Vault: Steve Carrell Interview

Summary

The Bert Show – Vault: Steve Carell Interview

Date: July 15, 2026
Theme: An engaging, comedic, and candid interview with Steve Carell, discussing his movie "Date Night," career highlights, chemistry with fellow actors, marriage, and of course, “The Office.”

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Episode Overview

In this special vault episode, The Bert Show welcomes comedic actor Steve Carell for a lively conversation centered on his film "Date Night" with Tina Fey, his comedic partnerships, the influence of "The Office," and some playful banter about relationships and celebrity crushes. The tone throughout is relaxed, self-deprecating, and full of sharp wit—the hallmark of both Carell and the show’s hosts.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction and “Date Night” Excitement

• Previewing "Date Night": Bert and the team rave about the trailer, predicting it's going to be a genuinely funny movie.
  • [00:32-00:42] Bert: “The trailer for Date Night is hilarious. This is gonna be a good movie.”

2. Hump Island Lists & Relationship Humor

• Hump Island Banter: Bert jokingly reveals to Steve that he's on his wife's "hump island" list (i.e., celebrity exception list), leading to hilarious riffs on marriage and celebrity crushes.

  • [01:45] Steve Carell: “Boy, she has set the bar low for herself.”
  • The hosts and Carell play along, making light of the subject, swapping their own “lists,” and teasing each other about celebrity attraction.

• Steve on Modern Relationships:

  • [02:21] Steve Carell: “It’s very, very modern of you.” (Referring to Bert’s openness about his wife’s list)

3. Working with Co-stars (Tina Fey & Mila Kunis)

• Insights on Tina Fey: Carell compliments Tina Fey’s intelligence, beauty, humor, and kindness, describing a genuinely positive working relationship and lasting friendship.

  • [03:54] Steve Carell: “Could not be a nicer person. ... This is the first time we’d worked together. She couldn’t have been nicer.”

• Shawn Levy’s Role:

  • [04:21] Steve Carell: “Shawn Levy, the director, kind of called both of us…we called each other and said, hey, I'll do it if you do it…”

• Mila Kunis & James Franco: Discussion about filming scenes with them, highlighting the fun on set and Carell’s admiration for his co-stars.

  • [03:06] Steve Carell: “She [Mila Kunis] is in Date Night. She’s very, very pretty. ... [She’s] extremely cool, really funny. I thought she was great.”

4. Dream Teams and On-Screen Chemistry

• Who Would Steve Work With Again?
  • [04:46] Steve Carell: “I would have to put Tina on that list. The guys from Anchorman. ... I don’t know if I could actually make a list, but there haven’t really been any bad apples.”

5. Marriage, Humor, and Staying Funny

• Married Life: Both Bert and Steve Carell share experiences from their long marriages, joking about whether their wives still find them funny.

  • [05:24] Steve Carell: “I think so. Yeah. And I think she’s hilarious, too. ... I hope she still thinks I am.”
  • [05:48] Bert: “I’ll tell some of the same stories... and I can see the eyes start to roll...”

• Steve’s Advice:

  • [05:59] Steve Carell: “You have to come up with some new personal experiences. That's it.”

6. The “That’s What She Said” Phenomenon

• Legacy of the Joke: Carell discusses how the “that’s what she said” punchline from The Office took on a life of its own, both on and off set.

  • [06:26] Steve Carell: “I don’t say it anymore. ... Tina [Fey] invariably won [the contest]. She was very, very good at it.”
  • [06:55] Steve Carell: “People use it when it doesn’t even make sense.”

• Cultural Impact:

  • [07:08] Co-host: “That sentence... has allowed millions of unfunny people to at least let their friends think that they’re funny...”
  • [07:18] Steve Carell: “Well, if we have accomplished just that, then I feel like our job is done.”

7. Office Cast Friendships and Making Connections

• Office Cast in Atlanta:
  • The hosts ask for tips on befriending Jenna Fisher, and Carell’s advice is—naturally—a callback to his classic joke.
  • [07:50] Steve Carell: “Say, ‘Hey Jenna, that’s what she said.’ Love it. She would love you for that.”

8. Behind-the-Scenes: The Office & Date Night

• Spotting Good Episodes: Carell reflects on knowing when an episode or movie rises above “just a few funny scenes” to something really special.

