Getting “Smart” with Steve and “The Rock”
Teenhollywood:
Last year, funnyman Steve Carell and hunky Dwayne Johnson (formerly known as “The Rock”) were buried underground in downtown L.A.! Well, they were filming a gun range scene in the deep, deep basement of an old clothing warehouse for this summer’s funny spy actioner Get Smart based upon the popular 1960’s TV series. TeenHollywood descended into the depths to observe and chat with the guys.
Let’s set the scene: We’re supposed to be in the sub basement of good-guy CONTROL headquarters. It’s very dark with only a few key lights set up on a training range with various barriers. We are behind cammo netting watching playback on monitors with the director. Several actors mill around wearing cammo gear. We spot Steve Carell starring as Maxwell Smart. Max is being trained as a field agent after years behind a desk. Dwayne is co-starring as #23, an experienced agent trying to teach Max with comic results. Dwayne’s in sexy black fatigues, tattoos in full view. Steve is in green cammo gear and wears a dorky helmet. We enjoy watching the silly action as the guys shoot (blanks of course), weave, duck and say funny stuff.
The actors take a break and come over to us. We get some of the first news on this new Summer movie.
TeenHollywood: Dwayne, are we going to see your character throughout the entire storyline?
Dwayne: Oh yeah. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. But this is a new character that they created that isn’t related to the TV show. Once I signed on they added layers to the character and then he became a vital part of the film. Agent 23 is the world’s greatest agent [laughs] who has this tremendous relationship with Max. He’s like my little brother. He looks up to me and I look out for him. There’s a bond between Max and Agent 23 and you see that start to grow in many ways throughout the movie.
TeenHollywood: Steve, how does it feel to be playing Maxwell Smart?
Steve: Incredibly exciting; it’s been a long time coming. When Warner Brothers initially called me in, I thought I was coming in to audition. I heard that Will Ferrell had been attached, and for some reason or another, he was no longer attached and that they were looking for somebody else. So I went in with my picture and my resume, and I was expecting to read from the script and audition for it.
TeenHollywood: But you didn’t have to?
Steve: They just came out and said, ‘We’d like you to play Maxwell Smart.’ And it was one of those moments I could not believe. It was one of those quintessential life/career moments that was like, ‘What the hell is happening? How did this come to pass?’ So I’ve been pinching myself ever since then. Every day’s been more fun than the next.
TeenHollywood: Can you talk about Max and what he goes through?
Steve: Well, this is more of an origin story; this is the story of how Agent 86 [Max] came to be. And so you get to see a sense of where he started within CONTROL, and how he ends up a field agent. The tone I wanted to create is essentially a comedic Bourne Identity. Something with action, real jeopardy, stakes that exist, and within that, you find comedy. And it can be very silly, but at the same time, you have a sense of heightened reality. There’s a lot of action and apparent danger as well. And the villains are formidable, and real. I don’t see Max as a bumbling super-agent. He’s not a Clouseau; he is someone who is very serious about his job and it doesn’t quite matter how the end results are achieved, just as long as he achieves them.
TeenHollywood: Were either of you big fans of the TV show?
Dwayne: Oh yeah. I was a big fan, absolutely. And I wanted to work with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway signed on and she’s fantastic and Alan Arkin of course signed on which is an honor. Here we are making the movie. It’s really great. They had cut together like a three minute sizzle reel just for the cast and crew to get everybody excited. It’s really phenomenal.
TeenHollywood: Why did you like the old show?
Dwayne: I like any type of comedy that is physical, self-deprecating comedy. I love that. And the gadgets were pretty cool too, which you see in this movie, updated ones too.
Steve: I thought it was an excellent show; I thought it was very different than other things on television. It was smart and silly at the same time, which is a tone I enjoy. And it also had a lot to say politically and culturally. At the time, America was in the midst of the Cold War, so I think the show was very relevant.
TeenHollywood: Dwayne, does your character have any special signature gadget?
Dwayne: Absolutely. I’ve got a desert eagle that’s about that big [indicates pretty big]. It’s amazing. It’s outstanding. Steve has his shoe phone and I have my desert eagle [a semi-automatic magnum handgun].
TeenHollywood: Okay, pretend the other guy isn’t here. What’s The Rock like, Steve?
