Our Very Good Day~Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner Interview

**Disney provided me with an full expense paid trip to Los Angeles for the #VeryBadDayEvent and #DisneyInHomeEvent & #VeryBadDay in exchange for my review of the events of the trip.  No other compensation is given. The opinions  in my posts are 100% mine.**

Our Very Good Day~Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner Interview

Now mind you I enjoyed all of the interviews during our time in LA, but this was one of the interviews I most anticipated.  A long time fan of Steve Carell, whether it be TV or movies; he has won my heart in all.  I enjoy all roles Jennifer Garner has played in  and I was very excited about seeing her also.

It was so exciting when Jennifer walked into the interview and the first words out of her mouth were, “These  are my people! I brought him (Steve) along but let’s chat.”

How Did They Get Involved with This Project?

The first question to Steve and Jennifer was, ” So, how did you both get involved with the project? ”

Steve replied not only with his humor but his familiar voice,  ”  I was asked to be in it, and I said yes.  I liked the script, I thought it was funny, and, uh, and inventive, and different.  I feel like I hadn’t really seen this kind of family movie in a while.  And the fact that Jen was going to do it was a huge draw for me, because I’d been a huge fan of hers for a long time.

It’s true.  We met a few times over the years, but just sort of in passing. You know when someone not only lives up to, but exceeds expectations, of everything you’ve heard about them?  That was her.  She’s just — she was —

Jennifer interjects:   Steve Carell!

Steve finishes his sentence — the nicest person.  She is.  She’s the nicest person ever.

Jennifer:, “well, he’s fibbing a little bit, because he was actually on it, on this movie first, so I was the one who knew he was doing it and said “Oh, yeah, I’ve been dying to work with him forever.”

Steve then says, ” I continued to do it because —

Jennifer :    [LAUGHTER] We had a really good time.

Did you ever Have Very Bad Days on the Set?

Blogger Question:   Okay, so, I asked fans, and one of the burning questions they wanted to know was: were there any days on set that were really bad days, just like in the film?

Jennifer answers:    Go ahead, Steve.

Steve says: ” There was one that we kind of point to.  There was a  scene where we were outside, around the car, talking after the big accident and after the driving test.  It must have been — well, like it’s been the last week here.  Like, 105 or something.  So that was probably the most arduous day, physically.

Jennifer then mentions: ” You know, I think it was tough because the baby got upset.”

Steve laughs, “Well, yeah.”

Jennifer starts to say :    You know.  Like —

Steve:    That too.

Jennifer  :    — it — that just — you know what that does, I mean, that practically made me lactate.  It’s like, “Whaa –!”  And there’s nothing you can do.  And — but,

Steve then mentions   :    You know what?  We can set her off just by going “Wahh!”

Jennifer agrees :    Could.  [LAUGHTER]

How Many Shrimp Did You Have to Catch?

Another question from one of the bloggers:  ” How many shrimp did you have to catch?”

Jennifer responds first   :    He did that.  That was really —

Which made Steve ask:   How many what?

Jennifer says to Steve:     Shrimp.  Did you have to catch.

Steve answers, ” Oh.  I caught the shrimp.”

Jennifer answers:   He caught the shrimp.  I mean, they were saying “We’ll CG” and Steve said, “I’ll give it a go.”  He did it.  We were very excited.

Steve responds,   Yeah, secret talent.

Jennifer then asks Steve,    Did you know you had that talent?

To which Steve replies “No I didn’t”

Jennifer and Steve keep the conversation going between themselves as we listened.    ” Until that moment? ”

Steve responds,  ” I didn’t know that I had that — that shr — eye-shrimp coordination.”

To which one of the bloggers called out, ” I just so happen to have a shrimp…”

Steve took on the challenge by responding , ” Bring it on!” (Sadly the blogger was kidding, as she didn’t have any to throw at him, but his reaction was still funny.

Relatable Parent Roles

I have a question.  You guys made a film where the parents in the film are very relatable, and just the kind of parents you’d want to have, but I kind of, in doing my research, realized they kind of parallel you guys.  Any experiences where you were like, oh my gosh, I’m filming this and it’s déjà vu ’cause this has happened?

Steve responded:    No.  [LAUGHTER].  It doesn’t — it doesn’t — excellent question.  However, no, I think I related in the broad strokes of being a parent, and — and my wife and I really co-parent.   We — we divide and conquer in terms of everything that we need to do with our kids.  So I think I understood it and related to it on that level.  But it’s — it’s crazy.  It’s fun.  It’s ridiculous.

It’s never what you think it’s going to be.  And, at the end of it all, you can’t really take yourself too seriously, as a parent. That’s the joy of it.  But, yeah.  I mean, but I relate.  I think we both definitely related and brought our own experiences to the movie.  If things in the script or things that we were doing didn’t feel genuine, we would speak up and we would offer our own personal experiences.