  • [08:19] Steve Carell: “There are definitely shows... we think, ‘Oh my god, every scene, every line, just sort of crushes.’ ... Others are more plot-driven... You can generally tell.”

• Improv with Tina Fey:

  • [09:02] Steve Carell: “…when Tina and I started to improvise... She can have five or six, ten different takes on a line and each one is funnier than the next.”

• Watching the Finished Movie:

  • [09:39] Steve Carell: “I saw it a couple of months ago, just my wife and I, and the director sat down and saw it in a screening room at Fox. … And then I saw it once with like a test audience.”

• Expectations vs Reality:

  • Carell reveals he’s been pleasantly surprised by movie successes (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin”) rather than disappointed.
  • [10:07] Steve Carell: “We didn’t know how it was going to play... then we went to the first preview with an audience and it rocked.”

9. Closing Laughter and Callbacks

• The hosts bring the conversation full circle, joking about Bert’s wife and Carell making a stopover in Atlanta.
  • [10:47] Steve Carell: “You know what? I’m flying back to LA today, but I will make a stopover.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Steve Carell on Humility:
  • “Boy, she has set the bar low for herself.” – [01:45]
• Banter on Marriage:
  • “I hope she still thinks I am [funny].” – [05:24]
  • “Well, it all comes back to Hump Island. All roads point to Hump Island.” – [06:06]
• Legacy of “That’s What She Said”:
  • “I don’t say it anymore. ... Tina invariably won [our contest].” – [06:26]
• On Comedy’s Impact:
  • “If we have accomplished just that, then I feel like our job is done.” – [07:18]

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Important Timestamps

• What’s on the Hump Island List: 01:19 – 03:46
• Working with Tina Fey: 03:46 – 04:41
• Dream Team Collaborators: 04:41 – 05:16
• Marriage and Comedy: 05:16 – 06:14
• “That’s What She Said” and Office Legacy: 06:14 – 07:23
• Office Cast Friendships: 07:23 – 08:01
• Judging a “Funny” Episode or Movie: 08:01 – 09:39
• Screening and Audience Reactions: 09:39 – 10:38

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Tone & Style

• Light, playful, and self-effacing humor
• Genuine admiration between host and guest
• Freewheeling, candid responses with classic “Steve Carell” wit

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is a must-listen for fans of Steve Carell, “The Office,” or anyone interested in the art of comedy and chemistry behind classic sitcoms and movies. It blends humor, industry insights, and personal stories for a delightful morning radio experience.

Transcript

[Announcer]

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[Bert]

There are some times where you will look at it like a movie trailer, movie commercial, and you can tell that they're reaching for comedy. Like, for 90 minutes. It's not gonna be that good.

[Announcer]

Okay.

[Bert]

The trailer for Date Night is hilarious. This is gonna be a good movie.

[Steve Carell]

Okay, walk me through this again, honey. If I'm gonna get whacked off, I at least deserve to understand why it's happening. What are you smiling about? No, you're very sweet. We're not going. Pun. We're not going to get whacked off. I think we are. I don't think we are. Oh, whacked off.

[Interviewer]

Oh. Oh, God.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bert]

It's gonna be a good movie this weekend. Steve Carell and Tina Fey in Date Night. And this is Steve Carell with the Burt Show.

[Steve Carell]

Hello.

[Bert]

How are you today, sir?

[Steve Carell]

Hi.

[Bert]

How are you, man?

[Steve Carell]

I'm well. How are you?

[Bert]

I'm doing great. You kind of rocked my world about two minutes ago, though, and you didn't even know it.

[Steve Carell]

How did I do that?

[Bert]

I'm on the phone with my wife, and we're talking about kids stuff and family stuff, and I say, oh, I gotta get in the studio. We have. We're gonna be talking to Steve Carell in a couple of seconds. And she says, well, while you have him on the phone, I just want you to let him know that you are on her top three lists, her Hump island list. Now, do you know what that is?

[Steve Carell]

That is that. Boy, she has set the bar low for herself.

[Interviewer]

No.

[Bert]

Well, you haven't seen me, so you have absolutely no idea how low it really is. You are a big old. Now, you know what the Hump island list is, right?

