WonderCon 2008: Get Smart

The Get Smart panel followed very quickly after the 10,000 B.C. panel with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. A flood of people ran up to the stage after the showing of the trailer to take photographs, and an announcement was made for people to stay in their seats to take photos, which resulted in Steve Carell running up in front of the stage to shoo people away.

One of the first questions asked of Carell was of the can I get your autograph after the show variety, to which he mockingly replied "Damn you! Everyone hates you for asking that!", followed by a "Sure".

After answering the autograph question, it wasn't long before someone asked the variant "Can I have an photograph?", to which Carell said "Yes", and started to get up out of his seat to walk towards the questioner, which resulted in the audience booing the questioner, which caused Steve to sit back down and shout "No! No you may not! How dare you! That's an awful question! Damn you!" into the microphone, followed by a "After this is over, I'll take one with you". Just watching the panel, you got the feeling that Steve Carell is a just a really nice, sweet person, which is something that Anne Hathaway said in response to someone asking Anne what it was like working with Steve Carrell. Some of the scenes in Get Smart are improvised (usually led by Steve), and so Hathaway was reluctant at first to play along, but eventually did.

When asked whether Carell was writing anything for himself, Carell responded that he just finished 2 weeks of jury duty, and wants to write an episode of the Office in which Michael Scott gets sent to jury duty.

Asked about the movies that got them to want to get into film making, Hathaway replied that it was Auntie Mame and Naked Gun 33 1/3, while the director Peter Segal claimed Young Frankenstein and Star Wars, and Carell replied that it was Dr. Strangelove, because it was "chilling and funny and ridiculous and truthful all at the same time".