Steve Carell has revealed he was less than impressed when Warner Bros. won the title Crazy, stupid, love for the 2011 romantic comedy, admitting he just didn’t like it at first.
The 63-year-old actor opened up about the name saga in an interview with Entertainment tonightexplaining that writer Dan Fogelman had handed in the script without any title.
“I never liked that title,” Carell said.
“I’m doing it now, but when Dan Fogelman wrote it, he didn’t title it. He didn’t call it anything. It was Untitled Dan Fogelman Project.”
From there, it became a sort of creative scrum.
Everyone involved seemed to have a suggestion, but nothing worked. Eventually, the studio stepped in and made the call.
“Eventually, Warner Bros. just said, ‘We’re calling it Crazy, stupid, love” Carell recalls, admitting that his reaction at the time was a “Fine.”
The film, which starred Carell alongside Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone, was both a critical and commercial success, which Carell said taught him something about the relationship between a title and the quality of a film.
“I’m convinced that if it’s good and people like it, people will like the title,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you call it.”
Carell also discussed another of his most beloved roles, Michael Scott in The Office, expressing continued surprise at the breadth of the NBC comedy’s audience, particularly among younger viewers.
“I think it’s funny how young people are when they start watching The office” he said NBC Insider in June 2024.
“Which always surprised me because I never thought it would appeal to a younger audience.”
He ultimately put this down to the universality of the show’s characters, suggesting that they express themselves beyond the workplace.
“I think part of the reason is that each of the characters is an archetype that can be translated to the people they know at school,” he explained.
“These are all people you can relate to, whether you’ve ever worked in an office or just been around these people at school.”
