PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION
Moderator: Maria Dillon
November 1, 2013
11:30 a.m. PT
(Karen): Lisa, we are in. And Paul and Steve, the moderator for this
call, her name is Lisa.
Lisa Swanson: Hi guys.
Male: Hi, Lisa.
Lisa Swanson: Hi there.
OK, so NYU, go for it.
Female: Hi. I just was wondering what aspect of your
characters do you love the most.
Steve Carell: Boy, I love the innate intelligence of
Brick. He's sort of the counterintuitive
quality of his character, I think, is what appeals to me.
Paul Rudd: And as far as Brian goes, I think I
like his musky sexualized idiocy.
Female: That's great.
Lisa Swanson: OK, Northwestern University? (Richard)?
OK, let's go to university of...
(Richard): So you guys – you guys are
obviously at a point in your career where you can choose what projects you want
to work on. So I was wondering what is
about “Anchorman” that made you want to revisit it?
Paul Rudd: Oh man. Well, this is Paul. For me, mainly it was like working with these
guys again who I love. And, you know, it
was such a blast doing the first one that I want – I would jump at the chance
to come back and beat a dead horse.
Steve Carell: 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. Even if there was no film and any camera, we
would have come back and done it, because it's so much fun.
Lisa Swanson: Ryerson?
Female: Hey guys.
Steve Carell: Hi.
Paul Rudd: Hello.
Steve Carell: What school are you?
Female: Ryerson from Toronto
Steve Carell: Ryerson.
Female: Yes.
Steve Carell: All right.
Female: Paul, your character uses this
cologne cabinet in the first movie and his Jimmy cabinet in the upcoming movie
to not-so successfully seduce women. And
Steve, your character has trouble putting a sentence together around
women. So I'm wondering what advice you
guys would give to college guys trying to pick up girls.
Steve Carell: If I could be a little more specific,
Brick has trouble putting a sentence together around anything, regardless of
their sex. What sort of advice the
character could give to men in terms of the ladies, is that your question?
Female: Sure.
Steve Carell: Sure.
No, I'm not trying to lead you. I
just wasn't sure what you wanted me to answer.
Female: Whatever you guys think. Whatever you guys think.
Paul Rudd: I would say to guys, college guys,
drop the cologne. No one likes it. Use your – you know, your own natural...
Steve Carell: Musk.
Paul Rudd: Your own natural musk which will
bring the ladies in in busloads.
Steve Carell: I would say you have to listen. You have to open your heart and open your ear
and you have to listen and appreciate the person that you're with.
Paul Rudd: Yes, you're right, Steve. It's kind of all about communication.
Steve Carell: It's all about communication, Paul.
Female: Thanks.
Lisa Swanson: OK, Drexel University
Steve Carell: Drexel.
Female: Hi guys. Sorry, I was on...
Steve Carell: Hi.
Female: Hi, I was on mute. How are you guys going?
Steve Carell: Great.
Paul Rudd: Good, how are you?
Female: I'm good. Thank you, thanks you. So a question...
Paul Rudd: Where's Drexel?
Female: What is Drexel?
Paul Rudd: Where is Drexel? It's one of those schools...
Female: We're in central Philadelphia
Paul Rudd: But I'm not sure where it is.
Female: It's down in Philadelphia
Paul Rudd: Of course, I knew that.
Female: Yes. Right near Penn.
Paul Rudd: Right, Temple
Female: So, yes, there's a lot of buzz
about some big name cameos going down in this movie, such as Kanye, Drake,
Sacha Baron Cohen. How do you go about
recruiting people for this?
Steve Carell: Well, we didn't because we're just the
actors.
Female: Oh you didn't have any two
cents about who (inaudible).
Steve Carell: All of those people that you said are
actually not in the movie.
Female: Are you lying or is that true?
Steve Carell: I don't know. Am I?
Female: I don't know. You guys have been so secretive about the
movie.
Steve Carell: I don't know.
Paul Rudd: Yes, you just have to see it.
Female: Oh come on. Is there anything you can give me that I can
tell our readers about the movie or you're just going to keep it close-lipped?
Steve Carell: You know what? The way Adam and Will, I think – I think
people were sort of calling them to get into the movie. I don't think there was much arm-bending to
get – to get people in.
And I think it was
the same on the first one. You know, all
those cameos that we had and the big fight scene in the first one, people just
wanted to be a part of the silliness. So
I think the same holds true for this one.
Female: Fair enough.
Paul Rudd: I also think a lot of people like
Adam and Will too and, you know, we're all – we're all – I feel lucky enough to
be in their orbit.
