8) Steve Carell – Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
It’s difficult, isn’t it, to imagine a world without Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. No five-time-Emmy Award winning Ron Burgundy himself, no Baxter, no glass cases of emotion, no Sex Panther fragrance, no belief that ‘diversity’ was an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War, no “…go f—k yourself San Diego,” none of the many, many things that made this one of the funniest and most quotable movies of the 2000’s.
But it’s also difficult to imagine a world without Steve Carell. And the link between the two is that whereas it seems as though Anchorman has been in our lives forever, it actually only came out in 2004, a mere ten years ago – and along with it, the role that well and truly put Steve Carell on the movie map.
Whereas it may feel as though Steve Carell has too been around forever, he has actually only been a major Hollywood player for ten years – and this is nothing compared to some of his fellow actors. Johnny Depp, who, at 51, is a year younger than Carell, has been making movies for 30 years. Tom Hanks, who is only six years older than Carell, has been in the business for 34 years. The career of Daniel Radcliffe – 27 years younger than Carell – is a whole 3 years longer than Carell’s.
It is true that Carell had made an impression as Evan Baxter alongside Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty the previous year, but if we now add Carell’s Brick’s quotes into the Anchorman quote list above – “Loud noises!,” “yeah, there were horses…and I killed a guy with a trident,” and of course “I love lamp” – to choose just a painful few – it is clear how significant Carell’s role in Anchorman really was for his career.
But perhaps even more strangely, Carell had actually appeared on the movie scene a significant length of time ago – 23 years, to be precise – in the once very popular comedy-drama Curly Sue, in 1991. He played the waiter (Tesio) and is on screen for about 30 seconds. After this, Carell’s career was a seemingly never ending series of TV movies, TV series, uncredited appearances and movie shorts. Finally, Anchorman secured his name to the foundations of Hollywood success.
Although both Bruce Almighty and Anchorman showcased Carell’s talent for a particular type of physical comedy which has been brilliantly utilized during productions with Judd Apatow such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin (the famous “KELLY CLARKSON!” chest-waxing scene was filmed with Carell genuinely going through the experience for real, and his reactions were therefore completely improvised), Carell has since proved himself worthy of roles requiring far deeper drama (Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and The Way Way Back (2013) are among the best examples here), and his most recent project – Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher, in which he stars with Channing Tatum (who is also attempting to change acting tracks) – promises to be his darkest and most profound yet.
Yet we will probably forever love Steve Carell for his certain brand of comedy, for his ability to make the most ordinary of words funny, for his perfect voicing of Descpicable Me’s Gru, and for the unaffected manner with which he has taken to his long-worked for Hollywood fame.
But most of all, we will all – always and forever – love lamp.