[Steve Carell]

I can. I can sort of. Yeah, I can sort of put that together.

[Bert]

So it means. I mean, so if you're ever in Atlanta and you run into my wife, and you guys look in each other's eyes, and for whatever reason, you decide to, you know, cheat on your wife. And my wife is available, she. You guys can do that. And there are no repercussions on my side whatsoever.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, he has to give her the ball pass.

[Steve Carell]

It's very, very modern of you,

[Bert]

very liberal thinker. So just in case does happen, I just want to let you. I just ask you to be gentle with her, okay? And please don't show her anything too freaky because it's just the basics for me.

[Steve Carell]

Pretty much not be a weirder conversation. We're having

[Bert]

Steve career.

[Steve Carell]

Incidentally. Who are your top three hump island visitations?

[Bert]

Let's see.

[Co-host]

Well, he doesn't want to admit this, but you're one of them.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, I'm on your list as well?

[Bert]

No, actually, but your wife is. So this is all gonna work. This is gonna work out great. I'd say that. What's that girl's name from the 70s show? The Dark skinned Kunis?

[Steve Carell]

She is in date night.

[Bert]

Yes, yes, she is in date night.

[Steve Carell]

She's very, very pretty.

[Bert]

She is probably number one on the list right now. Was she cool or does she have a real attitude?

[Steve Carell]

Extremely cool, really funny. I thought she was great. And that is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. She's hilarious.

[Bert]

She's in there with that Franco do too, right?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, James Franco. She and James Franco have this scene as sort of low life drug dealers that I feel is really good.

[Bert]

Well, the next time you see her. Cause I'm sure you guys will be doing some promotional stuff. Tell her that there's a DJ in Atlanta that is a shorter, uglier version of you that if we ever meet, we are definitely going at it.

[Steve Carell]

That's it.

[Bert]

Okay.

[Steve Carell]

First thing I'm gonna bring up when I see her.

[Interviewer]

Steve, I've gotta ask you about working with Tina Fey. I'm such a huge fan of both of you and to have you both in the same movie is like unbelievable. Tell me about working with her.

[Steve Carell]

Could not be a nicer person. You know, she's obviously very pretty and very intelligent. Extremely funny, but really sweet. And I didn't know her very well at all. We'd met a few times before, but this is the first time we'd worked together. She couldn't have been nicer.

[Bert]

Who ends up putting the two of you guys together in a movie? Because I know once I heard that Tina Fey and Steve Carell were going to be doing a movie together, it just seemed I started laughing. I mean, I just knew it was going to work well.

[Steve Carell]

We had a Good time. Shawn Levy, the director, kind of called both of us, and then we called each other and each of us said, hey, I'll do it if you do it. And then we jumped on board. So, yeah, it worked out quite well. We got along great, have become very good friends. So I think it was a good pairing.

[Interviewer]

Is there sort of a dream team of actors that you always like to work with? And who are they?

[Steve Carell]

Boy, you know what? I would have to put Tina on that list. The guys from Anchorman. They were really fun.

[Bert]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And they have remained good friends. And I'm actually doing another movie with Paul Rudd in a few months. You know what? I'm always surprised by how much fun it is to work with different people. And I've been really lucky to work with some great people. So I don't know if I could actually make a list, but there haven't really been any bad apples.

[Bert]

Steve, I think I read yesterday that you've been married for 15 years. That's right, and I've been married for 13. And I'm just curious, does your wife still think you're funny?

[Steve Carell]

I think so. Yeah. And I think she's hilarious, too. She actually reminds me a lot of Tina in that she's very pretty and she's very funny and she's very intelligent and. Yeah, I hope she still thinks I am. I think she does. I think.

[Co-host]

And this doesn't have anything to do with you, Steve, but I think we're touching a nerve with Bert. Does your wife think you're still funny, Bert, or that's over.

[Bert]

That's why I was asking. I'll tell some of the same stories in different groups, and I can see the eyes start to roll where years ago she used to laugh at those stories, and now she's like, I heard that.

[Interviewer]

Ta da.

[Steve Carell]

Well, you just. You have to come up with some new personal experiences. That's it.

[Bert]

Well, I think this gets back to the Hump island thing.

[Steve Carell]

Well, it all comes back to Hump Island. All roads point to Hump Island.