Female: Very cool. Oh, Paul, by the way, I just saw 'Halloween -
The Curse of Michael Myers' last night, and you were great in it, just wanted
to say. It was on last night.
Paul Rudd: It was on last night. I got into bed and I started – and my wife
said, "Look what's on." And we
started watching it, and I said, "Turn it off. Turn it off."
Female: I made it through. I made it through. Wonderful, excellent.
Lisa Swanson: So George Washington
University
Female: Hi.
Steve Carell: Hi.
Paul Rudd: Hi.
Female: My question is, I saw that this
– originally, it was pitched to be a play on Broadway for the sequel. And I was wondering what you thought would've
been the best part about seeing your characters on the stage.
Paul Rudd: That's great. Yes, we were going to – it was a musical,
right?
Steve Carell: Yes.
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. I also liked the idea that there were, at
that point in time, enough people had been 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.
Clearly, not
enough people felt the same way because it didn't and will never happen.
Female: Do you think your characters –
like what the songs you think they would've sung? Like any name of the song, I guess, to sum it
up? Just one song.
Steve Carell: I think I would've – I would've sung a
song called Gravy.
Paul Rudd: And I would have sung 565,600
Minutes.
Female: (Very informative).
Lisa Swanson: Arizona State
University
Steve Carell: Wow, they just lost their window of
opportunity.
Paul Rudd: Emory. Emory is right there, right there. Just jump in.
Male: So my question for both of
you guys is, recently, both of you have starred some really great more Indie
and series movies like, you know, Steve, you're in the “Way, Way Back” and,
Paul, in “Prince Avalanche.”
So I was wondering
what was it like to sort of balance that with, you know, a bigger Hollywood blockbuster and, you know, sort of revisit
“Anchorman”. You know, it's just such a
ridiculous saga compared to, you know, the other movies you've been in
recently.
Paul Rudd: Well, this is Paul. It was a blast. It was a blast to kind of come back to this
part, these guys and these characters because, one, I mean, they were so – you
know, they were so fun to do the first time around and we all had such a great
time.
But, you know,
part of the spirit of what happened on the first “Anchorman” was that it felt
like an Indie movie. It just felt like a
very small kind of corky comedy that we thought was funny that did not seem
particularly commercial.
And that was kind
of the way it was the first time around.
And I think that spirit still existed this time around even though there
were more eyes on us.
Lisa Swanson: The Young Folks? You guys there?
Steve Carell: Yes.
Male: Yes.
Paul Rudd: Are you calling us?
Lisa Swanson: The Young Folks?
Male: Yes, we are. So you're both naturally talented
comedians. So how much of the jokes and
gags are improvised?
Steve Carell: A lot of the – well, the script was in
great shape. We did a table read of the
script, obviously, before we shot and it was hilarious. So we had that as a starting point.
But on any given
day, we or Adam or Will would come up with – I would (inaudible) as much material
as was on the page. I mean, there were
scenes that were supposed to be about a minute and a half that ended up being
10-minute scenes because people just (inaudible).
And Adam Mackay
has such a fertile mind. He sits at the
monitor in his little tent with a microphone and just throws ideas out. And, you know, you can pick and choose. You don't have to say what he's giving
you. But invariably you want to because
it's – everything that he says is kind of golden.
So, yes, I mean,
there were just so many fertile minds working.
We ended up with way more material than we needed.
Male: All right, thank you guys.
Paul Rudd: Thanks.
Lisa Swanson: OK, University of Michigan
Female: OK. Hi, guys.
Steve Carell: Hi.
Female: You both have made your careers
playing comedic, at times clearly strange characters, and which of the quotes
from your many roles do fans repeat back to you most?
Steve Carell: I love lamp.
Paul Rudd: That was Paul that said that.
Steve Carell: For me, it seems – I think it's either
– it seems like it's kind of slap the bass now.
The last few years, that seems to be the one maybe more than others.
Female: OK, thank you.
Steve Carell: Thank you.
Lisa Swanson: University of Colorado
Female: So I feel like we've really
gotten to know each other over the last seven minutes, so I kind of wanted to
kick things up a notch. Say I'm lying on
a table naked, covered in sushi. Where
do you start eating first and why?
Steve Carell: Boxer briefs.
Female: Why?
Steve Carell: Oh no because – no.
Paul Rudd: What was the – what was the – wait,
repeat the question. And after you
repeat it, I'm going to ask you to repeat it again.
Female: OK, are you ready for this?
Paul Rudd: I'm ready. Hold on, wait. I've got my pen. OK.
Female: OK, take note. So say I'm lying on a table naked, covered in
sushi. Where do you start eating first
and why?
Steve Carell: Well, I can – I'll take a crack at
this.
