From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to the treatment, which you can also hear at KCRW.com.

Many of us think we first met Steve Carell when he was a correspondent on a daily show playing

Steve Carell. Many of us think we know him from the office where he plays Michael Scott,

but he's made a big splash in movies this last year alone with three big films, Date Night,

Despicable Me and his newest Dinner for Schmucks. First of all, Steve, thanks so much for being here.

My pleasure. Thank you. I have to ask, before we get to dinner for Schmachs, in date night, you seem like there was one of the rare times you were playing a character who wasn't self-aware.

I mean, this is a guy who knew exactly who he was and even had a sense of humor.

And that seemed to be sort of spotlight for me in that great scene where Common asks you to get up and you do the impression get up right right it was the first time you were able to show a sense of humor in the character now that was really interesting yeah he's just a guy who's just a suburban dad who uh you know was sort of put in an awkward situation but that was yeah that was the crux of the comedy there as opposed to someone who lacked any sort of insight or self-awareness. But yeah, I mean, it was different. It

was probably closer to who I am. I hope it's closer to who I am than some of the other

characters play, but you never know. You never know. But I always find myself thinking when I think

about you the things that you did their departures,

like The Turn and Little Miss Sunshine.

Well, again, another character who's incredibly way too self-aware.

Well, yeah, he's someone who's just so caught up in his own intellect and his own pursuits

that he, I think, loses sight of the people around him.

And it takes being thrust together with this kind of makeshift

family dynamic to wake him up a little bit to that. I wonder if it comes out of if it's just a

byproduct of being a part of Second City that you do so well in ensembles. I mean, I tend to

think of being somebody who's really maybe a catalyst in the ensemble,

somebody who does really well in those kinds of large settings.

I prefer ensembles.

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