For sure, said Jennifer.

During the Fire Scene

 

Question: Steve, Lisa told us you did the fire scene yourself, so I just wanted to hear about that —

Jennifer then added   :    So exciting.

Steve kind of chuckled,   Jen was like, petrified.

Jennifer smiled,    I was so nervous.  Even though I had been set on fire before, you know what it’s gonna be, but I was so nervous to watch —

Steve said Jennifer was  very protective.

Jennifer mentions,  Steve be set on fire, and I didn’t want the kids to see him be set on fire, like, our movie kids.  It was very, very tough on me.  But they do put gel on you —

Steve mentioned;  It really wasn’t scary.   I think it — I hope it looks scarier than it —

Steve, you got very, very unfunny –Jennifer mentions.

Steve said:   I got focused.  I got focused.

Jennifer said, ” You got unfunny and very focused.  You couldn’t say that you did not — you were not aware that you were on fire.”

Steve mentions,   I was aware that I was on fire, and I prepared to be on fire —

Jennifer:  Mm-hmm.

Steve :    And with the stunt coordinator, we — we prepared to light me on fire, but —

Jennifer :    Mm-hmm, and then you were on fire.

Steve:  And then I was on fire.  It’s the type of thing you don’t want to do a lot.  You don’t want to do 25 takes of the Steve on Fire scene.  So, you just try to get it right that first time, so you can move on.

Question:   And it was the first time?  You did it perfect?

Steve:   Once or twice.

Jennifer :    I feel like it was twice.

Steve agrees with Jennifer   :    Yeah.  I think we did it, yeah, about twice.

Working with Dick VanDyke

Question :    So, how was it, working with Dick van Dyke?

Jennifer   :    So exciting.  So exciting, I mean, Mary Poppins at my house, is like, one of the top three films of all happiness.  Times.  So, the fact that I was there with him, and I got him to do “Chim Chim Cheree” with me between takes.  All so great.  He was just funny and warm and lovely, and so accepts his role as being somebody that we’ve all grown up with and an icon in entertainment, with such grace.  He was really — it was really a great day.

Was Laughing an Issue During the Shoots?

Question:  I mean, doing such a fun movie, how many takes did you go through without laughing, because I will bet you were laughing the whole time. How hard was that?

Jennifer  :    There are definitely scenes in the movie that, I don’t know how they cut me to  because I just wanted Steve to think that I was professional.

Steve laughs.

Jennifer:   There were times where I just couldn’t.  I could not not laugh with him.  I don’t know how anyone — I defy you to be in a scene with him and not laugh.

Steve :    Well, the same.  The same from my perspective.  The scene.  [LAUGHTER] The scene where she’s screaming at the car in front of us.  I mean, that’s a side of her I had never seen before, and it was crushing me.  It was so, so good.

Jennifer:    The scene where we were in the car, making the weird sound, and I look at him and he’s going, “Arararara!”  I can’t even think about it.  I can’t watch it.  Oh.

Steve   :    But that, I think, was part of just,  the joy of doing it.  The kids laughed too.  Like it wasn’t — it was work, and we tried to get it right, and we tried to, you know, to do it well, but it also had to be fun.  And buoyant.  And — and we had to feel like, you know, what’s the point of doing anything unless you’re enjoying it, and I think we really — had a — everyone had a good time doing it.

Question:  What was your favorite scene in the film? 

Steve:   What was my favorite scene to film?  Um.  Boy.

Jennifer  :    I liked when we were all together.

Steve  :    That’s what I was gonna say.  Like, we were all together for most of the movie.

Jennifer:    A lot.  Dancing at the end.  It’s just, all of the fun stuff, is really, it’s fun, it looks fun, and it is, and there was a day between scenes where we had, — they were setting up the cameras, and it’s the kind of thing,  it was warm out, and it was the kind of thing where you would typically go back to your trailers, and do whatever you needed to do.

I would do an interview with one of you guys about something.  But, instead, they just put us in a little room in the house, and we all had our phones with us.  We sat with those kids, and nobody ever looked at their phones, and nobody ever — we just talked.  We just, you wouldn’t think that you would have that much to talk about with teenagers, you know, because it seems like they’re from another planet.  But these are the coolest group of the smartest, most interesting, engaging kids.

The five of us just hung out together, and had the best time, and that, to me, is kind of the crux of this whole movie, was just that feeling in that room, and that nobody came in and bugged us.  Nobody else was there.  It was just us as a group.  And it was something that we chose to do.

Steve:   On my last day, Dylan and Kerris did a song for me that they had written.

Jennifer interjects  :    And Ed.

Steve:    And Ed.  Yeah.  The three of them.  Sang this song.  But I think the two of them wrote it and the three of them performed it, and I — I broke down.

