off from Bruce Almighty and that it was going to feature Evan?
Tom Shadyac: "Very late. It didn't come early. Very late."
Why Steve Carell's character?
Tom Shadyac: "Well, we talked to Jim [Carrey] at first, but Jim was not interested. Thought his character had arced out, and I agree. And then Steve is so good. It just felt right. It felt like serendipity that he was in the first movie. Serendipity that he was blowing up, and it felt right."
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