Steve: He’s so funny! He’s not known for being a comedic performer. And he’s an incredibly intuitive and smart guy and he gets it; and what else is great about him, too, is he doesn’t push it and he doesn’t try to be funny, he just is and there’s a discernible difference between people who are trying, and you can see them working hard to be funny - and someone who just naturally understands it, and I believe, he completely does.
TeenHollywood: How is working with Steve?
Dwayne: I love working with Steve. As you know, he’s a very, very talented, very funny guy who loves to riff and ad-lib and Steve’s very giving too as an actor. Especially in comedy, you rely on timing and not only acting but re-acting to whoever you’re on screen with. So, he’s very giving. You are around some comedic actors who just want all the jokes.
TeenHollywood: How is it working with Anne Hathaway who is playing hot Agent 99?
Steve: She’s an excellent ‘99;’ and one of the things that surprised me about her is that she’s an excellent improviser and that she’s really funny and she’s very, very cool. On screen, she comes across as a very competent super-spy, and she just brings this attitude with her. And then as soon as the cameras are off, she’s just as silly and crazy as anyone you’d meet on the set. I think she’s doing an excellent job.
TeenHollywood: Dwayne, do you have any scenes with Anne?
Dwayne: Yeah. As a matter of fact, Anne has been outstanding. She’s incredibly talented. She’s gorgeous and she’s very, very funny as well. That’s a nod to her ability and her security that she’s able to be self-deprecating. She’s great and you’ll see that in this movie. Of course, she was great in “Prada”.
TeenHollywood: She gets to do a little action too!
Dwayne: Yeah, she does great! She’s a trouper. When it was time to go to work action-wise, she was all for it. At all costs, she didn’t want to use a double so yeah, she was terrific. As a matter of fact, we have a past in the movie. We had a relationship in the past.. Agents 23 and 99 so I was a lucky man [big grin and signature eyebrow raise].
TeenHollywood: Steve, what’s the relationship between Max and 99? Is it love?
Steve: Well, she has no respect for him because he’s an analyst and he’s not a field agent to start with. So there’s a little bit of an inversion there because she really is the one with experience and she is the one who takes the lead and there is a bit of friction because he’s quite competent in his own right, and he wants to take the lead and so there’s a little battle of wills. And it’s fun, and they’re friendly adversaries to begin with. Anything more…you’ll have to come see the movie.
TeenHollywood: Dwayne, Steve said you were really naturally funny. How do you feel about doing comedy?
Dwayne: I love comedy and originally, for me, about six or seven years ago, the goal was to do sitcom television. After the second time I was on SNL, that opened up a lot of doors for me. Then I got the call from Universal to do The Mummy Returns and then, from that, Scorpion King but I still wanted to do comedy. At that time, I wasn’t getting the material until finally we were able to get some good comedy in The Rundown but probably the tables started to shift with Be Cool.
TeenHollywood: That was really funny. Did you know you were that funny?
Dwayne: Yeah, I always loved comedy and we always talk about comedic training and timing. I was very fortunate that my training was in front of 30 thousand people when I was wrestling; when I wouldn’t necessarily rely on the physicality as much just the monologue. We were constantly writing. I had a great writer. Now, it’s interesting because I only get comedy scripts.
TeenHollywood: Did you go to any special spy training or boot camp for this?
Dwayne: No. Not necessarily for this. I did on Doom and the movies of the past I’ve had weaponry and martial arts training. Stuff like that helped me but, for the action sequences you see today, there wasn’t anything like that. There was a lot of rehearsal which was great. Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours rehearsing the action sequences we’re going to do to make sure there are no injuries and everybody knows where everybody is supposed to be. That’s important.
TeenHollywood: Is it just hard to keep a straight face in this movie?
Dwayne: Throughout the movie, I’ve played it very real and if something is funny, I’ll smile in the scene. Steve’s like ‘my last report was 700 pages… if you read it!’ I smiled.. a ‘that’s a good one’. It does reach a point where it’s difficult. It’s hard. You’ve got to bite your lip.
TeenHollywood: Steve, do you envision this film as having several sequels?
Steve: There will be at least 10. I will play this part until I am 83. I have no idea, it’s so early to tell; that depends frankly if anyone comes to see the movie, but how it’s been so far, I’d do another one in a second. It’s just been a lot of fun; just based on that, I think people will come back and do another one regardless of how well it did in theaters. But yeah, I think that’s where they’re going.
See Get Smart in theaters June 20th
Credit: Warner Bros.
Okay, the guys are called back to the range for more shootin’, yellin’ and comedic genius.
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