Are French audiences more willing to tolerate main characters who don’t always do the right thing?
I don’t know, because it’s so outrageous — all the circumstances are so ridiculous that you don’t have time to think about it. I do remember watching the French one when it came out and thinking, “This could never be an American movie!” It’s so cruel — which made it very funny — but I thought it would never work. In the American movie, you like Paul Rudd’s character, and in the French movie, he’s really an a**hole. That’s a big difference. It’s interesting that Jay is so drawn to these out-of-control comedic situations in his films, and yet he’s so calm and centered himself. He is. He’s very sweet with everybody, the crew and all the departments. He knew exactly how to talk to me: He’d just come quietly and say a couple of things, and then, boom. I feel very lucky that this is my first big film and he was the director, because he’s really amazing. For comedy purposes, you’re even more of a straight man in this movie than Paul is. When was it hardest to keep composed? When Steve Carell