Reaction from (us bloggers)   Aww…

Steve  :   I really didn’t see it coming.  Yeah.  I’m saying it because I want to elicit that response.  But really —

Jennifer   :    It was the —

Steve   :    — it really crept on me, the emotion of it all, and kind of the — the feelings that we all had, just over a couple of months for one another.  And to see everyone again, and be doing press, is really fun —

Jennifer   :    It’s different when you work with kids.  You  know, you really feel a different sense of — like, I know I’ll see Steve.  I’ll always be glad to see him and hopefully we’ll work together at some point, but we played these kids’ parents.  You know.  Especially the babies.  If you are working with kids, even though there are people there, making sure they’re okay, and their parents, but you’re the one saying, “Do you want a snack?  Do you have to pee?”  Do you know?  “Are you tired?”

Steve  :   There is a responsibility there.

Jennifer :    Yeah.

Steve :    You know.  You want to make it okay for everybody.  You want everybody to be happy.  And be having fun.  But, also, you know, you try to sense what’s — what is going on with them.

Playing Pranks?

Question  :    Since you guys gelled so well and everything, did you ever play pranks on each other to make things fun or kind of loosen things up on the first day?

Steve :    I didn’t play pranks.  But someone at this table played pranks —

Jennifer :    I didn’t play any pranks.  I don’t know about pranks.

Steve  :    And I don’t — we’ll probably — we won’t tell this story a lot.

Jennifer :    We don’t need to tell the whole story.  [LAUGHTER]

Steve:   We went to the same college at different times.  So, early on,  I — before we even started shooting, apparently Jen bought a bunch of Denison University paraphernalia.

Jennifer  :    Everything they made.

Steve :    Throughout the shoot, like, a Denison cookbook would be in the background on the shelf, or some of the production assistants would be wearing Denison University hats.

Jennifer   :    Or, truly, the whole crew would be wearing sweatshirts and sweatpants, and he never noticed any of it.  It was amazing.  It was — I kept going further and further, and everyone would be like, and he’s just totally a man.  He’s so oblivious.  Right?

Steve:    I am clearly just a self-centered jerk. (in humor)

Jennifer   :    At the end, I called Nancy, his wife, and I said — believe I’m not psycho — “Can I stash a Denison chair, like, with Denison kind of engraved in the back, in your house?”  It was his last day.  And see how long it takes him to find it.

Question    :    How long did it take?

Steve  :    Like, two weeks.  She (Steve’s wife) could hear me from downstairs.  I started laughing, ’cause it was upstairs, like, in a corner, and I — I had been passing this chair for weeks, and it just registered that it was a Denison University chair, and I — I think I immediately texted you my thanks and “well done.”  Kudos on a trick well played.  Yeah —

Do You Follow the Kids after the Movies and Press Junkets are finished

Question   :    Do you guys follow the kids after you do all of the press junkets and stuff, or is it just kind of like, you’re the teacher who sends them off hoping that they’ve learned something and that they think of you now and then?

Jennifer :    I’m starting to rack up onscreen kids.  [LAUGHTER] And I started this with  the first time I played a mom was in “Timothy Greene,” and I started this then, and I feel like it’s something to do with being “The Mom” too, that I really keep in loose touch, I would say.  There’s a little girl that I worked with in “Imagine” and she and I — I send books to her, or these kids that I e-mail with, their moms or with them, a little bit, you know, just enough to say, I am thinking of you if you need another set of ears, ever, you can always call me.

Steve :    Yeah.  She’s nicer about that than I am.  Um.  Do I keep in touch?  Well, I — I guess, not really.  You know?  I see them at things like this,  and the — the kids that I have been in movies with, I will see from time to time, and it’s always nice to catch up and see how they’re doing, but it’s incredible  how quickly they are not little kids anymore.  I ran….

Jennifer   :    Yeah.  Abigail is like, a —

Steve   :    Abigail Breslin, I — I ran into her at “The Tonight Show” a few months ago, and she’s a completely different human being. And — and fantastic, and, accomplished, and wonderful.  And so that’s — that’s sort of the joy there, for me, is to, you know, you do catch up, because these circles end up being —

Jennifer   :    It’s a small world.  Right?

Steve  :    Yeah.  I mean, the circles are pretty small.

Jennifer   :    Mm-hmm.

Steve   :    And then you do tend to, you know, to see people over the years and — and lightly catch up with them, so that’s always nice.

My thoughts

When I found out we were going to sit down with them; ESPECIALLY after seeing the movie, it really made it feel very personal. A part of me (and I am thinking many of the other bloggers) felt the ease of being around them. They are celebrities, but so real and easy to talk to and listen to.  Steve and Jennifer both have such a great sense of humor, and that made it tons of fun!