Paul Rudd: OK.
Steve Carell: The place I would start eating first
is McDonald's because I don't – I don't eat sushi. Unless you have some tempura like laying on
your foot, I might...
Female: Hey, I can get whatever you
need.
Paul Rudd: And honest to god, I am not kidding
here. The reason I asked you to repeat
the question is because the first time I heard it, and I don't know whether or
not it was the connection with this phone, I thought you said covered in feces.
Female: (Inaudible).
Paul Rudd: Sushi.
Steve Carell: Yes, yes. Thank you for taking it up.
Female: You're welcome. Love you guys. Bye.
Steve Carell: Thanks.
Paul Rudd: Bye.
Lisa Swanson: Bowling
Green
Male: Hey, what's up guys? This question is coming from Bowling Green , Ohio
Paul Rudd: Hey.
Hey, I just have a real quick question, do you take German there?
Male: I do not.
Paul Rudd: Because there's a guy named Ted
Rippey, who's a really good friend of mine.
He's a professor there. I was
going to say tell him I said hi.
Male: I definitely will do that.
Paul Rudd: Thanks.
Male: My question for you guys
is, so the first “Anchorman” came out almost a decade ago, how difficult as far
as like the years have gone by and working on other movies, how difficult was
it to get back into character for this movie?
Paul Rudd: At times, it didn't seem difficult
at all, like I feel we know these characters pretty well. But I would say throughout the shoot, there
were – there were many moments where I thought, oh god, am I doing this
right? Am I – I felt where I – I felt a
little off track.
But I couldn't
tell whether or not I was in my head and I actually did remember or I was
commenting on what I had done the first time.
Steve Carell: And 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.
Male: OK, awesome. Thank you so much.
Steve Carell: 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.
Male: All right.
Lisa Swanson: University of Kansas
Paul Rudd: All right.
Male: It's a question for Paul.
Paul Rudd: What is up? Hey.
Male: Rock Chalk.
Paul Rudd: Rock Chalk, man.
Male: What we – what we here in Lawrence
Paul Rudd: Hell yes, man, I'm so psyched that
he's on our team for one year. But I
can't wait. I love Bill Self, I love
Jayhawk basketball, so I'm totally jazzed to watch this season. And I'll want – and I mean I think pro teams
are already trying to tank their season right out of the gate so that they can
get him.
Male: That's the word.
Paul Rudd: Yes.
Male: (Inaudible).
Paul Rudd: I'm looking at you, Philadelphia
Lisa Swanson: The Ohio State University
Female: Hi, guys. How are you?
Paul Rudd: Hi.
Steve Carell: Hi.
Female: My question is that, after
watching the trailer, I've noticed that there are some crazy and hilarious
scenes that we're going to see in the movie, and I was wondering if you could
tell us if there was a favorite scene that you guys shot or maybe one that you
can't wait for the viewers to see.
Steve Carell: Boy, there – I mean, there are a lot
of them. There aren't any specifics that
I'd want to get into because, then, they wouldn't be – you know, trying to
explain something always is a little difficult.
Like I would come home from a day of shooting and try to explain to my wife
something really funny that happened and it definitely loses something in the
translation.
But, yes, there
are – there's so much more. 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.
But there's so much more than is in the trailer and funnier. So I'm kind of psyched about the whole thing.
Female: Thank you.
Lisa Swanson: Cal State
Female: Hi, how are you guys?
Steve Carell: Hey.
Female: This question is for Paul
Rudd. I'm wondering if we will see the
return of the Sex Panther.
Paul Rudd: Well, I can't – you know, I can't
really give it away. I don't want to say
anything whether it does or whether it doesn't.
I want people to have questions going into this. I want – I want people to feel about this the
way they feel about Lost in Translation, in a way.
It's like,
remember, when Scarlett Johnson whispered into his ear and no one knows what
she said. That's the way I want people –
I want that level of frustration.
Steve Carell: Well, you know what she did say.
Paul Rudd: What? Yes, that is sex – is that a Sex Panther in
your pocket or are you – yes, there you go.
She called him a Sex Panther, did she?
Steve Carell: She did.
Paul Rudd: Oh my god. Now the movie makes sense.
Lisa Swanson: Simon Fraser
University
Steve Carell: Hi, Simon.
Male: Hi guys. My question is, what do you think about
portraying the seemingly very serious job of news anchors in such a silly way?
Paul Rudd: I feel pretty good about it.
Steve Carell: I feel good too.
Paul Rudd: Sometimes I watch news anchors and I
think they're portraying themselves in a very silly way, much sillier than we
could ever do.
Lisa Swanson: All right. Guys, I think that's time for us.
END