[Co-host]

Obviously, a lot of pride in the success of the Office, but I would imagine the line, that's what she said at some point makes you want to kill yourself.

[Steve Carell]

I don't say it anymore. And it's funny because when we were shooting Shawn Levy, the director, and Tina used to have competitions to come up with the better. That's what she said.

[Co-host]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And Tina invariably won. She was very, very good at it.

[Co-host]

And that's not. I wasn't talking as much about your delivery as just Standing in line at a Burger King or something and having somebody come up you. And have it be completely. You know, I'll have a whopper and a small fries and have the person go, that's what she said.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. Well, you know what? It doesn't. People use it when it doesn't even make sense.

[Co-host]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

Like a hamburger. That's what she said. What. What makes sense. There's no joke there.

[Co-host]

That sentence, though, really is. Has allowed millions of unfunny people to at least let their friends think that they're funny, because more often than not, you can't.

[Steve Carell]

Well, if. If we have accomplished just that, then I feel like our job is done.

[Co-host]

Staying on the Office. Jenna Fisher is here filming a movie here in Atlanta. What would be a good cause? I would like to be her friend. I'd like to be your friend. I'd like to be Rainn Wilson's friend. I'd like to be friends with everyone on the Office.

[Steve Carell]

Well, that just sounds sad to me, but go on.

[Co-host]

So if I see Jenna out and about, what would be a good opening line that would make her say, that guy is cool?

[Steve Carell]

Well, you say, hey, Jenna. That's what she said. Love it. He would love you for that.

[Bert]

Steve Carell joining the bird show this morning on Q100. There's gotta be some weeks when you are shooting the Office where you feel like there are. There's a difference between a show that has six. Some funny scenes in it and an entire funny show. Do you know while you're shooting those what the difference is?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, generally you can. I mean, like any other show, and we've just finished season six, you know, there are definitely shows that we do a table read and we think, oh, my God, like, every. Every scene, every line, just sort of crushes. And other shows that are a little, you know, not as funny, but they might be there to serve a different purpose. You know, they may be more plot driven, more story driven, and not, you know, and actually have some sort of touching emotional moments that aren't as funny necessarily, but just kind of serve a different purpose. But you can generally tell. Yeah.

[Bert]

And when you were shooting the new movie, do you get that kind of sense? Like, this is not just a movie that's gonna have a couple of really funny scenes in it. This is gonna be labeled as a funny movie.

[Steve Carell]

I think so, yeah. I mean, every day you can kind of tell when you walk away at the end of the day and you think, man, there was some really good stuff that came out of today. And Especially, you know, when Tina and I started to improvise. She is so good. She. I mean, she can, you know, she can have five or six, ten different takes on a line, and each one is funnier than the next. So I think she supplied a lot of that.

[Bert]

So how does this get to work, though? So do you and Tina sit down in a screening room somewhere and actually watch the movie together before the public sees it? Or have you even seen it yet? Will you see it for the first time when everybody else sees it?

[Steve Carell]

No, I saw it. I saw it a couple of months ago, just my wife and I, and the director sat down and saw it in a screening room at Fox. And then I saw it once with like a test audience after that. And so those are the only two times that I'd seen it.

[Bert]

Have there been other movies where you're in the same scenario and you're really expecting it to be a great movie and you realize in that screening room that, oh, no. Oh, no, no.

[Co-host]

It's probably the test office.

[Steve Carell]

No, honestly, the opposite has happened. Like when we did 40 year old Vir, we didn't know. We didn't know how it was going to play. We weren't sure. We thought it was funny. You know, basically what we shot. And, you know, Judd and I had written the thing, but then we went to the first preview with an audience and it rocked. It was like. It was so surprising to us that what we had found funny, other people actually did as well. So sort of the opposite happened, which was great. Great when that happens.

[Bert]

Well, good luck with date night. This thing's gonna be number one. And congratulations. And the next time, go to Atlanta. Just know that you got a sure thing if you want it. With my wife.

[Steve Carell]

So excited. You know what? I'm flying back to LA today, but I will make a stopover.

[Bert]

Thanks a lot.

[Co-host]

That's what she said. Bye.

[Steve Carell]

Bye.

[Bert]

Hey, the Birch Show.