Anne Hathaway Was Cast in ‘Get Smart’ Because She Was Able to Keep a Straight Face With Steve Carell
Actor Anne Hathaway teamed up with The Office star Steve Carell for the 2008 feature Get Smart. But it wasn’t just her skill that helped her snag the part. Hathaway displayed an impressive ability to not laugh at her co-star’s antics.
How Anne Hathaway ended up in ‘Get Smart’
Get Smart was a 2008 comedy feature based on the 1960s series of the same name. The original television show was a parody of secret agent films like the James Bond franchise. Hathaway and Carell’s adaptation would maintain the spirit of the original, but with a modern twist. Carell played an inexperienced agent entering the field for the first time being paired with Hathaway’s super spy.
With Hathaway playing the more serious role in the feature, it was important that she maintained her composure during her partner’s hilarious antics. The Oscar-winner felt being able to stay serious was one of the reasons she was picked to star alongside Carell.
“It’s almost impossible to keep up with him and match him joke for joke because he’s a genius at it and even if I were good at it I’m not a genius and I have very little experience doing it and he’s just Steve Carell. I mean it’s what he’s known for. So I don’t ever beat myself up for not being able to match him beat for beat but in the audition I was able to keep a straight face as he just went off and was making everyone else crack up, so I think that got me through the door,” she once told Collider.
Hathaway further revealed that many of Carell’s lines in Get Smart were improvised, which Carell was already known for in The Office.
Anne Hathaway was worried Steve Carell would think she was a stalker because of her ‘Office’ obsession
Like many people around the world, Hathaway confided that she was a huge fan of The Office. So much so that she’d even watch the series during her downtime on the Get Smart set. But she quipped she didn’t want Carell catching her watching his iconic sitcom.
“I’m always worried that Steve is going to someday come to my trailer to ask me a question and realize that I’m actually stalking him because I have it TiVo’d up the wahoo and I’m always watching it when I have 5 seconds. It’s one of my favorite series. I was a fan of the British version and I think the American one is done so brilliantly,” she said.
Hathaway was also tempted to ask The Office star himself about certain spoilers in the series. But in the end she felt it was best to keep things professional.
“I figure it’s like asking a doctor to check you out while he’s at a dinner party, you know. So I try not to annoy him too much. Plus we are quite busy doing this movie but it’s usually hard enough for me to compliment him on an episode that I’ve seen,” Hathaway said. “He’s just a wonderfully down to earth guy. He just kind of always brushes it off. I don’t mean hard enough because it’s a terrible show but I mean that could have been taken out of context. I mean, you want to keep the set as normal as possible, but he is this enormous comedy superstar and he makes you forget that. But every once in a while you step back into the world and you’re just struck by how good he is and how popular he is and it’s really cool to work with him.”
